The École Universitaire de Santé Publique de Lyon (ESPUL), also presented on its current website as EUSPL, is a university school dedicated to public health education, research, and expertise in Lyon, France. Established by Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in partnership with the Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL), the school brings together academic knowledge, research, professional training, and practical public health expertise.
Located at the Gerland site of Université Lyon 1, the school operates within Lyon’s broader health and life-sciences ecosystem. Its work addresses major public health challenges ranging from local health inequalities and healthcare organization to global health, environmental health, and digital health.
What Is ESPUL?
ESPUL stands for École Universitaire de Santé Publique de Lyon, or the University School of Public Health of Lyon. The institution describes itself as a center of excellence for public health training, research, and expertise.
Its activities are organized around three major functions: education, research, and expertise. Through these activities, the school aims to prepare future public health professionals while also supporting organizations and institutions dealing with contemporary health challenges.
The school offers both initial and continuing education. Its academic and professional activities are designed for students, healthcare professionals, researchers, public-sector organizations, and other stakeholders involved in health and social policy.
Connection With Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1
ESPUL is part of Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, a major French university specializing in science, health, and related disciplines. The public health school was developed in partnership with the Hospices Civils de Lyon, creating a connection between university education, research, and a major healthcare institution.
This relationship is significant for public health education because the field extends beyond clinical medicine. Public health involves prevention, health policy, population health, healthcare systems, environmental factors, data analysis, and the social determinants that influence health.
By operating within a university and healthcare ecosystem, ESPUL can connect academic approaches with practical challenges faced by healthcare and public-sector organizations.
Education and Training
Education is one of the central missions of ESPUL. The school provides initial and continuing education programs designed to develop public health knowledge and professional skills. Its official presentation refers to Licence, Master, and continuing education programs.
The school’s training approach covers different aspects of public health rather than concentrating on a single discipline. Students and professionals can encounter topics related to prevention, healthcare organizations, epidemiology, health policy, environmental health, global health, and digital technologies.
Continuing education is particularly relevant in public health because the field changes alongside healthcare systems, scientific research, technology, demographic trends, environmental conditions, and public policy.
Research at ESPUL
Research forms another important part of the school’s mission. ESPUL works with scientific partners to address contemporary health challenges and develop knowledge that can contribute to public health practice.
Public health research can involve many different methodologies and disciplines. Depending on the research question, it may involve epidemiology, statistics, health services research, social sciences, environmental science, healthcare evaluation, or digital technologies.
The interdisciplinary nature of ESPUL reflects the fact that population health is influenced by numerous interconnected factors. Understanding a public health problem may require researchers to examine medical, social, environmental, economic, organizational, and behavioral dimensions together.
Public Health Expertise
Beyond education and research, ESPUL provides public health expertise to organizations and institutions. Its Santé Publique Lab supports projects involving evaluation, action research, and the co-construction of public health initiatives.
The school can work with local authorities, associations, health agencies, companies, and other organizations on public health-related projects.
Its areas of expertise include supporting local health initiatives, analyzing health data, evaluating interventions, and contributing to the development of public health programs. ESPUL also emphasizes ethical and professional standards when providing expertise.
This connection between education, research, and practical projects gives students and researchers opportunities to engage with real-world public health challenges.
Five Major Public Health Themes
ESPUL organizes much of its work around five broad themes:
- Public health and territories
- Global health
- Performance of healthcare organizations
- Environmental health
- Digital health
Together, these areas reflect the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of modern public health.
Public Health and Territories
The territorial public health theme focuses on health at the local and regional level. Areas include prevention, health determinants, social health, citizen participation, and local public policies.
Health outcomes can vary significantly between communities and geographic areas. Local public health therefore requires an understanding of the specific needs, resources, populations, and social conditions of individual territories.
ESPUL’s focus on territorial health connects academic knowledge with the practical work of local authorities, healthcare organizations, associations, and communities.
Global Health
Global health addresses health issues that cross national borders. ESPUL’s global health theme includes topics such as One Health, governance, geopolitics, epidemics, climate, and migration.
Global health problems often involve multiple countries and sectors. Infectious diseases, climate-related health risks, migration, humanitarian crises, and healthcare inequalities can require collaboration between governments, healthcare institutions, researchers, and international organizations.
The school’s approach also recognizes the importance of understanding health within broader political, environmental, and social systems.
Performance of Healthcare Organizations
Another area focuses on the organization and performance of healthcare systems. Topics include primary care, healthcare systems, public health engineering, organization, and changing professional roles.
Healthcare quality is influenced not only by individual medical treatments but also by how services are organized and delivered. Questions of accessibility, coordination, efficiency, workforce organization, and system performance therefore form an important part of public health.
Environmental Health
Environmental health examines the relationship between environmental conditions and human health. At ESPUL, this theme includes ecological transition, sustainable healthcare practices, and planetary health.
Climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, resource consumption, and other environmental changes can have implications for population health. Public health professionals increasingly need to understand these connections when developing prevention strategies and health policies.
ESPUL also offers education related to planetary and sustainable health. One of its university programs describes planetary health as an approach examining links between human-driven changes to ecosystems and their consequences for human health and ecosystem balance.
Digital Health
Digital health is the fifth major theme. ESPUL’s work in this area includes statistics, modeling, artificial intelligence, precision medicine, algorithms, and evaluation of models used in healthcare.
The increasing availability of health data and computational technologies has created new possibilities for research and healthcare. At the same time, using these technologies responsibly requires expertise in statistics, evaluation, ethics, and health systems.
ESPUL’s inclusion of digital health reflects the growing importance of data and technology in contemporary public health.
The Gerland Campus
ESPUL is located at the Gerland site of Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, at 50 Avenue Tony Garnier in Lyon. The school describes its location as being at the heart of Lyon’s health-focused biodistrict.
Gerland is an important location within Lyon’s health and life-sciences environment. The proximity of university facilities, healthcare organizations, research institutions, and other health-sector partners creates opportunities for interaction between education, research, and professional practice.
The school also describes its campus as having an international orientation, with teaching activities distributed across two principal Lyon 1 university sites.
Interdisciplinary Approach
Public health rarely fits within the boundaries of one academic discipline. A single issue may require medical knowledge, statistical analysis, social research, environmental science, economics, policy analysis, and community participation.
ESPUL’s structure reflects this interdisciplinary reality.
Its public health themes range from local health policy to global health, healthcare performance, environmental sustainability, and artificial intelligence. This creates opportunities for students and professionals from different backgrounds to examine health issues from multiple perspectives.
The school’s 2026 École de Printemps de Santé Publique provides an example of this approach. Organized from April 20 to April 30, 2026, the program included nine independent but combinable modules covering topics such as prevention, health literacy, One Health, value-based healthcare, intervention research, participatory approaches, health data, physical activity, and transdisciplinarity.
The ESPUL Public Health Spring School
The École de Printemps de Santé Publique is a public health training initiative organized by ESPUL together with the SHAPE-Med@Lyon research institute of Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and partner organizations. The 2026 edition took place in Lyon from April 20 to April 30.
The program was structured around several small-group modules. Each module could be taken independently, allowing participants to select subjects relevant to their interests or professional needs.
Topics included prevention and health promotion, health literacy, One Health, value-based healthcare, intervention research, participatory approaches, analysis of major health databases, physical activity and health, and transdisciplinary approaches.
The program was aimed at a broad audience, including researchers, students, healthcare professionals, health administrators, local authorities, and other people involved in health-related fields.
One Health and Public Health
One Health is particularly relevant to ESPUL’s multidisciplinary approach. The concept recognizes connections between human, animal, and environmental health.
One of the 2026 spring school’s modules introduced participants to One Health and explored the importance of bringing together human, animal, and environmental perspectives. The course also addressed partnerships, sustainability, and the wider consequences of environmental changes for health.
This approach illustrates how contemporary public health increasingly considers health problems as interconnected rather than isolated within individual medical specialties.
Working With Public and Private Organizations
ESPUL’s expertise activities extend beyond the university environment. The school states that it supports public and private organizations with health-related projects.
For local authorities and associations, this can include scientific and operational support, professional training, and assessment of public health needs.
For health agencies, activities can involve intervention design, health data analysis, impact evaluation, and support related to health crises.
The school also identifies companies in and outside the healthcare sector as potential partners for work involving occupational health, risk prevention, corporate social responsibility programs, and evaluation of products and services.
Importance of Public Health Education
Public health professionals play an important role in understanding and addressing health issues at the population level. Their work can involve prevention, health promotion, policy development, healthcare planning, research, data analysis, environmental health, and evaluation.
Institutions such as ESPUL contribute to this field by preparing professionals who can work across these different areas.
The combination of university education, scientific research, professional development, and applied expertise also helps connect theoretical knowledge with practical health challenges.
ESPUL and the Future of Public Health
Public health is changing as societies face new and interconnected challenges. Climate change, demographic shifts, digital transformation, emerging diseases, health inequalities, and changes in healthcare systems all require new approaches to health research and policy.
ESPUL’s five thematic pillars—territorial public health, global health, healthcare performance, environmental health, and digital health—reflect several of these developments.
Its emphasis on interdisciplinary education and collaboration provides a framework for examining these issues from multiple perspectives. At the same time, its research and expertise activities connect the university with healthcare organizations, public institutions, communities, and other stakeholders.
Conclusion
The École Universitaire de Santé Publique de Lyon (ESPUL/EUSPL) is a public health school associated with Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and developed in partnership with the Hospices Civils de Lyon. Based in Lyon’s Gerland health ecosystem, it brings together education, research, and public health expertise.
Its work spans five major areas: territorial public health, global health, healthcare organization and performance, environmental health, and digital health. Through these areas, the school addresses topics ranging from local health policy and prevention to climate, One Health, healthcare systems, health data, and artificial intelligence.
With its combination of academic programs, research activities, professional training, and applied expertise, ESPUL forms part of Lyon’s wider public health and research community and contributes to the development of knowledge and skills for addressing contemporary population health challenges.