Optimising cohort data in Europe

organisations and initiatives focusing on cohorts, synergies and federated data platforms, the pure compilation of information beneath the three pillars will be insufficient until there is a democratic, widely accepted and sustainable organisational structure that coordinates, maintains and curates the information and activities under the three pillars. Therefore, a central institutional instrument, meaning the establishment of an “Institute for Optimising Multistudy Integrative Cohort Research in Health” governed by an international board of curators was considered as a priority of the strategic agenda. The mission of this body should be coordinating and curating the information and activities under the three pillars including the definition, initiation and supervision of further strategic activities, either as a new entity or embedded into an established organisation (European Commission’s Directorates, e.g. Research and Innovation) as the right place to initiate and steer the process. The three pillars of actions coordinated by a sustainable organisational unit are illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 1. Three pillars of action coordinated by a sustainable organisational unit

1.1. Theoretical Background: Leveraging Resources and Capabilities A crucial task is to understand the principles that govern the coordination and integration of cohort data. To this aim, we relied on two perspectives with roots in the strategic management field namely, the Resource-Based View (RBV) and the Knowledge-Based View (KBV) . Both perspectives assume that organisational capabilities and resources have to be leveraged in relation to both the internal dynamics of organisations (such as routines and organisational structure) and the external opportunities of the external environment (e.g. demand in the market for a particular product feature). The traditional aim of the management of resources and capabilities is to achieve the competitive advantage in a market environment. In the context of health cohort research, however, the issue of resources and capabilities leverage operates according to a different conceptual domain. Namely, the aim is no