Who are Sonar-Global partners?
The Institut Pasteur is a private, non-profit foundation. Its mission is to help prevent and treat diseases, mainly those of infectious origin, through research, teaching, and public health initiatives.
Institut Pasteur website
Institut Pasteur is the coordinating institution of Sonar-Global. As the leader of Work Package 1 (Coordination and Management), it provides scientific coordination across the teams in the consortium, manages the financial and legal aspects of the project, and provides administrative and financial support to the consortium. It manages the Sonar-Global web platform and is responsible for dissemination activities. In Work Package 6, it guides the ethical dimensions of the Sonar-Global activities, working in close collaboration with partners and an external Ethics Advisor. Finally, it leads Work Package 7, which implements the Vulnerability Assessment tool and appropriate Community Engagement models in multiple European countries, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The IP team is conducting a Vulnerability Assessment in Ile-de-France and the Vendôme region to understand vulnerabilities and resilience as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, this Work Package will produce actionable policy findings as a result of the Vulnerability Assessments and Engagement activities.
PhD African history with focus on anthropology and anthropology (Johns Hopkins University). Additional training in tropical rain forest ecology and sylviculture (Oxford Forestry Institute). Habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR), Anthropology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
Holds a Masters degree in International and European law and affairs management. Before joining Institut Pasteur, she managed two European Initial Training Networks (ITNs) in the fields of nano-medicine and radiotherapy, under the FP7 Marie Curie Actions, at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). She had previously occupied the position of European Project Manager for the International Relations Office of INSA Lyon (French engineering school). Valeria masters several languages: English, French, Italian, Romanian and Russian. She joined the Institut Pasteur’s Grants Office in 2018, as European Project Manager for H2020 projects.
Has over 10 years of extensive experience in Communication. She’s currently working as a European Communications Manager for Sonar-Global, where she’s responsible for putting in place and implementing all the communication strategies to promote the project. Prior to that, she worked for a communication agency for European projects, where she was responsible for the communication planning and implementation for 3 European projects under the H2020 programme.
The Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD) is an international research and education institute that works to develop sustainable solutions to major health problems. By taking a problem-oriented approach, AIGHD transcends the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines and integrates three fundamental activities into one institute:
- research
- education & capacity building
- policy & impact
AIGHD website
The Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development leads Work Package 2 (Networking: communication, dissemination, exploitation) and WP5 (Capacity strengthening for social science-informed interventions). In collaboration with Mahidol, AIGHD has mapped experts, institutions, and networks, particularly those in the social sciences, that address infectious disease threats and have organized agenda-setting regional hubs with locally-set priority themes. These hubs develop collaborative, cross-regional, multi-disciplinary research to ensure network sustainability and effective governance of infectious threats. AIGHD also collaborates with CRCF to develop curriculum pilots to train social scientists and non-social sciences actors. It led to the development of the SPECIAL-SOC AMR curriculum, which followed a global mapping of training materials and educational infrastructures concerning the social aspects of epidemics and AMR, as well as consultations with social sciences experts.
Anita Hardon is Professor of Anthropology of Care and Health at the University of Amsterdam. Trained as a medical anthropologist and biologist, Prof. Hardon leads ambitious and often interdisciplinary studies on global health issues. Her work has generated ethnographic insights into the appropriation of health technologies in diverse settings, their efficacy in everyday life, the role of social movements in their design, and the impact of care dynamics and policy-making on their provision.
Christopher Pell is a Senior Researcher at AIGHD. Dr. Pell is qualitative social scientist with a background in medical anthropology. He has worked for over ten years in the field of global health, conducting collaborative and interdisciplinary research in a variety of health domains, including infectious disease control, across sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.
Constance Schultsz is a MD, medical microbiologist and Professor of Global Health at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers-University of Amsterdam, where she has been based since 2008. Prof. Schultsz is deputy head of the department of Global Health (since 2016) and an Executive Board Member of AIGHD. Her research focuses on emerging infectious disease and AMR.
Luisa Toro-Alzate completed her MD in 2010 from the University of Antioquia in Colombia. After her work from 9+ years in the clinical field, she pursued her Master of Public Health at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her master’s thesis was in Antimicrobial Resistance and One Health in Colombia. Currently, she is working as Research Assistant at the Amsterdam Institute of Global Health and Development (AIGHD). Her field of research is the link between infectious diseases, including Antimicrobial Resistance, and the Social Determinants of Health.
Danny de Vries is Assistant Professor in the Anthropology of Health at the University of Amsterdam and a Senior Researcher at AIGHD. Dr. de Vries has nearly 20 years of experience in applied research, addressing emergency preparedness and infectious diseases. He has over five years of experience in monitoring and evaluation for large global health projects, such as a USAID-funded project on human resource strengthening for health.
Nivel, Netherlands institute for health services research is the national institute for health services research in the Netherlands. Nivel is an independent organisation, which carries out high quality research with a demonstrable impact upon society.
Nivel website
Nivel, Netherlands institute for health services research is the national institute for health services research in the Netherlands. Nivel works with BRAC to lead Work Package 4 (Models for Engagement), and as such, has been actively engaged in developing locally appropriate community engagement models that bring in diverse stakeholders to act on findings concerning locally-meaningful categories and processes of vulnerability. These activities are taking place in Bangladesh, Ukraine, and Uganda. Nivel is also leading Community Engagement activities in Work Package 7 as a follow-up to the Vulnerability Assessment pilots in five European countries, Uganda, and Bangladesh. These activities bring them into collaboration with several partners, building an approach that facilitates stakeholder action on COVID-19 vulnerabilities identified during the preceding assessments.
The Unit Medical Anthropology and Global Health at the Department of Social and Preventative Medicine, Center for Public Health, has a long history at the Medical University. The Unit has worked on multiple EU-funded projects, combines project-based work with basic research projects (especially dissertation thesis projects), and has established itself as a key expert hub in medical anthropology and global health. Research at the Unit focuses on the socio-cultural implications and perceptions of infectious diseases (especially Ebola viral disease, Lassa, measles, and yellow fever), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), nutritional anthropology (e.g. geophagy), issues of access to health care for disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, mental health,
representations of human bodies, human-animal-environment interactions, as well as anthropological perspectives in emergency response and humanitarian assistance.
Links (includes German descriptions):
www.meduniwien.ac.at/sonar
https://www.meduniwien.ac.at/hp/sozialmedizin/forschung/unit-medicalanthropology-
and-global-health/
Medical University of Vienna website
The MUW co-leads Work Package 3 with UCL, developing a resilience framework for action in infectious disease emergencies and around AMR. They mapped existing assessment tools for evaluating individual, group and systemic vulnerabilities to infectious diseases and AMR, channeling certain findings into an adapted Vulnerability Assessment tool in Uganda. A key partner in Work Package 4, MUW surveyed community engagement approaches used in partner countries Bangladesh, Uganda and Ukraine. The team contributes to the development of models for dialogue-based engagement of stakeholders and community needs to tackle challenges in response to infectious threats. In Work Package 7, MUW is conducting a qualitative evaluation of Community Engagement. MUW will work with several partners to scale up vulnerability assessment tools and multi-scale engagement models through existing networks and global health partnerships.
Dr. Ruth Kutalek is Associate Professor at the Center for Public Health, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, and head of the Unit Medical Anthropology and Global Health. She is specialized in the anthropology of infectious disease (esp. Ebola, Lassa fever, Measles, Yellow fever), medical ethics, migrant health (access to health care for vulnerable groups, health worker migration), environment and health, and ethnopharmacology. She has been involved in the Ebola response in West Africa from 2014-2016 and coordinated several WHO projects in Liberia dealing with Ebola survivors and with health workers involved in the response. In 2016 she conducted a process evaluation on an Ebola viral persistence project in Sierra Leone. Currently she is co-lead in a
project on the occupational situation of health workers in the Covid-19 crisis. She is also active in teaching and developing curricula in medical anthropology for under- and postgraduate medical students. Ruth has published widely and is regular reviewer for several journals in the social sciences, public health and tropical medicine.
As medical anthropologist, Elena Jirovsky has conducted independent research in Austria, Chad, Liberia, and Burkina Faso, where she has been researching the current meaning of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). EJ has been deployed as a qualitative researcher by MSF and by WHO in the Ebola Response in Liberia. At the Medical University of Vienna, she was researcher in the EU-projects HURAPRIM – Human Resources for African Primary Health Care and EUR-HUMAN: European Refugees – Human Movement and Advisory Network. Elena’s central research areas are sexual and reproductive health, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), migrant health, as well as social science approaches and community engagement in regard to infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. She currently leads the Austrian part of the multiple country risk estimation study on FGM/C of the European Institute for Gender Equality.
Maren obtained her master’s degree in medical anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. Soon after, she conducted fieldwork in Bihar(India) on patient perceptions of new treatment modalities for visceral leishmaniasis with Doctors Without Borders. In 2018, she temporarily joined the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO, Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, University of Oxford) research group. As part of an international review team, she contributed in developing a catalogue of literature on viral hemorrhagic fevers. Her research interests lie primarily in the social aspects of infectious threats and global health. She is currently pursuing her PhD on the topic of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Austria and is part of a research group investigating on health care workers’ challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. She is also a professional photographer and is using photography as a research method as well as a means to visualize content.
An interdisciplinary scholar, Lisa works at the intersection of science studies, medical anthropology, and critical public health. She currently is a junior researcher at the Medical University of Vienna and resident fellow at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI) while completing her PhD at the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. Her dissertation project deals with the biopolitics of curing Hepatitis C in the Austrian welfare state. Based on her research experience in the Austrian and European healthcare system (e.g. on patient organizations, assisted reproductive technologies, mental health in schools), she also works as independent lecturer and health researcher.
Mahidol is the Co-lead of Work Package 2 and the head of the Southeast Asian regional hub. In collaboration with AIGHD, Mahidol has actively developed the Sonar-Global member network, which includes individuals and institutions from around the world. As head of the Southeast Asian regional hub, Mahidol has convened multiple researchers and institutions from around the region to focus on the problem of antimicrobial resistance. To date, the regional hub has brought created two high-level regional meetings and has planned a publication from these meetings
Dr. Phaik Yeong Cheah, an Associate Professor of University of Oxford, is based in Bangkok at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU). She is the head of the Bioethics & Engagement team at MORU. Her research focus is in the field of bioethics and on public/community engagement with research, and their intersection. She works with a diverse group of biomedical researchers at MORU who conduct international biomedical research with populations that have poor access to healthcare, and have high rates of poverty and illiteracy. Her team embeds ethical analysis and engages with the host communities throughout the research process to ensure that their work is ethical, culturally appropriate, impactful, and responsive.
Phaik Yeong’s research interests include the social and ethical dimensions of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). She leads the Bangkok-based Sonar AMR hub. For details and list of publications- http://www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/principal-investigators/researcher/phaik-yeong-cheah
The team is an important partner in Work Package 2, particularly in its creation and lead of the Eastern European Regional Hub. This regional hub, created in 2020, has brought together social sciences and policy actors from multiple eastern European countries to focus on vaccination and vaccine hesitancy, particularly related to measles and COVID-19 vaccination. The team also contributes to Work Package 3, where it collaborates with relevant teams to build a resilience framework for infectious threats and AMR. The team participates actively in Work Package 4 activities, working closely with Nivel and MUW, conducting a multiscalar, deliberative dialogue for stakeholder engagement around measles vaccination. In collaboration with other partners, the team will make policy recommendations to governmental and non-governmental stakeholders on ways to overcome the challenges of multiple actors, sectors, disciplines, and interests in tackling these global health threats.
Public Health Center of the MOH of Ukraine website
The team will contribute to WP2, assisting in the development of the online Directory and the regional hubs. The team will also contribute to WP3, where it will collaborate with relevant teams to build a resilience framework for infectious threats and AMR. The team will also participate in WP4 activities. It will be responsible with NIVEL for task 4.3, in which it will conduct a multiscalar, deliberative dialogue for stakeholder engagement. In collaboration with other partners, the team will make policy recommendations to governmental and non-governmental stakeholders on ways to overcome challenges of multiple actors, sectors, disciplines, and interests in tackling these global health threats.
Dr Roman Rodyna, male, MD
Educational background: MD, Donetsk National Medical University, epidemiology, hygiene, 1997.
Professional background: From 1998 to 2012: Worked at the Donetsk regional sanitary-and-epidemiological station on the position of the doctor of the department of state sanitary and epidemiological examination and preventive sanitary supervision.
Since 2004: Head of the department of communal hygiene.
Since 2010: Deputy Chief state sanitary doctor of the Donetsk region on sanitary and hygienic issues.
From 2013: Head of the state institution “Donetsk Regional Laboratory Center of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of Ukraine”. From October 2014 to February 2016: Deputy Director of the state institution “Kyiv Regional Laboratory Center of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Service of Ukraine”.
From February 2016: Head doctor of the state institution “Ukrainian Center for disease control and monitoring of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine”.
March 2017 to 2018: Appointed Deputy Director General of the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for regional development.
Current position: Head of communicable diseases surveillance department of PHC.
Dr Oksana Artemchuk, female, MD, PhD
Educational background: Bogomolets National Medical University, Shupyk National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education, Interregional Academy of Personnel Management.
Professional background: Oksana is responsible for conducting influenza surveillance at national level. On behalf of the PHC, she engages in international collaborations concerning regulatory issues relating to influenza and acute respiratory infections. Oksana also serves as the Ukrainian national coordinator for epidemiological surveillance of influenza in Ukraine. She has been working in epidemiology and public health for nearly 8 years. Oksana received a Ph.D. in medical management in 2018. Current position: Head of the Department of influenza and acute respiratory viral infections of PHC in Ukraine.
Oksana Koshalko, female, MD
Educational background: Bogomolets National Medical University, Shupyk National Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education.
Professional background: Oksana is responsible for supervising data collection, developing a database of sentinel epidemiological data concerning influenza and acute respiratory viruses, and conducting analyses for Ukraine. Oksana also participates in the development of legal frameworks for the prevention and spread of influenza epidemics in Ukraine.
Since 2018, Oksana is a resident of the Field Epidemiology Training Program in Ukraine and actively involved in the investigation and response to outbreaks and other public health emergencies, also she is involved in the development of surveillance systems, their improvement and evaluation, and epidemiological studies to support evidence-based decision making.
Current position: An Epidemiologist of the Department of influenza and acute respiratory viral infections of PHC in Ukraine.
Role: Project manager
Educational background: Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University, Master’s degree, Microbiology.
Professional background: Feb 2014 – Aug 2015 RE Kavetsky Institute of Experimental Pathology, Oncology and Radiobiology, Engineer.
Aug 2015 – Jul 2018 Alliance Consultancy LLC. Consultant, Project Assistant Current position: Leading Specialist in Project Management and International Cooperation of PHC.
Alina is responsible for overall project coordination, preparation of reports, monitoring of the project implementation, budget utilization, analysis of risks related to the project implementation and development of ways to minimize and address them.
Role: Financial Specialist
Educational background: European University of Finance, Information Systems, Management and Business Kiev, Master’s degree finance, accounting and auditing.
Professional background: March 2005 – September 2014 ICF “International HIV / AIDS Alliance in Ukraine”, Accountant.
September 2014 – November 2016 “Initiative for the Future” – is a Ukrainian Charity Foundation, founded by Igor Iankovskyi, Chief Accountant and finance manager.
November 2016 – October 2018 INTERNATIONAL ALERT OFFICE IN UKRAINE, which represents FOREIGN NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION INTERNATIONAL ALERT (United Kingdom) on the territory of Ukraine.
Current position: Chief Financial Specialist of PHC.
Anastasiia is responsible for providing operational financial control for the project implementation, preparation of financial reports, keeping a register of contracts, compiling information on the calculation of payments under contracts.
BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH), BRAC University, applies an interdisciplinary integration of Education, Training, Research and Advocacy to diverse health challenges including, but not limited to, Maternal & Reproductive Health, Nutrition, Gender Equity, WASH, Non-communicable Diseases, Urbanisation and Climate Change, Health Systems strengthening and Universal Health Coverage, thereby positioning BRAC JPGSPH within the larger scenario of national health and education system.
BRAC Website
BRAC University contributes in important ways to Work Package 3 and leads Work Package 4 with Nivel. As a key participant in Work Package 3, BRAC has piloted the Vulnerability Assessment to understand vulnerabilities and resilience in Dhaka to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from the Vulnerability assessment will be implemented in a locally-appropriate multiscale, multi-sectorial, dialogue-based engagement in Bangladesh. Because BRAC has been actively involved in conducting research on AMR, it has also developed an approach to multi-sectoral stakeholder engagement to AMR. As leader of Work Package 4 with Nivel, BRAC is also responsible for ensuring that all partners involved in this work package develop and implement appropriate community engagement models in response to epidemics and AMR.
Professor Syed Masud Ahmed (PI, SoNAR Global, BRAC JPGSPH, BRACU) is the Director of the Centre of Excellence for Health Systems and Universal Health Coverage (CoE-HS&UHC), BRAC JPGSPH, BRAC University which was established in 2011 with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. Working with key partners in the government, private and NGO sectors, the Centre works to facilitate and accelerate evidence informed, equitable and sustainable actions towards implementing UHC in Bangladesh. He is also a Professor at the School since 2011. Before joining current position in July, 2013, he was the Senior Research Coordinator at the Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC in Bangladesh. Prof. Ahmed graduated from Dhaka Medical College in 1978 and did MPH from NIPSOM in 1991. He was a visiting fellow (David E. Bell Fellow) in Population and International Health at Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies during 1997. Prof. Ahmed received his PhD degree from the Karolinska Institute University, Sweden in 2005. His research interests include studying the impact of microcredit-based development interventions on the health and well-being of the poor, especially the ultra-poor, and exploring the mechanisms of such impact; the interface of gender, health and equity; improving health system’s ability to reach the poorest-of-the poor and disadvantaged populations; and human resources for health. Recently, he is working on health-sector corruption and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and research relevant to the achievement of universal health coverage (UHC) in Bangladesh. Prof. Ahmed has published extensively in national and international peer reviewed Journals and authored book chapters, monographs and working papers. He has travelled extensively and presented papers in international seminars, conferences and workshops. He also acts as a peer reviewer for many renowned public health journals such as Bulletin of WHO, World development, Social Science and Medicine, Health Policy and Planning, Tropical Medicine and International Health, BMC Public Health etc. He has a blog named “Bangladesh Health Scenario” at http://syedmasudahmed.blogspot.com
Sabina Faiz Rashid (Co-PI, SoNAR Global,BRAC JPGSPH, BRACU) has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Social Anthropology, and a PhD in Medical Anthropology and Public Health from the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. She has been working since 1993 in national and international organizations including BRAC (the largest NGO in the world), Grameen Trust (a sister organization of Grameen Bank) and UNICEF Bangladesh. She joined BRAC JPGSPH, BRAC University in 2004 and was appointed as Dean in 2013. In addition to the overall leadership and management of the School, Dr. Rashid has been integral to the founding and growth of the international Master of Public Health program in the School which was established in 2005. She is actively involved in teaching different modules including Introduction to Public Health, Anthropology and Public Health, Gender, Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights, and Ethics of Social Science Research.Dr. Sabina Faiz Rashid specializes in ethnographic and qualitative research. Her research interests are gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights; sexuality and well-being of adolescents, young women and men, and use of social media/digital technology; changing gender relationships and power dynamics; governance and health services in urban informal settlements, infectious diseases etc. Her interests lie in critically examining public health approaches and how social, cultural, and political economic factors influence choices, decisions, behaviour and the resulting impact on the health of the poorest and most disadvantaged communities. She established the Centre for Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (GSRHR) at the School in 2008, to promote education/training, research and advocacy, and co-founded the Centre for Urban Equity and Health (CUEH), which focuses on research and organizes advocacy seminars and meetings to co-create knowledge with key stakeholders, influence policy, and build awareness on urban issues at the national level. Dr. Rashid has been awarded research and capacity building grants from the World Bank, WHO, USAID, NUFFIC, NWOTRO, EU, WHO, IDRC, DFID, and IWHC.
Dr. Nahitun Naher (Project Coordinator, SoNAR Global, BRAC JPGSPH, BRACU) is a Public health specialist with expertise in designing and conducting public health research including social science research. Experienced on public health issues of Bangladesh and low and middle income countries. Extensive experience in implementing programmes on operation research issues, research management and mentoring in multi-disciplinary, multi-ethnic environment. Published in peer reviewed international journals, authored research monographs and working papers. Graduated from Z.H. Sikder Medical College, Dhaka Bangladesh (2003). Post-graduation in healthcare quality from University of Helsinki, Finland (2008). Attended and presented papers in international seminars, conferences and workshops. Research interest includes health system, health workforce, health equity, marginalized population, universal health coverage, anti-corruption in health sector, pharmaceutical promotion, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. Dr. Naher is currently working as Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Health Systems and Universal Health Coverage (CoE-HS&UHC) at BRAC JPGSPH, BRAC University.
NazrinBente Kamal (Team Member, SoNAR Global,BRAC JPGSPH, BRACU) is a Senior Research Associate at BRAC JPGSPH, BRAC University. She obtained Master of Public Health degree from JPGSPH in 2015. Previously, she worked at Maternal and Child health Division and Centre for Equity and Health Systems at icddr,b.She has experience in both qualitative and quantitative research. She did her MSc in Biotechnology from North South University. She has special interest in Health system management, E-health, Reproductive health, infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and anti-microbial resistance.
Dr. BushraZarin Islam (Team Member, SoNAR Global, BRAC JPGSPH, BRACU) is a Medical Doctor with a demonstrated history of working in the research industry. Skilled in Randomized Control Trials, Quantitative and Qualitative Research and Data Analysis,Public Health Nutrition, Program Evaluation, Implementation Research on Public Health and Health System Research. Strong healthcare services professional with a Master of Public Health (MPH) from BRAC JPGSPH, BRAC University. She is currently working as Senior Research Associate at the school.
UCL leads on the development of Vulnerability Assessments for epidemics and AMR, and, more generally, functions as Innovations Lead for the overall programme. The Vulnerability Assessments, implemented in Uganda, Bangladesh, and 5 European countries, are qualitative tools adapted to provide insight into local categories and experiences of vulnerability and resilience generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. UCL is developing trainings for research teams to conduct the vulnerability assessment tool and to analyze its results. In Work Package 7, UCL leads efforts to scale up findings of this qualitative assessment to larger data sets in Italy, Germany, and France and is guiding the comparative analysis of vulnerabilities produced as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In collaboration with IP, UCL is scaling up use of the vulnerability assessment tool in other contexts. UCL will work closely with other partners to develop a resilience framework for action in infectious threats.
UCL Website
UCL leads on the development of Vulnerability Assessments for epidemics and AMR, and, more generally, functions as Innovations Lead for the overall programme. The Vulnerability Assessments, implemented in Uganda, Bangladesh, and 5 European countries, are qualitative tools adapted to provide insight into local categories and experiences of vulnerability and resilience generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. UCL is developing trainings for research teams to conduct the vulnerability assessment tool and to analyze its results. In Work Package 7, UCL leads efforts to scale up findings of this qualitative assessment to larger data sets in Italy, Germany, and France and is guiding the comparative analysis of vulnerabilities produced as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In collaboration with IP, UCL is scaling up use of the vulnerability assessment tool in other contexts. UCL will work closely with other partners to develop a resilience framework for action in infectious threats.
A. David Napier is Professor of Medical Anthropology at University College London (UCL) and Director of its Science, Medicine, and Society Network. He is also Coeditor of UCL’s Culture and Health book series, and author of several books and numerous articles on culture, health, and human wellbeing. Though much of his research is on concepts of the foreign, Napier has also focused on applied medical anthropology, including policy work for the WHO on the cultural contexts of health and wellbeing, and involvement in three Lancet commissions (Climate Change and Health, Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, and Culture and Health). Napier regularly writes for the press (e.g., Le Monde), his work being featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, and The Guardian, among others. For his activities with more than 100 charities, the UK government and research councils awarded him the first Beacon Fellowship in Public Engagement. He is the recipient of the Burma Coalition’s Human Rights Award. Napier has served as a consultant on vulnerable populations in the aftermath of natural and human disasters, having worked for, among others, CRISIS UK, The United Nations, and the International Organization for Migration. In addition to his work for Sonar-Global, he is currently the Global Academic Lead of Cities Changing Diabetes, a programme on non-communicable disease prevention involving more than eighty academic researchers working in 26 cities representing populations of more than 150 million people.
Young Su Park, an anthropologist and medical doctor, is currently a postdoctoral research fellow for the Sonar-Global project at UCL Anthropology. He is developing a vulnerability assessment tool for emerging infectious threats (Ebola) and antimicrobial resistance with Prof. David Napier at UCL. As a medical anthropologist, Dr. Park undertook ethnographic fieldworks on historical memory and violence of East Asian modernities and South Korean global health projects in Ethiopia. His research seeks to explain how global health projects are shaped by ideas and experiences related to time such as modernization, national development, historical memories, religion, family cycles, and daily lives, contributing to critical understanding of global health from the lens of time. His past works involves researches on healthcare system for undocumented migrants, cultural adjustment of North Korean refugee doctors, North Korean psychiatry, and illness experiences of Korean Chinese migrant workers in South Korea. He has spent his early career as a health policy researcher in charge of public healthcare system for undocumented migrants, refugees and homeless people as well as healthcare management of rural public hospitals. With a group of doctors and activists, he participated in the foundation of a local healthcare NGO in South Korea, Beautiful Life, that aimed to reduce social exclusion and health inequalities and provided visit care for the socially isolated elderly. Before he joined the UCL Anthropology, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Korean Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He received his M.D. in 2008 and M.A. (Anthropology) in 2012 from Seoul National University and PhD in Anthropology in 2018 from Stanford University.
Makerere University is a key partner in Work Package 3, having conducted a Vulnerability Assessment in Kampala on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic. This assessment entailed 100 interviews, notably with refugees from several neighboring countries around Uganda who are currently living in Kampala refugee settlements. Findings from this Vulnerability Assessment will be reported to key, multi-level, multi-sectoral stakeholders in Uganda, as part of Work Package 4. Stakeholders will work together to develop concrete policies in response to vulnerabilities identified.
The Regional (West Africa) Research and Training Center on HIV and Infectious Diseases at Fann (Centre Régional de Recherche et de Formation sur le VIH et les maladies infectieuses de Fann, CRCF), Dakar, Senegal, is a Senegalese center supported by French institutions (IRD, IMEA, ANRS). It develops multi-disciplinary studies on outbreaks, particularly with a social science and public health perspective.
CRCF Website
CRCF leads Work Package 5 (Capacity Building) with AIGHD. CRCF has led the curriculum development to train social scientists and non-social sciences actors in epidemic preparedness and response. The SPECIAL-SOC Epidemics training can be found and downloaded on the Sonar-Global website. In addition, CRCF is also the Regional Hub for SoNAR-GLOBAL in West and Central Africa, with the support of Réseau Anthropologie des Epidémies Emergentes (Anthropology and Emerging Epidemics Network, RAEE). This regional hub has actively developed collaborative trainings and networking across institutions.
Pr Alice Desclaux, MD and Prof in medical anthropology, is a senior researcher at Institut de Recherche pour le Développement based at CRCF in the Public health and Social science Team.
Dr Khoudia Sow, MD and PhD in anthropology, is the head of the ‘Public health and Social science Team’.
Dr Karim Diop, pharmacist specialised in public health, is the General Secretary of CRCF.
Mariam Ballo Boyon is graduated from Paris 8 University and from Aix-Marseille Université in Aix-En-Provence, France. With a Bachelor Degree in Sociology and a Master Degree in Anthropology of Sustainable development, she is involved on covid-19 projects, studying the social effects of information including infodemia, community mobilization and perceptions of the Senegalese population about covid-19 and vaccine. She is also certified as an infodemic manager by WHO. She is now involved in Sonar-Global project at CRCF in Dakar, Senegal, and still doing operational research on covid-19.
The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is an independent global institution for research, teaching and learning, and impact and communications, based at the University of Sussex, UK. IDS works with its global partners to deliver and share high quality research and knowledge, and offers first class teaching and learning programmes aimed at producing a new generation of development thought, policy and practice leaders. Since the West African Ebola epidemic, the IDS has been at the forefront of social science in epidemics, combining long running research programmes with preparedness and response through the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform and the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform.
IDS Website
IDS contributes to Work Packages 1 and 5. In the context of Work Package 1, it has conducted a review of the governance of epidemics and of AMR. This review has focused particularly on the governance of these infectious threats in Uganda, Bangladesh, and Ukraine so that its findings have been relevant to our partners and other work packages. In addition, IDS has been involved in capacity strengthening activities of Work Package 5. Specifically, IDS has spearheaded the Incident-SOC podcasts, which have focused on diverse social and political dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as on the contributions of the social sciences to understanding and acting on AMR.
Dr Annie Wilkinson studied Anthropology (BSc) at University College London, Health Sciences (MSc) at the University of York and Science and Technology Policy (PhD) at the University of Sussex’s Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU). Her PhD was an ethnography of the development and use of diagnostics for Lassa fever in Sierra Leone. Her research and engagement activities include: zoonotic disease; epidemic preparedness and response; drug resistance; and urban health. She has been at the Institute for Development Studies since 2013, and a Research fellow since 2016.
Dr Hayley MacGregor originally trained as a medical doctor in South Africa, at the University of Cape Town, and worked clinically in the Eastern Cape Province. She pursued further studies in Social Anthropology and completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2003 on the experience of mental disturbance in a low-income urban settlement in South Africa. Her research interests include emerging infectious disease; the anthropology of antimicrobial resistance; informality in health provision; and concepts of care and chronicity in responses to lifelong illness, principally HIV. Her primary ethnographic work has been in South Africa, but she has been involved in work elsewhere in Africa, and in SE Asia. She has been a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies since 2007 and co-leads the Health and Nutrition research cluster. She retains clinical registration with the General Medical Council of the UK, and the Health Professional Council of South Africa.
The CENSIS Foundation (Centre for Social Studies and Policies), since 1964, carries out a steady and inclusive activity of research, counseling and technical assistance in the socio-economic fields. For what concerns in particular Health and Welfare Area, Censis has investigated into all areas of social, economic, institutional and organizational interest regarding health, patients’ attitudes, opinions and behaviours, and healthcare policies. Main tasks are the coordination of the Italian research team and the fieldwork for VA and CE (Pilot and survey). For the CE activities Censis will collaborate with the Department Experimental Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome (In-Kind contributor).
Censis Website
CENSIS is a key partner in Work Package 7. It has implemented a Vulnerability Assessment in Rome and in a rural region in proximity to Rome. Currently engaged in analysis of this assessment, CENSIS is working with Sapienza University and with multi-sectoral, multilevel stakeholders to develop policies in response to the vulnerabilities identified. CENSIS will also contribute to a comparative analysis of all European Vulnerability Assessments.
Since 1995 she has been Head of the Health and Welfare area at the Censis Foundation.Expert in social policies and evaluation,her research activity is mainly focused on health policy, disease conditions,social determinants of health, family and women conditions, ageing society,poverty and social communication.She is President of the Evaluation board at Kore University of Enna,President of the Health Web Observatory (HWO),Vice president of the Italian Barometer Diabetes Observatory (IBDO Foundation),Vice president deputy to the Data Analysis Board of the The Health City Institute (HCI).She participated in several institutional tables and is author of many publications and papers in scientific journals.
First class degree in Literature Graduated with 110/110 with honors. Since 1990 Researcher at the Censis Foundation. Main Activities and responsibilities: planning, promotion and coordination of the research activities of the Social Policies Area; responsibility of the foundation’s activities and of the institute’s external relations; participation at the European research projects.
Statistician at the Data Processing Center of the Censis Foundation since 2002. Main Activities: conducting field surveys: sample creation and results processing, statistical analysis of structural data to analyse particular phenomena and socio-economic mappings, through the statistical elaboration of data extracted from institutional databases with the methodologies most suited to the research objectives (from simple elaborations to multivariate analysis techniques).
Degree in Political Sciences, Post-graduate course on Journalism at the Luiss University. Since 1996, researcher a the Censis Foundation. Since 2008 she has been working at the Press Office of the Foundation. Main activities: media relations, external relations, collaboration on publishing activities, support the organization of the events related with the Foundation activities, social media manager.
LMU is a key partner in Work Package 7. It has implemented a Vulnerability Assessment in Munich and in rural areas outside of the city. LMU is working with multi-sectoral, multilevel stakeholders to develop policies in response to the vulnerabilities identified. LMU will also make contributions to the comparative analysis of all European Vulnerability Assessments.
Lying at the cross-roads of the Mediterranean, UM has been, over its 400-year history, the hub for international academic exchange on the island. UM is the leading higher education institution in Malta. At UM we carry out research and provide a vibrant higher education setting in the arts, sciences and the humanities as required for Malta’s economic, social and cultural development. Our courses are designed to produce highly-qualified professionals in multiple disciplines. Our alumni community is growing exponentially: well over 3,500 students graduate in various disciplines annually. UM is composed of fourteen faculties. The language of instruction is English.
University of Malta Website
The University of Malta makes important contributions to Work Package 7, having carried out a Vulnerability Assessment in Valletta. Currently engaged in analysis of this assessment, the team is working with the Maltese Ministry of Health and with multi-sectoral, multilevel stakeholders to develop policies to the vulnerabilities identified in their investigation. The University of Malta will contribute to a comparative analysis of all European Vulnerability Assessments
Dr. Baldacchino has worked extensively in the field of psychological anthropology. He is a fellow of the Australian Anthropology Society and a member of the editorial Board of the Australian Journal of Anthropology. Beyond heading the Department of Anthropology he is also currently serving as the Director of the University’s Mediterranean Institute as well as Chairman of the board for the Malta University Press. He has conducted fieldwork in Malta, Italy, Australia and South Korea researching the anthropology of religion, emotions, popular culture, psychoanalysis and ethnicity. He is also a warranted psychotherapist.
Dr. Gisella Orsini is a lecturer of the Department of Anthropological Sciences at the University of Malta, and a Research Associate of the Mediterranean Institute – University of Malta. She obtained her PhD from the University of Malta with a thesis on Eating Disorders in Malta and Italy. Her research interests include gender and health, medical anthropology, body and culture, eating disorders.
I received my PhD in Anthropology from Durham University (2015). I have been involved in field research in Sri Lanka and South Asia since 2005, focusing primarily on post-disaster recovery, resilience and development, as well as on political factionalism and the political economy of the southern coastal region of Sri Lanka.I have also conducted research – and been involved in numerous projects – dealing with disaster preparedness and crisis-response across mainland Europe and the Mediterranean region, particularly cross-border crises and sudden-onset urban disasters. My recent research has focused on the extreme-right in Malta and tensions between private/public interests over land.
Adrian Camilleri is a Maltese anthropologist & filmmaker. As an anthropologist he has conducted research on several subjects such as graffiti in Malta, Ghana Maltese Folk Music in Malta, place and identity in England, and is currently researching the semiotics and representation of death in Malta. Adrian’s practice as an ethnographic filmmaker is characterized by the idea of ethnofiction. Some of his films were selected to be shown at the Valletta Film Festival, Nepal International Film Festival, Open City Documentary Festival London, Encounters Film Festival Bristol.
Gabriel Zammit graduated with a first-class degree in philosophy from the University of Malta (2016). He went on to do a Masters with the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University. Zammit specialised in aesthetics with a dissertation which explored non-rational truth in art, within the context of the Kantian sublime and the literature of WG Sebald. His latest paper “From Paris to Skyros” (Melita Classica 2021) examines the dialectics of creativity in relation to the influence of the Classical world on Modern Art. Zammit also works as an independent curator and project manager.
The University of Ljubljana (UL) is the oldest, largest, and internationally best-ranked university in Slovenia, being among the top 500 universities according to the ARWU. The university was founded in 1919 and encompasses 23 faculties, 3 art academies, and 3 associated members. UL has the membership in EUTOPIA, CELSA, Guild, LERU-CE7, Utrecht Network, EUA, and others. The Faculty of Arts of UL is a research-intensive faculty with regard to the humanities and social science. Research work, which is the pillar of the development of the Faculty, facilitates numerous interconnections and leads into cross-disciplinary research that addresses national and global challenges.
Website
The University of Ljubljana, another key partner in Work Package 7, has implemented a Vulnerability Assessment in two parts of the country, in Ljubljana and Murska Sobota with surroundings. Currently engaged in the analysis of this assessment, the team has considerable experience in community engagement. It is working with multi-sectoral, multilevel stakeholders to develop policies to the vulnerabilities identified in their investigation. The University of Ljubljana will contribute to a comparative analysis of all European Vulnerability Assessments.
Neža is a researcher at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, where she conducts research in the field of medical anthropology and migration. Her focus is work and employment of refugees. She is currently researching vulnerability and health inequality connected to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Uršula Lipovec Čebron is an associate professor and deputy head of the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, where she lectures courses at B.A. and M.A. level. Her research interests are in the areas of anthropology of migration and medical anthropology. She has conducted fieldwork in different localities (in Slovenia, Balkans, Argentina and Chile) and is engaged in national as well as international projects. In her recent scientific articles, she deals mainly with health aspects of migration as well as cultural and other barriers to healthcare access. For more see:
The University of Sapienza is working in collaboration with CENSIS in Work Package 7 and with multi-sectoral, multilevel stakeholders to develop policies in response to the vulnerabilities identified in the Vulnerability Assessment.
UNIL collaborates with partners in Work Package 7. Following the comparative analysis of the results of the Vulnerability Assessments in all European countries, UNIL will hold a series of meetings with diverse stakeholders, health/social science professionals, and medical/public health postgraduate students (Swiss Hospital for Equity network, the Equity Hub, and the Summer School on Health Equity). Results from Vulnerability Assessments will be presented, and participants will reflect on health equity priorities policies in response to the vulnerabilities identified.
The H2020 MOOD project aims to harness state-of-the-art big data mining and analysis techniques to improve detection, monitoring and assessment of infectious disease (re-)emergence in Europe.
To this end, MOOD will establish a “one serves all” framework and visualization platform to generate (near) real-time analysis and interpretation of epidemiological and gene sequence data in combination with climate, environmental and socio-economic covariates under an integrated, inter-sectorial and interdisciplinary “One Health” approach.
Mood H2020 Website
The MOOD network, funded by the European Commission, is contributing to Work Package 7. Researchers from the MOOD network will assist UCL, IP, CENSIS, and LMU to scale up findings from Vulnerability Assessments in France, Italy, and Germany to larger datasets.
Veterinary epidemiologist, with 20-year experience in field research, mostly in Africa and Madagascar. Currently based in Montpellier (France) working on livestock infectious diseases of tropical origin (peste des petits ruminants, Rift Valley fever…) and their vectors (tsetse flies, biting midges, ticks, …).
Veterinary epidemiologist with a demonstrated history of working in the research industry. Skilled in risk-based surveillance, data science, emerging infectious diseases. A PhD in Digital Disease Surveillance from Paris-Sud University (Paris XI), Faculty of medicine.
Aarhus University collaborates with partners in Work Package 7. Following the comparative analysis of results from the Vulnerability Assessments in the five European countries, Aarhus University will organize a meeting to examine the expansion of this tool and its associated Community Engagement in Denmark as well as in other countries around the world, particularly those in which the global project Cities Changing Diabetes is functioning.
The Ministry of Health in Malta is working in collaboration with the University of Malta in Work Package 7, bringing together multi-sectoral, multilevel stakeholders to develop policies in response to the vulnerabilities identified in the Vulnerability Assessment.
The National Institute of Public Health - Nacionalni inštitut za javno zdravje (NIPH) is the central Slovenian institution with a main purpose to educate, protect and enhance the health of the population of the Republic of Slovenia by means of raising awareness and other preventive measures. The NIPH contributes to new solutions by participating in numerous international public health projects and is attentive to researching health inequalities, barriers (including linguistic and cultural) in access to healthcare and cultural competences for healthcare professionals.
NIJZ Website
The NIJZ, Slovenia’s national institute of public health, is working in collaboration with the University of Ljubljana in Work Package 7. Its role is to help facilitate community engagement through multiple stakeholders, who will develop policies in response to the vulnerabilities identified in the Vulnerability Assessment.
Ivanka Huber is a research assistant (Phd in sociology) at the Department of Prevention and Promotion Programmes Management, National Institute of Public Health, where she works in the field of health inequalities, her focus is on vulnerable groups and community approach to promote health and reduce health inequalities in the local community. She has participated in various national and international projects
