Announcement and call for abstracts:

Uniting Streams is proud to announce its 8th annual symposium on research in International Health, entitled:

‘A Perfect Match?! Connecting NGOs and Academia in Research for Global Health’

to be held on Wednesday September 14^th 2011 in De Rode Hoed in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (www.derodehoed.nl).

The symposium is a collaborative effort between Uniting Streams, the Dutch Society of Tropical Medicine & International Health (NVTG), the Netherlands Platform for Health Policy and Health Services Research, Cordaid/Memisa, Wemos and the association of Dutch tropical doctors-in-training (TROIE).

It will bring together health-oriented NGOs and academic institutions around International Health research. Whereas such alliances can be mutually beneficial, their actual realisation is not always so straightforward. The symposium aims to highlight obstacles and opportunities in this process.

Programme:

Rene Loewenson, epidemiologist and director of the Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) in Zimbabwe will provide a keynote address on NGO-academia collaboration in research for global health.  Her lecture will set the stage for a debate between Ruerd Ruben representing the Dutch Policy and Evaluations Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (IOB), Anke Tijtsma, director of Wemos, Joop de Jong, Professor of Transcultural Psychiatry at the Free University in Amsterdam, Monique Lagro, Sector Manager Health and Well-being of Cordaid/Memisa and André van der Ven, Professor of International Health at the RadboudUniversity in Nijmegen.  Eelco Koolhaas, ‘Chief Story Officer at the Ministry of Stories’ will facilitate this innovative session, inviting the audience to participate in a quest for synergy between health NGOs and academia in global health research.

The afternoon programme includes parallel sessions with presentations of scientific research, selected from submitted abstracts.  In addition, a ‘Speed Dating’ session will bring do-ers and think-ers together in their activities in global health research.  Wemos and Cordaid/Memisa explore the art of collaboration between NGOs and academia around two cases: community involvement in maternal health and health insurance for the poor. The Netherlands Platform for GHP&HSR will host a Café Mundial, in which participants are invited to provide input for an innovative global health research agenda focusing on ‘the what’ (issues for the agenda) and the ‘the how’ (collaboration between NGOs and academia).  Rene Loewenson will chair the Café and a jury will select innovative proposals.  Clinical cases are subject of debate in Consult Online, hosted by TROIE.  The Ministry of Stories will round-off the day and set the stage for continued ‘matchmaking’ during drinks and thereafter.

Registration:

Early registration costs are Euro 55,- per person for NVTG-members and 65,- for other participants.  A reduced price of Euro 40,- is available at early registration for students, including tropical MDs in training and (PhD) students (maximum of 50 participants at reduced rate).  Early registration closes September 5^th, thereafter registration will only be possible on-site at the conference venue at the additional cost of Euro 10,- per person. Please note that there is a strict limit of 200 participants in total, so please register early!

In order to register, please complete the online registration form on the NVTG website: http://www.nvtg.org/aanmelden.php.

Call for abstracts:

During the afternoon programme 2 sets of parallel sessions will take place with short oral presentations selected from submitted abstracts. Researchers of all seniority, including (PhD) students, are invited to submit abstracts describing original research in any field of international health, including but not limited to: tropical medicine, poverty-related diseases (malaria, HIV, TBC), neglected (infectious) diseases; maternal & child health, nutrition, medical sociology/anthropology, medical entomology; health economics; health policy and health services research. Researchers from NGOs are particularly encouraged to participate!  Abstracts should be submitted in English. Oral presentations will be selected on the basis of abstract quality.

Send completed abstract forms to unitingstreams@gmail.com before August 14^th, 2011.

Looking forward to seeing you in Amsterdam,

Kind regards,

Matthew McCall

chair, Uniting Streams

*Uniting Streams is a workgroup within the Dutch Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (NVTG), with the aim of stimulating multidisciplinary discussion on various topics related to field research in International Health. For further information, please visit www.unitingstreams.com.

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