The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities (The Guild) have this year launched twenty new Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence, called CoREs. The aim of launching the clusters is to transform the nature of collaborative research, foregrounding equity as a precondition for excellent and impactful research to address common societal challenges.
SUM's Global Health Politics research group, represented by Katerini T. Storeng, Associate Professor at SUM, and Jacinta Victoria Muinde, Associate Professor at Institute of Health and Society, UiO, is a partner in one of the CoREs launched earlier this year titled Preparedness and Response to Pandemics and Shocks.
This new CoRE aims to generate evidence and innovations to strengthen capacities and minimise the devastating impact of pandemics and shocks worldwide. It also seeks to build a critical mass of multi-disciplinary experts who will foster contextually relevant decision-making on this topic within the African and European Unions.
"The response to COVID-19 demonstrated that knowledge of how to strengthen systems for preventing and effectively responding to public health emergencies is highly needed. This CoRE presents a unique opportunity for cross-regional learning, knowledge, and capacity transfer. I look forward to working with the excellent partner universities and colleagues across Africa and Europe", says Katerini T. Storeng.
The CoRE is led by researchers at Makerere University in Uganda and UCLouvain in Belgium. The partners of the CoRE will conduct joint research projects on pandemics and other threats, support training for students and professionals, and strengthen the community of practice on pandemic preparedness and response.
"The CoRE on pandemics offers a unique and exemplary opportunity to open up interdisciplinary dialogues on pandemics and other shocks, create opportunities for investment in long-term interdisciplinary collaborations and the transformation of shared research capacities. I am looking forward to working with the wonderful team of colleagues and contributing to societal transformation", says Jacinta Victoria Muinde.
About the Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence (CoRE)
The Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence (CoRE) bring together distinguished researchers from universities and research institutes across both continents, from ARUA, The Guild and beyond the two networks. Each cluster addresses a key societal challenge, framed by the Global Gateway’s AU-EU Innovation Agenda, in the context of local perspectives to ensure maximum scientific and societal impact. The University of Oslo is a member of The Guild, which comprises twenty-one of Europe’s most distinguished research-intensive universities in sixteen European countries.
Read more about the CoRE launch here (the-guild.eu)
Research on global health politics and pandemics
The Global Health Politics research group at SUM brings together anthropologists, historians and international relations scholars interested in the political dynamics and power structures that shape health policy and practice at global, national and local levels.
The group is host to several research projects on pandemic preparedness, such as the PANPREP project and the recently launched SCANVAX project.