Fiocruz signs cooperation agreement with Institute of Global Health of Barcelona

The Presidency of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) signed, on April 20, an international cooperation agreement with the Institute of Global Health of Barcelona (ISGlobal), to establish the basis to implement a joint work plan for the upcoming years. The two institutions have worked together at previous occasions in different research projects and scientific publications. However, the new Memorandum of Understanding formalizes the association and strengthens the intention of the institutions to promote public health and collaboration in important fields, such as neglected tropical diseases, especially Chagas and malaria, communicable diseases, urban health, arbovirus diseases, tuberculosis, HIV, maternal health, infant health, reproductive health, and COVID-19. 

The online event was presented in English by the coordinator of the Inova Fiocruz Program, Milton Moraes, and was attended by Fiocruz president, Nísia Trindade Lima, ISGlobal director, Antoni Plasència, vice-presidents of Research and Biological Collections, Rodrigo Correa, of Production and Innovation in Health, Marco Krieger, of Education, Information and Communication, Cristiani Machado, and by Fiocruz researcher Margareth Dalcomo, who lectured on the post-pandemic future. 

President Nísia Trindade Lima highlighted the response ability of both institutions at this moment. “The ISGlobal and Fiocruz partnership will further strengthen a work that already exists. During this phase of the COVID-19, the challenges are new and we still have the old ones. Our mission continues”. 

For ISGlobal director, Antoni Plasància, the work carried out by the Spanish institution in Latin America will be expanded through this agreement with Fiocruz. “This new step shows that the global partnership is changing and we have a team of scientists generating knowledge. We will consolidate this result, and for this purpose different teams of our institutions already work together. We will now focus on interdisciplinarity and work with an institution as significant as Fiocruz. 

The cooperation between Fiocruz and ISGlobal will make it possible to develop a significant and effective platform to share knowledge through the institutions’ respective networks, which will support new associations between researchers, not only in the areas initially agreed upon, but in many other in the future.”