New training program “Research Training on Harnessing Data Science for Global Health Priorities in Africa”

A new training program, “Research Training on Harnessing Data Science for Global Health Priorities in Africa” has been granted by the US National Institute of Health (NIH) and will build upon existing data science research capacity at the partnering institutions to enhance innovative new data science research capacity related to health priorities in Africa.

Harvard University (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) will lead the training collaboration with Heidelberg University (Heidelberg Institute for Global Health – HIGH and GIScience Research Group, Institute of Geography), and in support of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) as a hub with four partners in sub-Saharan African countries, namely Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda.

This program will bring together a multidisciplinary team of researchers and expert faculty with in-depth experience in data science methods and two selected domain fields identified as global health priorities:

(i) health systems strengthening, and

(ii) food systems, climate change and planetary health.

The program will advance training in data science and leverage methods training to address policy-relevant questions in these two research domains. The research training program will be structured to provide an appropriate balance of short, medium, and long-term training opportunities for participants from South Africa and the four mentioned countries in Africa in the ARISE Network. The long-term goal of this training program is to develop and instill advanced data skilled researchers in health data science in Africa through a rigorous curriculum and set of training and research activities designed to address the health needs of African countries.

This collaboration strengthens the existing collaboration between GIScience Research Group at Heidelberg University and the Heidelberg Institute for Global Health and the work at HeiGIT related to health and climate change, e.g. analysing healthcare access around the globe and especially in Africa.

Selected related work:

Geldsetzer, P.; Reinmuth, M.; Ouma, P. O., Lautenbach, S.; Okiro E. A.; Bärnighausen, T.; Zipf, A. Mapping physical access to health care for older adults in sub-Saharan Africa and implications for the COVID-19 response: a cross-sectional analysis. The Lancet Healthy Longevity. 2020;1(1):e32-e42.