Soulsby Foundation calls for applications for 2020 One Health Fellowships
As human populations grow, we live in closer contact with animals, giving more opportunities for diseases to spread. Deforestation and intensive farming disrupt our environment and habitats and also provide new opportunities for diseases to pass between humans and animals. Movements of people facilitated by international travel and trade have increased means of diseases spreading more quickly and further.
As our world becomes more interconnected and interdependent, RSTMH believes we must consider a wider approach to improving health through multiple disciplines and sectors.
Our 2017-2022 strategy recognises the importance of our links with animal and planetary health, and the underlying social, structural, economic and environmental factors that determine health around the globe.
Soulsby Foundation call for applications
It's in this context that we can share that the Soulsby Foundation has opened a call for applications for the 2020 Travelling Fellowships Programme.
The Foundation supports talented veterinary and medical researchers at an early stage in their careers through these competitively awarded Travelling Fellowships in One Health.
Applicants must be affiliated to a biomedically relevant academic institution in the UK, USA, EU or Australasia.
Further information and application forms for the Fellowships may be found online.
The closing date for applications is 31 January 2020.
One Health pioneer
The Soulsby Foundation was established in 2016 by Lord Soulsby of Swaffham Prior, a pioneer and champion of the One Health concept which recognises the need to take a multidisciplinary approach to solving global and environmental health challenges.
Lord Soulsby treasured a similar travelling award early in his professional life which he considered to be the catalyst that consolidated his future impressive career.
He always sought to inspire colleagues and students to view animal and human medicine as one continuous health-related tapestry and, as the only Past President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) to have also become President of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM), he constantly used this unique position to bring the two professions together.
He died in 2017 but his pioneering approach lives on in the work of the Foundation which carries his name.
RSTMH Annual Meeting on One Health
As a field, One Health is important to RSTMH for its collaborative, multisectoral and transdisciplinary nature. During our 2019 Annual Meeting, which focused on the topic of One Health, we engaged a range of relevant professions such as medicine, veterinary science, social science, economics and more – to work together to discuss and debate on the opportunities and challenges of a One Health approach in tropical medicine.
By the end of the two days, which included discussions on surveillance and healthcare delivery, we arrived at eight recommendations for RSTMH to take forward in our One Health work.
Don't miss out on the opportunity to apply for a Soulsby Fellowship.
