New institute established at Heller School
The Schneider Institutes and the Programs in Sustainable International Development at Brandeis are collaborating to create an Institute for Global Health and Development, a research institute housed within the Heller School for Social Policy and Management designed to garner information that will help policymakers increase their focus on the impoverished, wrote Prof. Allyala Nandakumar (Heller), who will serve as the director of the institute, in an e-mail to the Justice. The Institute will be the third housed under the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy at the Heller School. The other two institutes are the Institute on Healthcare Systems and the Institute for Behavioral Health, according to the Schneider Institutes website. Nandakumar explained in an interview with the Justice that Provost Marty Krauss approved the establishment of the institute this month, but that he is working with Vice President of Global Affairs Daniel Terris to plan a campuswide launch event in the fall that will highlight the institute's main objectives. Nandakumar said the institute's website would be launched May 15.
The mission of the institute, according to a PowerPoint presentation Nandakumar gave to the Heller School's Board of Overseers on Jan. 29, of which he provided a copy to the Justice, is "to bring the best research in global health and development to leaders and policymakers who can use the knowledge to achieve results at scale with a focus on the poor and social justice."
Nandakumar presented information about the institute at the April 15 faculty meeting.
Nandakumar wrote in his e-mail about the idea for the institute that the Heller School offers a Master of Arts in Sustainable International Development, a Master of Science in International Health Policy and Management and a Ph.D. concentration in Global Health and Development, but that the institute is designed to consolidate all research initiatives.
"What we are doing is pulling together a community of researchers interested in this topic, both in global health and across the University. When we put out proposals going forward, the institute will become the focal point, and the institute can put the best teams together," he explained.
Research projects that are currently under way, according to Nandakumar, include evaluating the investments in the maternal child health program in Egypt, researching what can be done to ensure the sustainability of these investments in the future and researching why investments in reducing mortality rates from malaria have not produced that outcome.
Prof. Stanley Wallack (Heller), the executive director of the Schneider Institutes, said in an interview with the Justice that the establishment of a doctoral concentration in Global Health and Development reinforced the need for a research institute in this area. He explained that a research institute creates a different model for how to do research in a given field.
The PowerPoint presentation states that the institute will focus on channeling its research into certain geographical regions such as Nigeria, where the institute will work with the Office of the President on programming debt relief funds; India, where it will work with the Gates Foundation on creating a maternal and neonatal program; China, where it will work on combating HIV/AIDS; and Rwanda.
Nandakumar explained that the institute is initially focusing on these specific areas because the research environment is competitive in terms of obtaining grants, and members of the Heller School have previous experience working with these countries.
"We want to build off expertise we already have in these areas," he said. He went on to explain that the institute would increase its' geographical scope as it expanded in size.
When asked about the financial costs of the institute, Nandakumar responded that the institute would essentially be funded through grants provided for its research.
He wrote that the institute has already obtained $2 million in research grants, and he would like it to grow by $500,000 annually.
Nandakumar said he is in the process of formulating a fundraising strategy, but it is in the formative stages.
"This is an ambitious target given the current global economic environment and the competitive nature of the market place. However given the outstanding faculty and researchers both at Heller and Brandeis we are optimistic of achieving our goals," he wrote.
Wallack said he was very optimistic about the success of the institute.
"We are starting off with a good set of projects, and we will build from there, and we will be able to leverage what we have," he said.
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