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INDEPTH
Zhejiang
University,
China
The INDEPTH network was created in 1999
as a federation of independent research
sites whose characteristic has been the tool
of demographic surveillance system (DSS).
This consists of a continuous monitoring of
populations and their health with regular
house-to-house visits of a contiguous
population of about a 100.000 people.
The INDEPTH network now has about 30
collaborating research centres from 19 coun-
tries in Africa and Asia. It is funded by the
Gates Foundation, the Swedish CIDAR and
other foundations. Its main objective is the
standardization of methods and definitions,
quality control as well as the fostering of
collaborative research funds. The network
has been extremely successful in fulfilling
these roles and is major contributor now to
the live of the participating centres. It is a
strong force in capacity building, providing
training, and workshops for proposal deve-
lopment all across the sites. The Heidelberg
Institute of Public Health has been instru-
mental in the setup and has been a partner
of the INDEPTH network ever since.
www.indepth-network.org
Senegal
The Gambia
Guinea-Bissau
Burkina Faso
Ghana
Ethiopia
Uganda
Kenya
Tanzania
Malawi
Mosambique
South Africa
India
Bangladesh
Thailand Vietnam
Indonesia
Papua New Guinea
Cambodia
This is a new partnership with a long-term
perspective. It was founded on a memo-
randum of understanding signed in 2011
in which the two institutes of public health
sketch a research agenda on non-commu-
nicable diseases (NCDs), particularly on
diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The
center for NCD diseases of Zhejiang Univer-
sity will serve as a crystallization kernel for
joint research and teaching in this field. In
a North-South collaboration effort, the HIPH
will validate the current excellent disease
and vital event reporting system the Zheji-
ang university built up both in an urban, a
rural and an island population. This valida-
tion will be done together with the INDEPTH
research network (on the right-hand side of
the page), of which Zhejiang will become a
member.