Antoni Plasència
General Director
2020: Endurance and Adaptation
2020 was a year of crisis and turmoil for the entire world. For ISGlobal it was also a year of adaptation and resilience, during which we strived to ensure the health and well-being of all our staff. But it was, as well, a defining occasion to accomplish our role as a global health institution, and help address the COVID-19 crisis at the global and local level through more than 30 new research projects, a wide variety of policy actions, and different training activities.
Denise Naniche
Scientific Director
Antoni Plasència
General Director
2020: Endurance and Adaptation
2020 was a year of crisis and turmoil for the entire world. For ISGlobal it was also a year of adaptation and resilience, during which we strived to ensure the health and well-being of all our staff. But it was, as well, a defining occasion to accomplish our role as a global health institution, and help address the COVID-19 crisis at the global and local level through more than 30 new research projects, a wide variety of policy actions, and different training activities.
Denise Naniche
Scientific Director
Progress beyond COVID-19
Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, we maintained our global health research priorities and pursued our mission of promoting health equity through excellence in research and knowledge translation. It was a year of growth, change and opportunity beyond COVID-19.
2020 brought growth. We published nearly 500 scientific papers, of which the majority were in Q1 journals. We were granted several large projects on infectious disease prevention and treatment, maternal and child health, life course exposures and health, and nature-based solutions for health.
2020 brought change. This was the first- and complicated- year for the transition of our Scientific Direction. It was also the first year of our renewed strategic plan, and of the implementation of our Severo Ochoa Programme accreditation under the leadership of Manolis Kogevinas. This included the deployment of three new strategic areas: Health Impact Assessment, Data Science and eHealth as well as building the bridges between the three groups and our existing portfolio of excellence and leadership in: (i) malaria and other infectious diseases, (ii) maternal and child health, and (iii) urban health, climate and non-communicable diseases. We continued with the full implementation of our scientific career track model and a new external evaluation cycle of our faculty. For our education and training team, 2020 also meant adapting to online teaching and learning formats, which allowed to develop new online content.
2020 brought opportunities. Under the auspices of the Severo Ochoa program, we pioneered the establishment of an air quality monitoring station in Mozambique in collaboration with the Centro de Investigaçao em Saude de Manhiça. Through large implementation science projects, we opened new avenues in the global strategy for malaria elimination. We also significantly expanded our immunology facilities and activities in infectious diseases. And, we are exploiting new opportunities towards integrating concepts of built environment for health into urban planning.
Steps ahead
Growth entails taking new steps forward and adjusting priorities to ensure a balanced and effective model of excellence and impact. We have built a 3×3 strategy whereby we will continue to promote synergies between the three new strategic groups and our three flagship areas of excellence. At the same time, we will explore new opportunities to further expand the translational and educational components of our research and innovation contributions. The current socioeconomic context will challenge us to keep attracting and retaining the best talent, while also planning for effective succession and evolutionary organizational actions. The consolidation of our governance and global partnerships will be key in helping us address these challenges, while keeping track of the new opportunities that the rapidly changing global landscape will bring.
We thank all of you for the support, the hard work and dedication during this challenging year during which, more than ever, the term global health equity acquired its full meaning.
