The WHO Regional Office for Europe and the Carlos III Institute of Health of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, with the support of the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research, organized the International Public Health Symposium on Environment and Health Research. The Symposium provided a platform for mutual collaboration between public health professionals and researchers in the field of public health in general, as well as environment and health, contributed evidence for use in the preparations for the 2010 Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health and helped set priorities for future policy-oriented environment and health research in the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme. Concluding that much remained to do to close the science-policy gap, the Symposium participants recommended a range of tools and institutional structures to bridge it.