Wellcome plans for a Berlin office to focus on tackling global health challenges

Credit: Michael Jin/Unsplash
Berlin is an international centre for global health, research, innovation and culture.

LONDON, 12-Oct-2018 — /EuropaWire/ — Wellcome is planning to open a small office in Berlin so that we can work more closely with our international partners, tackling global health challenges such as epidemic preparedness and drug-resistant infections.

The German capital is a leading international centre for global health, research, innovation and culture. As a global foundation, Wellcome wants to be part of this exciting hub, and we want to explore new ideas and opportunities.

In recent years, the German government has doubled its spending on international aid.

And under its presidency of the G7 and G20, it has driven significant progress on both epidemic preparedness and tackling drug-resistant infections, which are priorities for Wellcome.

The initial focus of the Berlin office will be to explore how we can work with partners in these areas.

We already have several relationships with the German government and other German institutions:

• CEPI(opens in a new tab) – the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations – is a global public-private-philanthropic partnership to fast-track the development of new vaccines for epidemic diseases.
• The Global AMR Research & Development Hub was set up to invigorate antibiotic research and encourage greater global involvement and investment.
• Together Science Can(opens in a new tab) is a global campaign to unite researchers and institutes around the world to protect international scientific collaboration.
• The International Advisory Board for Global Health(opens in a new tab) was set up by the German government to discuss solutions for AMR and other health challenges.

In October 2018, we will be in Berlin to take part in Grand Challenges(opens in a new tab) and the World Health Summit(opens in a new tab). These forums allow us to meet stakeholders and decision makers from across Germany and the global health community.

Our activities in Germany will be overseen by a small team, including:

• Caroline Schmutte, Germany Office Lead
• Megan Challis, Policy Manager
• Jennifer Quandt, Policy Advisor

The team will be based in Berlin from January 2019. To find out more about our plans, contact J.Quandt@wellcome.ac.uk.

SOURCE: Wellcome Trust

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