German Alliance for Global Health Research launched

Interdisciplinary research platform with Secretariat at the Charité

"To ensure healthy living and promote well-being for all people of all ages" is the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 3. The German Alliance for Global Health Research will better link the various disciplines of global health research in Germany and at the same time address actors from politics, business and civil society in order to increase the contribution of the German research community to this SDG and further develop global health as an academic discipline in Germany.

Neglected tropical diseases and antibiotic resistance, but also mental illness and diabetes - global challenges in the health sector can be tackled most effectively through cooperation. One such approach is the German Alliance for Global Health Research funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which was launched on 1 February.

In order to promote networking within the global health research community and to make the results of global health research better known, the platform regularly organizes events for scientific exchange, for example. In addition, members of the platform can apply for funding for their interdisciplinary or intersectoral research projects to jointly solve urgent global health issues. A further aim of the platform is the promotion of young scientists. In this way, global health research in Germany is strengthened in the long term.

The platform will be managed by an interdisciplinary steering committee which will be elected in the second quarter of 2020. The platform's office is located at the Charité. Membership is open to researchers at publicly funded research institutions in Germany with expertise on global health issues. At the launch of the platform, around 100 scientists from more than 30 institutions are already registered, representing biomedicine, health sciences and public health in addition to the humanities, social sciences, engineering, technology and other disciplines.

"In Germany, excellent scientists are conducting research on very different aspects of global health issues. In order to solve the problems of the future, we need to build bridges between the disciplines," explains Professor Christian Drosten, Director of the Institute of Virology of Charité, who was involved in preparing the proposal. "In addition to medical expertise, it is also important to understand why people make certain health decisions, such as the use of vaccinations, or how the various actors in the health system cooperate. Only in this way can we master the complex challenges in global health".

The BMBF is funding the "Networking Platform Research for Global Health" ("German Alliance for Global Health Research") with more than 3 million euros from 2020 to 2026. In addition, the Ministry provides funds for innovative and interdisciplinary pilot or cross-sectoral projects of the platform members and their partners. The platform is intended to promote scientific cooperation at national and international level and exchange with relevant social groups on research into global health and to support young scientists in global health research.

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