Uppsala Health Summit announces travel grants for journalists to participate in summit on global infectious disease threats

Uppsala Health Summit has decided to offer four travel grants for journalists who would not otherwise be able to attend the summit on 9–11 October 2017 at Uppsala Castle, Sweden. The theme of this year’s summit is Tackling Infectious Disease Threats: Prevent, detect, respond with a One Health approach.

Uppsala Health Summit is an international arena whose overall purpose is to enable research and innovations to improve health and healthcare globally. Uppsala Health Summit has decided to offer four travel grants, worth a maximum of SEK 10 000 (approx. EUR 1 100) each, to enable journalists to attend this annual summit on international health and connect with experts and decision-makers in the field.

Uppsala Health Summit is an annual international arena for frank and challenging dialogue between 200 personally invited decision-makers, opinion-builders and experts on how we can use knowledge from research and innovations for better health and healthcare globally. Each year the Summit focuses on one challenge to health and healthcare. Delegates come from policy-making, healthcare, industry, civil society and academia.

Uppsala Health Summit’s overall goal is to enable change. Most global health challenges, such as infectious disease threats, are complex both to understand and to act on. Reaching out to society with a nuanced understanding of global health challenges, and with an awareness of solutions and dilemmas, will contribute to a constructive policy discussion. The media play an important role in how society understands global health threats and solutions.

The media play an important role in driving change today, but too few journalists have an opportunity to build in-depth insights into complex societal challenges, such as today’s infectious disease threats and the many drivers behind them. Uppsala Health Summit is an opportunity for journalists who want to meet a variety of stakeholders with different perspectives on the problem in focus and with broad insights into the health policy agenda, and to build a solid knowledge base on specific health challenges.

“As we value media reporting on complex health challenges, but see that few journalists have the resources to travel to a meeting like this one, we decided to set aside funding this year for four journalists who would otherwise be unable to attend,” says Uppsala Health Summit’s project manager Madeleine Neil.

The travel grant will be offered without any obligation to report from the Summit, and grantees will be selected by a committee with long-standing experience of science and media relations.

Information on how to apply is available on Uppsala Health Summit’s website. The last day for applications is 31 July 2017.

The Summit on 9–11 October 2017 – Tackling infectious disease threats:
Despite remarkable gains in health over the last century, infectious diseases remain a major threat. Alarming reports on outbreaks of Zika, Ebola or avian flu serve as reminders of the gravity of the situation. At the high-level meeting Uppsala Health Summit, international experts will gather from different sectors to discuss how to reduce or at least manage the threats.
Around 75% of all new infectious diseases are zoonotic, which means they are naturally transmitted between people and animals.

Due to a number of interrelated drivers such as intensified animal production, climate change, population growth and our international travel, the risk of outbreaks is increasing. Antimicrobial resistance adds a serious extra dimension.
The programme will contribute perspectives and experiences from different parts of the world and different sectors, for example research, industry and policy. Inspiring lectures will be mixed with workshops.

Speakers at the summit include Dr Pierre Formenty, team lead in the WHO Emerging and Dangerous Pathogens Team; anthropologist Dr Paul Richards, author of Ebola: How a people’s science helped end an epidemic; Peter Daszak, Director of the NGO EcoHealth Alliance, which leads research into ecosystems, wildlife health and solutions that promote conservation and prevent outbreaks; and the Chief Veterinary Officer of The Netherlands, Christianne Bruschke, who will share their country’s One Health approach.
The Summit takes place at Uppsala Castle, Sweden, a venue for high-level gatherings since the 16th century. Uppsala Castle is located in Uppsala, 30 minutes north of Stockholm Arlanda International Airport.

Uppsala Health Summit is a collaboration led by Uppsala University, and includes the Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Uppsala Region, the Medical Products Agency, the National Veterinary Institute, the National Food Agency, Uppsala Monitoring Centre, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare – Forte, the City of Uppsala and the network Worldclass Uppsala.

Previous summits have been themed:
• Healthcare for healthy ageing (2014)
• A world without antibiotics (2015)
• Ending childhood obesity (2016)

For more information, please contact:
Madeleine Neil, project manager Uppsala Health Summit, tel +46 (0)18 471 19 37, madeleine.neil@uadm.uu.se