Announcements
Lecture
"From Research to Practice and Policy: Case Studies from the Global Fight Against HIV."
Michael Stalker, Deputy Director of Special Projects in the Applied Research Department and Michele Lanham, Research Assistant in the Biomedical and Behavioral Research Department, Family Health International.
When: Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Michael Hooker Research Center Auditorium
This event is open to all and is sponsored by UNC Academy Health.
Special Seminar on Acute HIV Infection
Acute HIV Infection: Current Trends & Future Directions for Interventions
When: Thursday, September 25, 2008, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Where: 133 Tate-Turner-Kuralt Auditorium, School of Social Work
Speakers include: Dr. Myron Cohen, MD (UNC); Dr. Andrew Forsyth, MD (NIMH); and Dr. Kathleen Sikkema, MD (Duke)
This event is open to anyone. Sponsored by the UNC CFAR's Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Core and the Acute HIV Topical Work Group
The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS
Epidemiologist Dr. Elizabeth Pisani comes to UNC to speak about her latest book
When: Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
Where: 2301 McGavran-Greenberg, UNC School of Public Health
Funding Announcement
Gates Foundation offers 2nd round of Grand Challenges Grants
Deadline November 2, 2008
SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that it is now accepting grant proposals for Round 2 of Grand Challenges Explorations, a five-year US$100 million initiative to encourage bold and unconventional research on new global health solutions. Proposals for six topics will be accepted online at www.gcgh.org/explorations through November 2, 2008.
Round 2 follows on the heels of the initiative's first funding round, which closed in May of this year, and generated nearly 4,000 applications from scientists in more than 100 countries. Two new topics are being introduced in Round 2 along with the initial four topics from Round 1.
One of the primary objectives of Grand Challenges Explorations is to involve scientists around the world who do not typically work in global health. This includes those with innovative ideas in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the developing world; people working in the private sector; and young investigators.
The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grantmaking process. Applications are two pages, and preliminary data about the proposed research are not required. In addition, the online application process has been streamlined for Round 2.
The topic areas for which proposals will be accepted in Round 2 are:
- Create new vaccines for diarrhea, HIV, malaria, pneumonia, and TB.\
- Create new tools to accelerate the eradication of malaria.
- Create new ways to protect against infectious diseases,
including alternatives to traditional vaccination. - Create new drugs and delivery systems to limit the emergence of
resistance in the disease-causing agent. - Create new ways to prevent or cure HIV infection that fall
outside current research on vaccines and other biomedical and
behavior-change strategies. - Explore the basis for latency in TB, with the goal of
discovering new ways to identify and eliminate latent infection.
The foundation and an independent group of reviewers will select the most innovative proposals, and grants will be awarded within approximately three months from the proposal submission deadline.
Initial grants will be $100,000 each. Projects showing success will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of $1 million or more. Round 1 grants are expected to be announced in October.
Full descriptions of the topic areas and application instructions are available at www.gcgh.org/explorations.
About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
Call for Abstracts
Medical Education for the 21st Century: Teaching for Health Equality
Havana, Cuba
November 30-December 3, 2008
A conference for health professionals and researchers in medical and health sciences education; public health; and basic, clinical and social sciences. The conference premise is that we are united aby a common objective: to achieve health care that responds to the needs and hopes of people around the world, especially those of marginalized populations. Attendees will discuss the latest thinking about and new paradigms for medical and health sciences education.
Abstracts are due September 1, 2008, and may be submitted in either English or Spanish. For more information submission requirements and conference registration, visit the conference website.
Call for Abstracts
When:April 18-19, 2009
Where: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
What: Join 2,500 conference participants for a stimulating international conference. Unite For Sight is a nonprofit organization featured weekly on CNN International and recently in The New York Times.
NOW OPEN: Registration and Abstract Submission http://www.uniteforsight.org/conference. REGISTER BY JULY 31 TO SECURE LOWEST RATE. Rate escalates each month.
Who should register? Anyone interested in international health, public health, international development, medicine, nonprofits, eye care, philanthropy, microfinance, social entrepreneurship, bioethics, economics, anthropology, health policy, advocacy, environmental health, service-learning, medical education, and public service.
Who is eligible to submit an abstract? Anyone may submit an abstract. Abstract submitters range from students to professionals.
Keynote Speakers:
Susan Blumenthal, MD, MPA Former US Assistant Surgeon General, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown School of Medicine and Tufts University Medical Center; Senior Medical Advisor, amfAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research)
Jeffrey Sachs, PhD Director of Earth Institute at Columbia University; Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University; Special Advisor to Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon
Sonia Ehrlich Sachs, MD, MPH Health Coordinator, Millennium Village Project
Harold Varmus, MD President and Chief Executive, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Former Director of the NIH; Nobel Prize Recipient
Malawi Clinic seeks Technical Assistant
The Lighthouse exists to fight against AIDS in Malawi by providing a continuum of quality care and support, and by working to build capacity in the health sector.
Lighthouse is a Malawian Trust operating as the HIV/AIDS outpatient department of Kamuzu Central Hospital, the main public sector referral hospital in the Central Region of Malawi. The Lighthouse strategy has three interlinked elements:
1. To deliver quality HIV / AIDS treatment care and support services
2. To develop, pilot, evaluate and share innovative approaches for HIV treatment, care and support in Malawi
3. To strengthen capacity for HIV/AIDS treatment, care and support in Malawi.
Lighthouse is organized into three service delivery teams and three support teams. Service delivery includes two clinics (currently supporting more than 7,500 patients on ART) HIV Testing and Counselling (providing approximately 3,000 tests per month) and Community services (170 patients in a community nursing program and almost 1,000 in a community led treatment support program.) Our support teams provide monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, and administrative support.
Lighthouse wishes to identify a young, committed staff member to support the director in drawing together our diverse plans and activities into a coherent logical framework linked to our overall strategy. The logical framework describes outputs planned contributing to the three purposes of service delivery, innovation and capacity building. It also outlines all activities to be done in order to achieve the planned outputs. The framework includes responsible persons, targets, and donors for each activity.
The technical assistant’s responsibilities will revolve around managing this framework. Working with and through senior staff, the TA will help to clearly define targets and objectives, to draft funding proposals to finance activities, to evaluate progress against these plans, and to report back to management and donors.
The director will provide mentoring and strategic direction, while the TA will be expected to do a lot of the nuts and bolts work. However, we also expect an effective TA to have a strong voice in steering the Lighthouse strategy, in aligning plans to that strategy, and in working on policy issues with Government and development partners.
Requirements: Candidates should have a Masters in Public Health or equivalent. First rate analytical skills are expected. Some experience in health care settings in developing countries is also required. Applications should highlight a strong feeling for public health issues, particularly around HIV/AIDS in Africa.
The successful candidate will have the opportunity to spend at least two years working at the front line of the fight against AIDS in Africa. Lighthouse has a proven track record of policy influence in Malawi, and engages at the highest level in international debate. We feel that this post provides an unrivalled career development opportunity for a future leader in international public health.
We are currently inviting expressions of interest – please write to Lighthouse Executive Director, Dr. Sam Phiri, and include your CV. Let us know what excites you about the position and what you can offer, and we will be in touch.
Please visit our website www.mwlighthouse.org to find out more about Lighthouse.
Earth, Wind, and Fire: A One Medicine Approach to Climate Change
A conference for physicians, nurses, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, public health professionals, agriculture professionals, wildlife professionals, and federal, military, state and local disaster responders. Continuing education credits will be provided for various professionals. December 10-11, 2008, Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center, Durham, North Carolina. For more information, visit the conference website.
Faculty opening in global health policy
The UNC Department of Public Policy is recruiting for an Assistant Professor in Global Health Policy, effective start date of July 1, 2009. Direct inquiries to OHR Job seekers website or Anne Cavitt.
For complete job description and application instructions, click here.
HIV 101 will be held August 11-15, 2008
A basic course designed for new clinical staff but is open to anyone (space is limited). Topics include primary and co- HIV infection, medications, vaccine trials, and psychosocial issues. Contact David Currin to reserve a space (david_currin@med.unc.edu or 966-2624).
TWIGH monthly for summer
This Week in Global Health (TWIGH) will reduce its publication to a monthly schedule for the summer. Look for weekly newsletter to resume in August/September 2008. To subscribe to the newsletter, email globalhealth@unc.edu.
August 3-8: AIDS 2008
AIDS 2008 will be hosted in Mexico City; it will be the first International AIDS Conference ever held in Latin America. The theme of the conference is “Universal Action Now.”
Mexico City, Mexico
www.aids2008.org
