The SIGHT Fellows Programme in interdisciplinary global health research, 2021–2022, funded by Sida, has empowered ten mid-career researchers from eight nationalities and six Swedish universities, with expertise in climate and environment, peace and conflict, and child health, to address health inequities globally, focusing on the most vulnerable in low and lower-middle-income countries.
Fellows have improved their interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration skills, widened their networks, and strengthened their home institutions’ engagement in interdisciplinary global health research. They have engaged in:
- Project development, “The health impact of climate change and loss of biodiversity on women, children and the indigenous population and the co-creation of local adaptation strategies in Bangladesh”, in collaboration with International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, icddr,b.
- Scientific writing
- In passing on interdisciplinary knowledge and discussions at global health conferences, such as the Development Research Conference (DevRes) 2022 and the Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) 2023.
Simultaneously, Fellows have acted as innovative disrupters at their home universities, reviewing home institutions’ strategies and policies to address steps in facilitating interdisciplinary global health work on a larger scale within and between universities and beyond. Several Fellows have, indirectly through the Programme and with the support of their local mentors, taken on new positions at universities to further drive the transformative global health work.
Fellows have become change agents in interdisciplinary global health research yet also creators of a community to which national and international global health actors have felt privileged to be invited. Together they have discussed and acted upon necessary transformations as equal partners contributing to solving the grand challenges in global health through a UN 2030 Agenda perspective: To drive change, be courageous, creative, optimistic, and persevere!
We want to thank the Fellows, mentors, all guests visiting the Programme, the SIGHT University Network, the Fellows Steering Committee, and Sida for enabling the success of this second cohort.
The SIGHT Fellows Management Team
Göran Tomson, Lars Åke Persson and Gabriella Hök
