Research Leaders Warn Against Cuts in Global Health Research
Professor and Director of the Centre for International Health, Bente Elisabeth Moen, and Arvid Hallén, Director General of the Research Council of Norway (RCN), both express deep concerns about the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation’s (NORAD’s) recent recommendation of cuts to the Global Health and Vaccination Research Programme’s funding (GLOBVAC).
Main content
Their concerns were the subject of an article in BT (see .pdf - article is in Norwegian)
GLOBVAC
Begun in 2006, the GLOBVAC programme has been an important initiative in Norway’s aid activity in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). The programme undertakes research in global health and vaccination to support sustainable improvements for health in LMIC.
The primary objective of the GLOBVAC programme is to support high-quality research with potential for high impact that can contribute to sustainable improvements in health and health equity for poor people in LMIC.
The Programme prioritizes projects in the following thematic areas:
- Prevention, treatment and diagnostics of relevant communicable diseases
- Family planning, reproductive maternal, neonatal and child health
- Health systems and health policy research
- Implementation research
- Innovation in technology and methodology
Read more from the Research Council of Norway’s GLOBVAC programme website.
Norad funding
Despite a favourable evaluation of the GLOBVAC programme in 2016, Norad decided to freeze much of its funding for its second funding period (2012-2020). Hallén stressed the importance of GLOBVAC research activity, and highlights the role Norway played in the development of the Ebola vaccine as one of many examples.
Read more about Norad’s aid activity (in Norwegian)
GLOBVAC’s success represents years of building up good research collaborations – work that can have been in vain if the Norad funding cuts proceed as planned, says Moen.
When interviewed by Bergens Tidene (BT), Lene Lothe, Leader of the Global Health Section at Norad, said that the cuts are a result of a general reduction in Norway’s aid budget in 2015, as well as a change in funding priorities and new research directions.
Read more background (in Norwegian)
