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The first stage of the
Harvard-Cyprus International Initiative for the Environment and Public Health is
expected to be completed within weeks, with the formal establishment by the end
of November of the Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public
Health (CII) as a non-profit organisation, followed by the offer of scholarships
at Harvard, the recruitment of professionals and the opening of temporary
offices by the end of this year.
"Our goal is to have
up and running the Institute in Nicosia by January 1, 2005," said Dr Philip
Demokritou, Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Interim
Director of Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public
Health.
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Environment
and public health research
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President
Papadopoulos at the signing of the agreement with the Harvard
School of Public Health last June |
The
Cyprus International Institute, in Association with the Harvard School
of Public Health, will provide a centralised location to address
environmental and public health problems on a local, regional and
international level.
According to Financial Mirror sources, work is already under way to pick
a site for the Institute, with unconfirmed reports suggesting that it
will be located at government-owned plots at Kornos, close to Larnaca.
The long-term aim is to concentrate all high value research and
development activities in one place, with Kornos the current favourite.
Despite questions raised by the opposition over how the deal with
Harvard was made, the establishment of a high quality research centre in
Cyprus, particularly with a link to a strong brand such as Harvard, is
seen as an important step in turning Cyprus into a regional hub for
high-value research and development activity.
Two
research centres
The
Cyprus International Institute is just one part of the initiative signed
last June by President Tassos Papadopoulos and Dean Barry Bloom. Another
research centre will be located at the Harvard School of Public Health
in Boston, Massachusetts, while there is also a training programme for
Cypriots and other researchers in the region.
At both the Cyprus and Boston research centres, researchers, educators
and practitioners from Harvard, Cyprus and the Mediterranean Region will
confront regional environmental and Public Health issues and the future
needs of society through the two research and training locations.
Boston
programme already under way
The
training programme, called the HSPH-Cyprus Program (HCP), has already
been launched in Boston on September 1, 2004.
It will train students from Cyprus and the region and collaborate with
the Cyprus International Institute on the development and execution of
training and research programmes.
Both through the Cyprus International Institute in Cyprus and through
the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, the Initiative will
provide top-quality education and training in environmental,
occupational, and public health to students, scholars, and mid-career
professionals.
A workplan has been developed for the academic year 2004-2005 to cover
organisational, educational and research activities of the initiative.
Scholarship
details by November
A
faculty committee at Harvard is putting together the curriculum for the
graduate level one year programme on environmental health that is due to
be offered in Cyprus starting September 2006. Students participating on
this programme will have the opportunity to continue for a second
year in Boston and acquire a Masters from Harvard University.
The organisers also plan to announce its scholarship programme for
graduate level studies at Harvard by the end of November and the first
graduate students from Cyprus are expected to be enrolled in September
2005.
All doctoral level students will spend 50% of their time in Cyprus
(CII component) on research projects related to Cyprus and the region.
The organisers are also putting together the curriculum for 2-3 short
courses for mid-career professionals that will offer in Cyprus next
year, as part of the continuing education programme.
Job openings for academic positions both for post doctoral scientists as
well as faculty positions for CII in Cyprus should be announced by the
end of 2004, while the Institute expects to hire support personnel for
the Nicosia offices some time in December.
Lecture
series continues
A
lectures series was launched a few weeks ago, with a lecture at Cyprus
University by Dean Ware, on Public Health: Threats, Challenges, and
Triumphs). The first in a series of symposia entitled Respiratory
Diseases and the Environment will take place in Nicosia on December 1,
2004.
This symposium will address a variety of environmentally related
respiratory diseases that might affect local and regional populations.
The goal of the Symposium will be to identify and prioritise potential
research needs and to build coalitions with regional governmental and
non-governmental organisations and other academic institutions.
The faculty in Boston has started building a network of
collaborations with universities and other academic institutions in
Cyprus and the region and started preparing research proposals.
By
Fiona Mullen, Financial Mirror, October 2004
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