Mental health research: misalignment between priorities and needs in the face of shifting societal demands

While we had previous experiences of using portfolio mapping to discuss research priorities, this is the first time that we have applied this mixed method methodology in the context of a specific policy need – in this case, the request by Vinnova to explore and compare research on prevention, rehabilitation and social determinants of mental health. 

Since we found serious challenges in terms of selection and classification of publication into relevant categories, we have used multiple visualisations in terms of disciplinary profile and topic article-level clusters. Triangulating evidence with these multiple mappings, the analysis supports the view of many stakeholders that there is relatively low level of research in prevention, social determinants, health care systems and that more research on these issues.