First Joint Scientific Meeting With ISGlobal, CREAL and CISM in Mozambique

A strategy meeting on 4 and 5 March in the Mozambican town of Manhiça brought together researchers and managers from the Manhiça Health Research Centre (CISM), the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL).  One of the objectives of this gathering was to share and discuss the scientific agendas of the three centres and to seek synergies between the Mozambican centre and its Barcelona partners. This was the first time that CREAL, which will complete its merger with ISGlobal in June this year, has participated in the joint scientific meeting with CISM.

The event, involving over 50 researchers, kicked off with brief presentations describing each centre’s current strategic plan and giving an account of their achievements over the last three years. Following this introductory session, the principal investigators from each centre presented the advances, challenges and future prospects in their respective areas of work. Time was set aside to discuss the ongoing cooperation between Mozambique and Barcelona in training programmes and to explore opportunities for future research collaborations.

The areas of research discussed during the two-day meeting included malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, antibiotic resistance, maternal and perinatal health, and exposure to chemicals and air pollution.

It would appear that 2016 is a year of significant anniversaries, with CISM celebrating its 20th year of operations, CREAL its 10th  and ISGlobal its 5th . However, as the professionals from Barcelona who played a decisive role in the creation of CISM went on to set up ISGlobal, the collaboration between the two institutes has actually been a reality for two decades.