QMU receives research grant

Edinburgh's Queen Margaret University (QMU) has become the first Scottish university to receive a £1 million grant to help develop new health systems in post-conflict countries.

The programme, funded by the UK government, is part of a £6 million international research programme from the Department For International Development (DFID), which aims to provide better access to healthcare across the globe and to support those who are most in need.

For the last 20 years, DFID has funded a number of health programmes which deal with a range of issues from family planning to HIV related services.

The programme at QMU will look closely at previous success stories from Sierra Leone and Cambodia in order to implement these new measures in countries who are struggling with similar issues, such as Zimbabwe and Northern Uganda.

Alongside QMU, the other British university to be awarded a research grant as part of the project is the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. They will be working in collaboration with the Makerere University in Uganda, the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences in Sierra Leone, the Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Zimbabwe and the Cambodia Development Resource Institute. The Institute for International Health and Development (IIHD) will carry out the research at its base at QMU and will be helping to rebuild post-conflict environments.

Speaking about the new research programme, Professor Barbara McPake, Director of the IIHD, told The Journal: “This is important research that could contribute to global security and peace building, by strengthening the population‘s stake in peace, and bridging communities.

“This is a major boost for our research programme, puts us much more clearly 'on the map' and should massively raise our profile. All of that is nice - but not on the same level as making a real difference to ordinary people's access to health care!”