AMMAN —
The Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) and the University of
California San Diego received $3 million in research funding from the US
National Institutes of Health for their GeoHealth Hub project, according to the
Jordan News Agency, Petra.
اضافة اعلان
The GeoHealth Hub
Climate Change and Health in MENA project is a collaborative initiative between
three US universities and three universities from the MENA region to generate
evidence for policies to minimize adverse health impacts of climate change in
the region through state-of-the-art approaches.
The project
focuses on climate-sensitive environmental risks, such as nitrate pollution,
heat waves, desert dust, and air pollution. The hub’s overall activities aim to
strengthen different stakeholders’ capacity to develop and use evidence-based
and cost-effective interventions, according to the NIH’s Fogarty International
Center website.
JUST President
Khalid el-Salem told Petra that the university is a leading researcher in the
MENA region, noting that the research, which received the funding, was
subjected to a national and international evaluation.
The hub’s
director, Fayez Abdullah, said the collaborators include three US universities,
namely the University of California San Diego, Harvard University, and the
University of California, Berkeley. The three MENA universities are JUST,
Lebanon’s University of Balamand, and Morocco’s Mohammed VI University of
Health Sciences.
Abdullah, who is
also a JUST professor, pointed out that the project is expected to provide
Masters’ program scholarships for 25 students at the university, and training
grants at the three US universities.
Additionally, the
hub seeks to build institutional capacities by adding environmental health
programs at the MENA universities, in cooperation with the US universities, and
conducting research on the effects of climate change on health.
He explained that an
annual conference on climate change effects on health will be held, in addition
to training programs, workshops, visits to the US, and webinars to boost the
capabilities of researchers in MENA.
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