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As we approach the last few days of the year, we have been reflecting on how busy and exciting 2023 has been for the team and the invaluable contributions you have made to our calendar of activities over the past 12 months.
Here is a brief recap of some of our achievements:
January was Cervical Cancer Month and we took the opportunity to highlight GACD-funded projects tackling this preventable disease, especially a project in India where 1 in 5 of all global cervical cancer cases are found. This project explores _developing a scalable, woman-centred model for cervical cancer screening
February: To mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we spoke to three remarkable investigators from GACD-funded projects on hypertension, diabetes, and mental health, who shared their experiences as women in science and their advice to other women embarking on their careers.
March: GACD was invited to speak at the Lancet Summit on Childhood obesity and its consequences across the life course, with a commentary published in the Lancet later in the year. We also celebrated International Women’s Day by engaging in conversations with 4 female researchers making impactful contributions in the field of NCDs and shared their experiences across our platforms.
April: We hosted a scientific session on Connecting for cancer control: Collective action through the GACD network of implementation projects, at the 11th Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research.
May: We were delighted to announce a new commitment of over $55 million for awards supported through our Life course approach to common risk reduction for NCDs, call.
June: We hosted a popular satellite symposium at the World NCD Congress in Toronto, Canada on Interventions, implementation science, and impact – translating evidence into policy and practice, showcasing projects drawn from three very different regions of the world. We also held a successful first public GACD workshop “Working with context to implement non-communicable disease programmes”, attended by over 100 participants from 13+ countries and co-hosted a SUNI SEA policy conference on creating synergies to share the importance of scaling up NCD interventions that focus on the role of communities within the primary healthcare approach.
July: We published our 1st Achievement Report 2022 which highlights our key outcomes and the strides we have taken in advancing the global fight against non-communicable diseases and to enhance communication and engagement, we upgraded to a monthly newsletter format, providing our research network with timely updates about our ongoing work.
August: The GACD team took a day away for team building activities to sharpen our problem-solving skills, but still found time to attend the WHO Global Evidence to Policy (E2P) Summit 2023.
September: We launched our 6th Implementation Science School, where we welcomed 38 researcher trainees keen to advance their knowledge of implementation science on NCDs learning from our expert faculty and facilitators.
October: The GACD brought together a diverse high-level group of international experts for two days in London to help identify priority themes for future NCD implementation research. In the same month, proposals for the GACD NCD Prevention in Cities Call were assessed by a GACD joint international peer review panel brought together in Australia where staff and experts were hosted by GACD Associate Member NHMRC. In addition a major publication from the Inte Africa study on Integrated management of HIV, diabetes, and hypertension in sub-Saharan Africa and a joint paper from our Scale Up Programme were released.
November was the busiest month for the full GACD team. We held our Research Programme workshop as a virtual satellite to our in-person Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) in Singapore. The ASM brought together over 120 participants for three days of insightful talks, dynamic discussions and researcher networking and for the first time, organized a film festival to promote creativity in knowledge sharing. The winning entries received Judges and Audience Choice Oscars. At the end of the month, we also announced the launch of our 9th funding call with submissions live from early 2024. This year, the call topic is on implementation research to address the management of multiple long-term conditions in the context of NCDs underscoring our commitment to supporting innovative projects, holistically addressing NCDs.
December: GACD was invited to speak on the importance of equitable partnerships in capacity strengthening for implementation science in LMICs, an approach central to GACD’s strategy and an ISS faculty member presented _Strengthening capacity for implementation research: Learnings from the global alliance for chronic diseases implementation science school at the 16th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health.
This is a fantastic breadth of activities and I have to say a huge thank you to the GACD Trustees and Strategy Board who foster our ambition; to my hardworking team whose dedication and creativity ensure events are original, informative, and relevant; and to all of our GACD Research Network and Alumni. The unique strength of GACD lies in the combined efforts of our entire community, who collaborate to ensure that the work that we do will have an impact on the burden of NCDs that is growing everywhere.
Thank you for your support and partnership in 2023.
As many of us take a well-earned break to spend with family and friends, enjoy every moment! Looking ahead, I wish everyone a safe, happy, and healthy 2024.