CRESIB and CREAL Inform the Catalan Government on the Progress of Their Alliance With ISGlobal

The Directorate-General for Research of the Catalan Government invited Dr. Josep Maria Antó, Director of CREAL, and Dr. Antoni Plasència, Technical Director of CRESIB, to provide an update of the progress being made within the ISGlobal alliance in an event that took place on January 9, 2014. The session was opened by Josep Martorell, Director General for Research, who reviewed the SUMA project, a government initiative to foster and strengthen alliances with the Catalan network of research centres, CERCA. Dr. Antó and Dr. Plasència then described the ongoing process for strengthening the alliance between CREAL, CRESIB and ISGlobal and reviewed the progress made to date and the challenges that lie ahead.

The main goal of the alliance is to forge a basic and translational global health research centre with sufficient critical mass to become an international leader in the fight against global health problems such as infectious and non-communicable diseases and their environmental determinants. Significant progress was made in 2013 in terms of creating a framework for effective cooperation between CREAL, CRESIB and ISGlobal and laying the groundwork for the creation of a cohesive, efficient and sustainable organisational model. The ISGlobal alliance also launched a joint research strategy promoting synergies between several existing programmes and fostering the transfer of knowledge to inform public health policies and interventions. The alliance is also working on expanding its provision of ongoing quality postgraduate training in global and environmental health and strengthening capacities to shape the international agenda in its areas of excellence.