UCSF Receives NIH Award to Expand Global Health Network

The John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will award $4.6 million over three years to expand its network of global health education programs to include 12 additional campuses in the United States, China and Mexico. UCSF is among the universities to receive this award. UCSF will partner with colleagues at UC Berkeley to transform global health offerings in the Bay Area. This is an exciting time for UCSF Global Health Sciences. Earlier this week, nearly 60 leaders from North America’s top universities gathered at UCSF Mission Bay to discuss what the future of global health education would look like. On Wednesday, Sept. 17, Haile Debas, MD, executive director of Global Health Sciences, will speak to the UC Board of Regents on the planning for the University’s first multicampus school of global health. The information item is posted on the University of California Regents website (pdf). Last month, Exxon Mobil Foundation announced a $3.5 million grant to the Global Health Group at UCSF to expand its core support for an unprecedented malaria elimination effort in southern Africa. And this fall, UCSF Global Health Sciences is offering a master’s of science degree in global health sciences for the first time. The Fogarty International Center’s Framework Programs for Global Health initiative aims to raise awareness of global health within the academic community and to support development of new curricula and degree programs that cut across departments and schools to create a pipeline for the next generation of global health researchers. “As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, there is a compelling need for novel, multidimensional approaches to global health research,” said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, MD. “By removing the existing academic silos and working across disciplines, we can better leverage our knowledge and skills to tackle difficult global health challenges and save lives around the world.” Each site will receive about $400,000 over three years through the flexible program that encourages each institution to develop a structure and activities that best suit its existing strengths and research capabilities. The new awardees will join the existing network of 19 sites that have received Framework grants since the initiative’s inception in 2005. Within these institutions, faculty from more than 17 different disciplines have participated, including those from schools of medicine, public health, anthropology, law, engineering, environmental sciences, journalism, business and others. “Campuses have seen a dramatic surge of interest in global health,” said Roger I. Glass, MD, PhD, director of the Fogarty International Center. “These Framework awards have enormous impact, despite their modest size. They provide the catalyst to transform global health programs, leveraging and enhancing existing resources, fostering innovative research collaborations, and creating new foreign research training opportunities.”