Mr Andrew Miller MP, chair of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee and member of the All-Party Group on Malaria & Neglected Tropical Diseases (APPMG) visited LSTM today.
Mr Miller was welcomed by LSTM Director Professor Janet Hemingway, Dean of Clinical Sciences and International Public Health, Professor David Lalloo and Dean of Parasitology and Vector Biology, Professor Alister Craig. He was briefed on the Centre for Applied Health Research and Delivery (CAHRD) by Professor Bertie Squire and toured the laboratory facilities of the Centre for Tropical and Infectious Diseases (CTID), accompanied by Professor Hilary Ranson.
The main focus of the visit was a meeting with LSTM’s Capacity Strengthening Implementation Research Unit (CSIR) led by Professor Imelda Bates. The CSIR uses operational research techniques to generate high quality robust evidence to aid the design and evaluation of capacity strengthening initiatives for programmes within LSTM and for external agencies.
Mr Miller has long been an advocate of supporting developing countries by strengthening the capacity of local institutions to develop home-grown scientific excellence. Having been presented with CSIR case studies of capacity strengthening evaluation projects, discussion centred on how CSIR unit can further contribute to UK efforts to strengthen the capacity of health systems in resource-poor settings. Mr Miller commented “there is a moral imperative to leave behind something that is sustainable.”
The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee focuses primarily on scientific and technological issues, providing a long-term liaison between UK parliamentarians and scientific bodies, science-based industry and academia. It meets once a month when Parliament is sitting to debate a scientific or technological topic and its relationship with political issues.
The aim of the APPMG is to inform Parliamentarians of the devastation that malaria and the neglected tropical diseases cause.