Global health briefs June 2012

May / June 2012 | Volume 11, Issue 3

NIH launches stem cell center website

The NIH Center for Regenerative Medicine has launched a website to provide information regarding its efforts to support the clinical translation of stem cell-based technologies and develop widely available resources to be used as standards in stem cell research.

USAID offers free online global health courses

USAID is offering free online courses that cover more than 50 global health-related topics of interest to people new in the field or wishing to refresh their knowledge. The series of one- to two-hour courses blends up-to-date technical and programmatic content written by experts.

• Access the USAID Global Health eLearning Center

ESSENCE publishes report on research costing

A new best practice document offers five recommendations for researchers and funders that aim to make overhead allocation easier and more consistent. The report was produced by the ESSENCE on Health Initiative, a collaborative framework including Fogarty, designed to enable a scale-up in global research capacity.

• Access the ESSENCE good practice document Five keys to improving research costing in low- and middle-income countries from TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.

WHO releases study on diseases, poverty

WHO has released a study on how research can help break the disease-poverty cycle, titled "Global Report for Research on Infectious Diseases of Poverty." It contains information on three themes: environment, climate change and social factors; health systems research; and innovations and new technologies.

World Bank opens access

The World Bank has launched a new open access policy, created an online knowledge repository and adopted a set of new copyright licenses to make its research as widely available as possible.

• Access The World Bank's Open Knowledge Repository.

Mapping Africa’s research ethics capacity

The Council of Health Research Development has launched a web platform called "Mapping African Research Ethics Capacity," so stakeholders can share research ethics data in real time and track the geographical distribution of research ethics committees in Africa.

• Access the Health Research Web (HRWeb) world map of contact information for ethics reviews of health research in countries.

Smallpox model studied

Approaches that helped eliminate smallpox can inform today’s efforts to purge other global diseases, says a report highlighting findings from a historic symposium, "Smallpox eradication after 30 years: lessons, legacies and innovation."

• Access Smallpox Eradication after 30 Years: Lessons, Legacies and Innovations, Proceedings of a Symposium held at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation from the December 2011 supplement to Vaccine.

MEPI interviews online

Voices of Change is a new interactive site giving a glimpse at the experiences of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) grantees in Africa. Fogarty helps to administer MEPI.

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