UPEN International Policy Engagement Summit on Global Health

Aston University, in association with the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN), is holding a series of annual international policy engagement summits, aimed at helping UK academic researchers to find out how best to collaborate with international organisations and partners in one broad policy area. UPEN is a UK-wide umbrella organisation which represents more than 100 higher education organisations, most of which are universities.

This inaugural summit will focus on the field of global health. The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated how academic researchers can work at pace with public health policymakers and funders to help address major global health challenges. For this reason, UPEN and Aston University felt it would be timely and valuable to help UK academic researchers who work on a wide range of relevant issues to better understand how their research can inform the work of leading global health organisations, and how it can contribute to improving health outcomes across the globe.

The event will feature guest speakers and contributors who have worked for both global health organisations and academic institutions, and thus have ‘insider’ insights to offer from both perspectives. In addition to providing helpful guidance on some of the practical and cultural challenges which face UK academics who wish to collaborate with such organisations, the summit will also consider the priorities of the organisations which fund global health research, and it will debate the question of how global health research can be decolonised.

Conference venue, audience and funding

We are seeking to make the event as inclusive and accessible as possible. The event will be held at Conference Aston which is a state-of-the-art conference and hotel venue located on Aston’s University’s attractive, green and secluded campus in the heart of Birmingham, with easy links to Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham New Street railway station.

Academics working at UPEN’s member institutions will be able to attend the conference free of charge. In addition to in-person attendance, there will also be the option to attend virtually via Microsoft Teams or Zoom. We hope that at least 50 UPEN members will join the event in person, while a further 80 conference delegates will join remotely.

The summit will be funded through Aston University’s £1.25m Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Impact Acceleration Account. ESRC IAA funding will cover the costs of speaker travel, accommodation and catering, as well as event attendance and catering costs for the academics attending the summit. Guest speakers will be invited to a drinks reception and dinner on the evening of Thursday, 28th November to be held at Conference Aston.

Time	Description
10:00	Registration
10:30	Opening remarks Sarah Chaytor, Co-Chair, UPEN, and Director of Strategy and Policy, Research, Innovation and Global Engagement, University College London Professor Anthony Hilton, Executive Dean, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University
10:40	The role of academic research in tackling global health problems Professor Anthony Costello, Professional Research Associate and Co-Chair, Lancet Countdown, Institute for Global Health, University College London Questions and comments from the floor
11:15	UK-based global health research: what are the priorities for funders? Harold Freeman, Commissioner, Independent Commission for Aid Impact (delivered remotely) Claire McIver, Head of Global Health Programmes, Department of Health and Social Care (delivered remotely) Jill Jones, Head of Global Health Strategy, Medical Research Council Questions and comments from the floor Dave Gordon, Professor of Social Justice and Director, Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research, University of Bristol (Panel Chair)
12:15	How academic research informs the work of a global health organisation: a case study Jaime Atienza Azcona, Director, Equitable Financing, UNAIDS (delivered remotely) Questions and comments from the floor
12:45	Lunch
13:45	Academic collaboration with global health organisations: the practical and cultural challenges Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow, Clinical Informatics Research Unit, University of Southampton (Panel chair) Professor Fern Terris-Prestholt, Health Economist, UNAIDS and Director, Centre for Global Health, University of Warwick Dr Ulla Kou Griffiths, Procurement Services Manager, UNICEF, and Associate Honorary Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Professor Shailen Nandy, Professor of International Social Policy, Cardiff University Dr James Reynolds, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, Aston University Questions and comments from the floor
14:35	Break
14:45	Parallel workshops Session A: Decolonising global health research (hybrid) Dr Maria Cristina Quevedo Gomez, Freelance Academic Consultant in Global Health (facilitator – contributing remotely) Dr Ramya Kumar, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka (contributing remotely) Dr Sohail Jannesari, Senior Teaching Fellow, Imperial College, London Session B: Setting up and running a WHO Collaborating Centre (in-person) Professor Martin Orrell, Co-Director, WHO Collaborating Centre on Mental Health, Disability and Human Rights, University of Nottingham Dr Emma Slaymaker, Co-Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Sexually Transmitted Infections, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
15:45	Plenary discussion: How best can UK academic research help address global health problems?
16:15	Event close

Conference Location, Travel and Accommodation Information

Conference Aston: Hotel and Conference Centre is located on the green campus of Aston University, right at the heart of Birmingham City Centre, easy to get to by road, rail and air.

You can find detailed information about how to get there below:

Accomodation options

Birmingham city centre is well served for hotels. Please find some below some options that are walking distance to Conference Aston: