As the ListOwner of CANCHID and hosting TROPMED and TRAVELMED for others,
I would like to offer a short comment about the University of Georgia
(USA) plans for an institute for the study of global disease.

We cannot have the full story from a single article but it is worth
reminding ourselves that the era of single super-institutes - with elite
funding and a collection of experts, many recruited from developing
countries, is (or should be) a era left behind.

This is the case for two reasons.

First, in the presence of this electronic venue, a more distributed
approach to research on global issues is both possible and called for.
In the past elite institutes bid away the intellectual capital of
developing countries and increased the differences in capacities as
between elite developed country labs and science and technology capacity
in developing countries. The gain to the elit lab was marginal, the loss
to the developing country's science and technology considerable. As well,
the poor regions of the world then frequently had to buy back that
intellectual capital in the form of patent medicines and commercial
technologies.

It is more possible than ever to pool global intellectual capacity in a
more collaborative setting and distribute more equitably (and probably
more efficiently) global scientific capacity. It is hoped that the
University of Georgia works in collaboration with global networks and
worries as much about distributed capacity as it does its own heights.
(See the Navrango (Ghana) reports at the  http://www.idrc.ca web site to
get an idea of how this electronic venue can support distributed research
capacity)

Second, Health, the prevention of the spread of disease, and  re-emerging
pathogens like tuberculosis and malaria are the outcomes of social forces,
they are not random health events. Research has to be linked to the actual
local social factors that are driving them. This is well know if littla
appreciated. It is also not where the rewards reside when funding goes to
elite research institutes. There is lots of local knowledge, and local
wisdom, distributed well beyond the walls of elite research centres -
where research agendas are justified by appeals to the state of the globe
but where researchers listen to a different drummer.

Let us hope that the University of Georgia joins in as one node among many
to build global capacity. We are waiting to hear more.

Sam Lanfranco,
Distributed Knowledge

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  Sam Lanfranco, c/o CERLAC                     email: [log in to unmask]
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  Sam Lanfranco                           email:[log in to unmask]
  Senior Program Specialist                URL: http://www.bellanet.org
  Bellanet International Secretariat       Tel.: +1-613-236-6163 x.2263
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