Global Health Institute Awards Seed Grants, Celebrates Merger

Madison, Wisconsin - Eight research projects ranging from human and animal disease to agriculture to economic growth will move forward with start-up funding as part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's focus on global health.

The grantees will be recognized Thursday, October 27, at an event launching the Global Health Institute, a merger of the Center for Global Health and Global Health Initiative.

"The Institute's mission is to tackle the root problems of human health, and to do that requires an unprecedented, multi-faceted approach to these problems," said Jonathan Patz, population health professor and director of the Global Health Institute. "So it is really exciting to be able to find engineers, economists, agriculture and veterinary and medical science ready to step up to these challenges."

Among the winners was Leonelo Bautista, assistant professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He was awarded a grant for "Hypertension Awareness, Treatment and Control in Latin America."

See the complete list of grantees.

More than two dozen proposals were submitted as part of the global health Incubator, a series of events in the spring aimed at sparking collaborative and multi-disciplinary research that takes a holistic approach to problem-solving.

"We want a modus operandi of going into situations with diverse expertise and multiple perspectives, so that we're more likely to catch unforeseen problems," Patz said. "Solutions for one problem that cause other, unintended problems are neither desirable nor sustainable solutions. What's required is a fully inclusive, all-hands-on-deck approach. UW-Madison is the best place on earth to launch such an effort."

The public is welcome at the Institute's launch event, which will run from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the H.F. DeLuca Forum in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, 330 N. Orchard St.

Provost Paul M. DeLuca Jr. and Patz will introduce the new Global Health Institute and the seed grant proposal winners describe their research plans.

Registration for the event is not required, but requested.