The Year Ahead
Professor Anna Vassall Executive Director
In 2023, AIGHD will focus on reviewing its strategy to ensure AIGHD remains a strong actor in global health for the next decade; whilst continuing to explore new research and teaching opportunities post-Covid.
Diana Numan
Director for Operations
Anna Vassall
Executive Director
Constance Schultsz
Director for Science
Our New Executive Board
A new executive board will start work in the first quarter to deliver innovative and impactful science, a strong educational and capacity strengthening programme, and organizational effectiveness.
The opening up of AIGHD following two years of physical closure offers an opportunity to re-invigorate the community of researchers working in Amsterdam on global health and development; and to continue to evolve our fellow’s programme, facilitating new areas of work, and inter-disciplinary collaboration. We will drive forward co-operation with other institutions in The Netherlands and Europe, working together to encourage sustained and impactful investment by European governments in global health research. Critically, AIGHD will develop strategy and actions to ensure our partnerships with all actors in global health are conducted in an equitable way, recognising underlying and historical power dynamics, and respecting and encouraging diversity in the global health research community.
Providing an environment where global health researchers from different perspectives and disciplines can interact and work together remains pivotal to AIGHD’s mission. In 2023, we will continue expanding our ‘workplace’ for researchers and educators as a way of supporting our community of Fellows. We will bring on board additional researchers from new faculties across Amsterdam and continue to support hybrid PhDs and early career researchers develop skills and expertise across disciplines. Supporting the next generation of researchers in global health is crucial to our goals; therefore, a priority for 2023 is to further enhance our interdisciplinary teaching offerings for our Master's students and beyond.
AIGHD aims to deliver new knowledge that has real and sizable impact on the equity of health globally. In 2023, the new board will examine how we can strengthen our relationships with health policy makers, practitioners, and communities. We will strive to work together with funders and researchers to continue to develop research themes and projects that truly reflect priority global health issues, as defined by those in the greatest need. The executive board and the AIGHD community, working closely with all our partners, will end the year with a renewed strategic outlook, as together we continue to build the contribution and impact of AIGHD in the global health space in 2024 and beyond.