Furthering humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
Hundreds of millions of people were affected by natural disasters over the last decade, with humanitarian crises forcibly displacing tens of millions more.
Given the scale of this challenge, it has been recognized that the response to these crises is a unique discipline. This has resulted in “professionalization” of the discipline with educational and training programs, operational research, and requirements for practice unique to disasters.
The initiative is engaged in a range of efforts to support development of a more integrated, interdisciplinary university approach to education, research and services in this space. Current activities include the following:
Undergraduate course
The Population Health Initiative offers a General Studies course, “Disasters: Approaches to Preparation, Response and Recovery,” during spring quarter.
The one-credit course features a series of faculty lectures focused on the research and service-related activities at the UW that contribute to preparations for, responses to and recovery from a natural or human-made disaster.
Graduate certificate
The initiative, in partnership with the UW Graduate School, offers a Graduate Certificate in International Humanitarian Response that is intended to train an interdisciplinary group of students to become the next generation of leaders in this field.
Disaster research response training workshop
The UW’s Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences is hosting a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Disaster Research Response Workshop on the UW campus in January 2021.
The initiative is supporting the planning and execution of this workshop, which is intended to improve preparedness to conduct rapid environmental and health-related disaster research that advances cumulative science and is responsive to community information needs.
Clinical Emergency Preparedness Research Network
The initiative supported the 2018 launch of the Pacific Rim Clinical Emergency Preparedness Research Network, a collaboration between researchers and practitioners from Kathmandu University, Tohoku University, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and the UW.
The network’s goals is to support health systems and providers to better link with communities to effectively prepare for and respond to emergencies.
Exploring an integrated research agenda
The initiative periodically convenes an interdisciplinary group of faculty members to explore, at a high level, what a more integrated, interdisciplinary research portfolio might look like at the University of Washington.
Funded pilot research grants
The initiative has funded several pilot research grants that support humanitarian assistance- and disaster relief-related research projects. These include:
- Development of layperson-delivered treatments for individuals suffering posttraumatic stress disorders due to war- and refugee-related trauma
- Research to understand how to maximize the disaster recovery process to build back healthier and more resilient communities
- Pilot of work for a new UW MetaCenter for Global Pandemic Disease Preparedness and Global Health Security
