New Approaches in Global Health: Fogarty International Center
Funds 16 Awards for "Framework Programs"
The Fogarty International Center (FIC), in partnership with the National Institute
on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the National Institute of Dental
and Craniofacial Research, all part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
announced 16 awards for its new funding initiative, "Framework Programs in Global
Health."
The awards support the development of innovative, multidisciplinary global health
programs on campuses in the United States and in low- and middle-income nations.
The combined program funding is about $1.7 million for the first year of the
three-year awards and two-year planning grants. FIC and its partners will expend
about $5 million over the next three years on these awards. Many of these programs
also have significant matching funds from university resources.
"Tackling global health challenges most effectively requires new thinking and
new ways to bring experts together from a range of fields," said Dr. Sharon Hrynkow,
Acting Director of the Fogarty International Center, speaking on behalf of the
program partners. "The Framework Programs will serve as a catalyst within and
across universities to move global health forward farther and faster. By bringing
leaders from business, social science, journalism, law and other fields together
with experts in health, and by engaging tomorrow's leaders in the process, we
foster an environment of innovation and forward momentum, all directed to improving
global health."
The program is designed to build global health research capacity in the United
States and abroad. Institutions will create administrative frameworks to tie
multiple schools together on the topic of global health and to develop multidisciplinary
global health curricula for undergraduates, graduates, and professional school
students. Schools of business, law, journalism, engineering, social science,
and others have teamed up with schools of public health and medicine under the
program. Each program will build upon currently funded global health projects
at the institution supported by NIH and other sponsors as well as encourage new
training opportunities, collaborations and research.
Some universities formed partnerships with other institutions, both in the United
States and overseas, to submit joint applications. For instance, the University
of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will partner with Gallaudet University to focus
on issues of deafness and disabilities in the developing world, and with the
Southern Institute of Appropriate Technology in Lineville, Alabama and the University
of Alabama at Tuscaloosa Environmental Institute to develop courses to address
mitigation of environmental and health impacts of development projects. Nine
UAB Schools and international collaborating institutions in four countries will
also participate in the Program. They are the Schools of Public Health, Arts
and Humanities, Business, Dentistry, Engineering, Health Related Professions,
Medicine, Nursing, and Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Universities in Zambia,
Ukraine, Jamaica, and Peru.
Massachusetts General Hospital, through the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma,
will partner with the University of Rome, La Sapienza, and the Istituto Superiore
di Sanita (the Italian National Institute of Health) to develop a Masters degree
program for policy makers, scientists, and clinicians caring for traumatized
populations affected by man-made conflicts and natural disasters. They will work
with 35 Ministries of Health from conflict and disaster affected countries in
the design and implementation of this Program.
The Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima, Peru will enhance its
Framework Program through well-established collaborative relationships with a
network of partners in Peru, the United States, and England. The Schools of Medicine,
Sciences and Philosophy, Veterinary Medicine and Zoology, Education, and Public
Health will work together to establish a Global Health Framework at UPCH.
In addition to the development of curricula and new interdisciplinary degree
programs, the awards will support a range of activities, including travel support
for short-term experiences overseas, interdisciplinary symposia and workshops,
the creation of international virtual learning communities, and faculty exchanges
with international partners to encourage collaborative teaching and research.
Dr. Flora Katz, the Framework Program Director, noted: "To prepare for future
challenges, today's students should learn to reach not only across disciplines,
but across national borders. The Framework program's goals are well-aligned with
the desire of many university presidents to introduce an international point
of view into many of the traditional programs on campus."
The following 16 institutions received awards. Four of these awards will support
2-year planning grants for institutions in low- and middle-income countries to
develop full Framework applications.
- Baylor College of Medicine (TX)
- Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) - Planning Grant
- Fudan University School of Public Health (China) - Planning Grant
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (MD)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (MA)
- Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (Tanzania) - Planning Grant
- Tufts University (MA)
- Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Peru)
- University of Alabama at Birmingham (AL)
- University of California Los Angeles (CA)
- University of Maryland at Baltimore (MD)
- University of Michigan (MI)
- University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (NC)
- University of Virginia Charlottesville (VA)
- University of Washington (WA)
- University of Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe) - Planning Grant
FIC plans to reissue this solicitation with minor changes in fall 2005. A more
complete description of each of these programs is at this URL: http://www.fic.nih.gov/programs/framework.html.
The Fogarty International Center, the international component of the NIH,
addresses global health challenges through innovative and collaborative research
and training programs and supports and advances the NIH mission through international
partnerships. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research is
the nation's leading funder of research on oral, dental, and craniofacial health.
NIDCD sponsors research and research training on normal and disordered processes
of hearing, balance, smell, taste, voice, speech, and language. NIH is an agency
of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research
Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of
the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal
agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common
and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov. |