The Health Ethics, Ecology, and Policy (HEEP) initiative is an interdisciplinary and collaborative research project that bridges the humanities, social and natural sciences, and a variety of applied fields across several Penn State colleges, consolidating a university-wide research initiative within the Rock Ethics Institute.

It is driven by the recognition that health care policies and practices are embedded within political, economic, environmental, agricultural, and industrial contexts.

Meaningful advances in health research and public health policy must address this broader ecology on which our health depends, and to do so successfully requires interdisciplinary and collaborative research that bridges the humanities, social and natural sciences, and a variety of applied fields. Unifying this research is an ethical commitment to human health as a shared and guiding value.