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Coffee with Jovanka Bestebroer

The “Complex systems” call that was published end of last year resulted in 10 new NCOH projects comprising 17 PhD projects. Together with the first round of 8 PhD students of the “Metagenomics” call and additional PhD projects, over 30 PhD positions are or will be filled in the coming months!

As NCOH we highly support collaboration in One Health research. To promote the collaboration and exchange between PIs and PhD students, all NCOH projects have thematically been clustered into three overarching Research Topics, i.e. Complex systems & metagenomics, Disease intervention strategies, and Vector-borne diseases. All three topics have composed a program with a number of project meetings, workshops and master classes. If you would like to participate, keep an eye on our website for updates or contact one of the Research Topic coordinators.

Earlier we have announced the NCOH-Top Sector Life Sciences & Health call for One Health projects on prophylactic vaccines and preventive strategies. This call is expected to open mid July as the preparations for the call are in the final phase. Three consortia in the complex systems call have expressed an interest in submitting a project. All details for application will be made available in the call text that will be sent to all NCOH Principle Investigators and published on our website. Timelines will be short, with a submission deadline on 9 October 2019.

As published in our press release on 12 June 2019, the proposal that was submit with several NCOH Partners across three NCOH Strategic Research Themes in response to the “Dutch National Research Agenda (NWA) call was granted! The project “Preparing for vector-borne virus outbreaks in a changing world: a One Health Approach” was awarded 10 million euro and is coordinated by Marion Koopmans, Scientific Director NCOH-EID. Over the next five years, 25 PhD researchers will investigate the impact of changes in the climate, water management, agricultural methods and import risks on the probability of a vector-borne virus outbreak in the Netherlands.

The third NCOH Annual Scientific Meeting was held in Nijmegen on 17 May 2019. The meeting was well received; over 150 individuals participated and there were over 25 presentations. ‘Complex Systems’ was the main theme of the meeting, with key note lectures on tackling infectious diseases in low and middle income countries by Peter Hornby, Complexity and resilience by Ingrid van de Leemput and Insect decline over past decades by Hans de Kroon. The program was an excellent mix of lectures, poster presentations, and short pitches, and we are proud to announce Shehrazade Jekhmane and Samara Machado for winning this year’s poster and Young NCOH pitch awards! For an impression of the meeting, click here.

Last but not least, the Young NCOH Board was recently installed. This board of young researchers will support and coordinate the network of early-career NCOH researchers in many of our Young NCOH activities. Want to join Young NCOH? You can register here.

Wishing you splendid summer holidays,

Jovanka Bestebroer
Secretary to the Board