April 29, 2024

Gut Health team shares experience supporting research consortiums at CUGH 2024

Sonia Rao (Project Manager) and Alyson Shumays (Director of Research Operations) at CUGH 2024.

Global WACh team members, Sonia Rao and Alyson Shumays, attended the 2024 Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Conference, held from March 7-10, in Los Angeles, CA to share what they’ve learned from supporting international research consortiums under the Gut Health and Child Survival research portfolio.

This year’s theme, “Global Health Without Borders: Acting for Impact,” created an environment for scientists, students and implementers from academia, NGOs, government, and the private sector to learn, share research, collaborate, and develop partnerships to address global health challenges. Global WACh featured two poster abstracts under one of seven subthemes, “Decolonizing – Reforming Global Health Equity, Justice, Global Health Education and Research.” Click the titles below to view the posters.

• Global Health Research Consortiums: When is it Time to Transition to Direct Funding?
• Leveraging International Research Consortiums to Train and Mentor Early Career Investigators: The Design and Implementation of Two Support Programs in the Enterics for Global Health Study

 

The array of panel sessions, plenaries, and poster presentations within this subtheme underscored the persistent imbalance of power and funding in global health partnerships.  Some suggested strategies to redress the balance include:

• Shifting centers of power to regional hubs
• Addressing the need for higher indirect costs to LMIC institutions
• Employing equitable authorship practices
• Following recommendations to academic institutions on changes to promotion criteria and admin policies (click here to read)

 

We look forward to sharing more learnings and takeaways as we continue to support research consortiums in reaching their goals and objectives.