The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and Rochester Regional Health (RRH) have begun a new clinical trial that will evaluate the safety and efficacy of a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.  The vaccine is currently approved for a two-dose regimen. This study represents an important step in the development of long-term vaccination strategies to protect against circulating and emerging variants of the virus.

“While widespread vaccination is the key to moving past the current health crisis, COVID-19 has the potential to become a seasonal and mutating virus,” said Ed Walsh, M.D., and infectious disease specialist at URMC.  “This study will help us understand important questions about the safety and immunogenicity of multiple doses of an mRNA vaccine, information that could ultimately enable us to extend the protection of vaccines and develop tailor-made, variant-specific boosters.”

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) African Centre for Cities’ Nourished Child project asked how they could adapt their research methodology during the pandemic in a way that not only answered their original research questions but could also capture how the pandemic was affecting the nutrition of women and children under the age of five.

The team is now using a mix of photography and online messaging technology to continue doing fieldwork during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the run-up to COP26, Priestly International Centre for Climate at Leeds will run a week of events in April, Connecting Voices for Climate Action.

This webinar, held Tuesday 20 April 2021, 14:00 – 15:30 BST, is part of this initiative and is being organised jointly by the University of Leeds and  CCAFS.

 Registration for this free online event is now open. Register here  

A GPS-enabled fabric map developed by Electrical and Electronic Engineering students from the University of Southampton has been showcased at the UK's leading event for wearable and emerging technologies.

The innovative prototype was created over the past year in an undergraduate group design project with the all-weather map designer SplashMaps.

The University of Bergen has been successful with an application to the EU´s COFUND programme. The COFUND grant awarded to the SEAS (Shaping European Research Leaders for Marine Sustainability ) fellowship programme has a total scope of 16 million EURO.

For the next 5 years, the University of Bergen will hire 37 postdoctoral fellows in different academic disciplines concerned with marine or maritime topics through international recruitment. The candidates will go through a joint career development programme linked to all faculties at the University of Bergen and to partners in business, administration and collaborating research institutions at home and abroad.

Launching on 29 March 2021, Climate Change and Resilience in Food Systems is a free online course exploring new research-led strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change on agriculture and food systems.

Hosted on the FutureLearn platform, the virtual course is designed and facilitated by GCRF-AFRICAP researchers from the University of Leeds, Dr Stephen Whitfield and Dr Harriet Smith. Visit this website for more information and registration. 

AstraZeneca and the Tec’s Guadalajara campus have designed a knowledge transfer program for various cutting-edge technologies, including quantum computing, which the pharmaceutical company will apply to quantum bioinformatics, a tool for designing new drugs.

This training forms part of AstraZeneca Guadalajara’s strategy for the global evolution of information technology (IT), which it has been working on in collaboration with Tec de Monterrey since 2018.

To apply for Leeds International Summer School 2021, students should complete this online application form before the final application deadline of 1 May 2021.

For more information, please visit the LISS website.  

The University of Alberta is partnering with three West African universities, including the University of Ghana, to mentor and build tomorrow’s diverse community leaders and global intellectuals through a new project.

Powered by a $300,000 grant from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship (QES) Advanced Scholars West Africa program, the initiative supports research-focused exchanges for doctoral researchers, post-doctoral fellows and early career academics between the U of A and universities in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.

The project, On the Path of Social Responsibility and Global Leadership, will give the next generation of scholars the know-how to become effective leaders in their communities and beyond, said project lead Professor Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika of the U of A’s Faculty of Arts.

On 19-21 October 2021, Maastricht University will be hosting the ICLHE 2021 Conference with the theme “EMI, ICLHE and Englishization: Reflecting on the changing university”. 

Through this theme the conference aims to address key issues in language & education facing higher education today, not just in Europe but right across the world. Prospective contributors can submit their abstract via this link. The deadline is 28 February 2021.

The University of York has been awarded almost £6m to lead an innovative study which aims to create both healthier future generations and a healthier planet.

Researchers look at healthy eating interventions in schools and nurseries, food retailing, food procurement and farming to address issues such as childhood obesity, sustainability in agriculture and global warming.

The five-year research programme called 'Transformations to Regenerative Food Systems (TReFS) will also look at how regenerative farming, which promotes biosystems health, can help achieve both healthier populations and environment in the future.

Developing and implementing a robust decision-making platform to anticipate, manage and mitigate natural risks in road and rail infrastructure networks of the Atlantic Area is a key objective of SIRMA, a €2 million pan-European research project.

SIRMA (Strengthening Infrastructure Risk Management in the Atlantic Area), which is scheduled to be completed in 2022, aims to significantly improve the resilience of such infrastructures, in particular in face of climate change impacts.

A warming globe, increasing numbers of refugees and displaced persons, gender disparity, economic inequalities, freshwater shortages, famine, war… We are bombarded with these issues and many others facing the planet and its inhabitants every day. To address these issues, the UN established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030.

Learn more about the SDGs and find hope and opportunity for action at International Week 2021 (I-Week).

While the world has united behind the 2030 Agenda, rising global inequalities have long threatened to derail the progress made so far. Adding to this, the outbreak of COVID-19 has had devastating impacts across the world. Recognizing this global fundamental challenge, the 2021 SDG Conference Bergen focuses on tackling global inequalities, relevant for all of the goals, to achieve a new path for sustainable development, after the crisis.

Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide will be opening the conference.