During the past month, the GBADs Programme Executive Team from The University of Liverpool, World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Murdoch University, The University of Guelph, Zurich University, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and The University of Washington visited The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle for a series of meetings. As well as the GBADs Executive Team, we were joined by Chip Bailey, Mandeville Advisors, and Amy Hagerman of Oklahoma State University.
On Monday 11th September, members of the GBADs Executive Team met to plan for the week, update on the programme progress and think ahead to future phases of work. Chip Bailey, Mandeville Advisors, supported with a session on business development approaches, with a focus on GBADs’ target audiences, and their needs and wants.
Tuesday 12th – Thursday 14th September the GBADs team were hosted at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation office. Tuesday’s meetings provided an opportunity for the team to update the project officers from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. This was followed by a meeting with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Livestock Team, who had the opportunity to understand GBADs latest developments, and consider where synergies around data and information provision may exist with their own portfolio of projects.
On Wednesday, GBADs Director, Jonathan Rushton was invited to present at a Learning Lunch meeting. This gave the opportunity for members from other teams within the Foundation to learn about GBADs progress to date. Great questions were posed by the audience that ranged from a desire to understand impact of the work, and technical aspects around epidemiological modelling and data science.
During the afternoon, Amy Hagerman, the GBADs Independent Reference Group chair, presented a summary of the group’s recent review. The Executive team discussed and debated the findings, starting a process of reflection and response that will conclude in the fourth quarter of this year.
The final day, Thursday, was used for planning the future phases of the programme, from the technical aspects, and the governance approach. The team was able to discuss the findings of this session with the project officers from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, this provided a space for feedback and ideas to think about before the next phase.
After four enjoyable and productive days the team can be proud of the work they have accomplished up to now and be excited for the future of GBADs. Thank you for all your hard work!
