Kudos
Kunnskapsdokumenter i offentlig sektor

Kartlegging

Program Plan: Research for sustainable improvements in health in low and middle-income countries Global Health and Vaccination Research – GLOBVAC

Globally, less than 10% of the public and private expenditure on health research is devoted to the health problems in developing countries that are responsible for 90% of the global health problems. In Norway this proportion was until recently estimated to be only 5%. A research programme in global health and vaccination research (GLOBVAC) has been established at the Research Council of Norway, with an overall aim of strengthening and expanding research that can contribute to sustainable improvements in health in low- and middle-income countries. This will be achieved through i) developing knowledge and tools to combat the major disease burden in these countries; ii) developing and strengthening of sustainable Norwegian public and private research groups and institutions; iii) developing and strengthening of international collaboration; iv) developing and strengthening of partnerships with research groups and institutions in low- and middle-income countries to secure capacity building. This programme currently (2007) has annual budgets of 15 million NOK for global health research and 50 million NOK for vaccination research, respectively. This important increase in funding, although still a relatively modest contribution, to global health and vaccination research in Norway provides an opportunity to building Norwegian research expertise in this field that is very timely and in line with international efforts. Continued and increased funding to global health research through the Research Council of Norway and other institutions, beyond the current time frame of the GLOBVAC programme and in accordance with the government’s commitment to a substantial investment in vaccination research until 2015, is needed to ensure sustainability for this type of research in Norway and in particular for the partners in low- and middle- income countries.