Health-I partners at the kick-off meeting (l.) and Dr. Mei Neni introducing the staff of UGM Yogyakarta (r.)
The official launch of the Health-I, an EU funded Clinical Epidemiology and Big Data research capacity strengthening initiative in Indonesia, took place between April18th – 20th in Jakarta. Indonesian and European partners joined this event.
During the formal opening ceremony on April 19th, keynote speakers from Universitas Indonesia, the Dutch Embassy and the European Commission lauded the project and its potential impact for the Indonesian community.
Prof. Siti Setiati, head of the Clinical Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine (CEEBM) unit of the Universitas Indonesia; Dr. Czeresna Heriawan Soejono, hospital director of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital and Dr. Ari Fahrial Syam, Dean of Faculty of Medicine of Universitas Indonesia, welcomed the participants and international guests and commemorated the role of research and international collaboration to improve health. Dr. Sarah Spronks of the Dutch Embassy, recognized the potential for sustained impact of the Health-I consortium through it’s public-private partnership and capacity stregthening which combines both online and face-to-face education. The European Union was represented by video messsage through Mr. Joseph Micallef, who mentioned the highly competititive nature of this funding call, and provided advice on the road ahead for succesful implementation. Finally, Prof. Rick Grobbee, professor of Clinical Epidemiology at UMC Utrecht, commemorated the decades-long collaboration with Indonesia, and congratulated the selected participants in this project.