• About GHI
  • Mission
  • Strategic Priorities
  • Message from the Director
• GHI Network
  • At Boston University
  • Steering Committee
  • Program Partners & Sponsors
• Research
  • For BU Faculty
  • Project Highlights
  • Pilot Project Program
• Education
  • For Students
  • Professional & Continuing Education
• Outreach
  • Distinguished Visiting Scholar Program
  • Alumni Village
• Get Involved with GHI

In this section:

• Mission
• Strategic Priorities
• Message from the Director

GHI Mission

The Global Health Initiative (GHI) at Boston University Promotes Multi-Disciplinary Research, Education, Outreach and Policy Studies Across and Beyond the Boston University Community. GHI’s Goal is to Reduce Disparities in Health by Supporting the Generation and Application of Knowledge, Fostering "Global Literacy” Among our Students, and Developing Partnerships with International Health and Science Leaders, Scholars, and Practitioners around the World. More »

Strategic Priorities

1. BU - India Research and Education Programs

GHI is spearheading Boston University’s effort to shape a long term program focused on India that will enable the institution to effectively concentrate its energy, expertise and experience in health and public health on a country that represents an important paradigm of development in the 21st century. Recognizing that BU has unique strengths to offer global partners and collaborators, including a highly regarded program in applied research and practitioner-oriented public health education and training at BUSPH, biomedical engineering and computational biology at the Charles River Campus, GHI is strengthening BU’s relationships with Indian institutions across the public, private, and academic sectors to develop a comprehensive program that will place India’s profound public health challenges at the center.  A strong India focused program will give BU the opportunity to teach our students from the perspective of one of the major drivers of globalization in a critical region of the world, to support international research, and to develop meaningful, deep, and enduring networks in a vast and vastly important nation.

2. Building Capacity and Leaders in Global Health

GHI will help to develop and support leadership training programs in health and public health aimed at senior and mid level professionals in developing countries.  These programs will target issues of particular relevance and urgency within the broader context of "capacity building" (research, education, health systems), and will promote the active translation of knowledge into action.  The Summer Institute in International Health, run by the Department of International Health at the BU School of Public Health, provides a solid foundation upon which to build such a program in partnership with other BU faculty in health care financing, health policy and management, anthropology, international relations, political science, and other relevant disciplines.

3. Emerging Infectious Diseases

GHI is playing a leadership role in developing an international strategy for BU’s new National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL) and the systems biology program at the Charles River campus. BU has strong capacity in and is committed to these two linked areas of science, and GHI’s goal to develop international partnerships, particularly in India, to serve both scientific priorities and global social needs offers an important corollary and complement to the University’s scientific agenda. GHI has partnered with the BU School of Management and its Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (ITEC) to ensure the rapid translation of science to affordable products.