Medical research

Launch of a new funding programme: ‘Research on Migration and Health’

The Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation and the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMS) are launching a CHF 2.7 million funding programme ‘Research on Migration and Health’ to strengthen research in migrant medicine and migrant health in Switzerland.

With the funding program «Research in migration and health», the SAMS and the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation are contributing to scientific investigation of the significant challenges that health systems face as a result of growing human mobility and international migration. These include, for example, ensuring access to health services, allocating resources effectively, and delivering high-quality care.

The funding program «Research in migration and health» aims to support projects which explore innovative ways to deliver high-quality healthcare to migrants and migrant communities in Switzerland, particularly to those currently underserved or with vulnerabilities.

All information on the call for proposals is published on the SAMS website.

Launch of a new support program for refugees and displaced persons

In 2023, the Foundation launched a new funding programme to support projects for the protection and improvement of the health of refugees and vulnerable people in conflict regions.

In response to the call, 25 project applications were submitted and assessed by the review panel. At the request of the panel, the foundation board approved the funding of the following four projects totalling CHF 2.6 million in November 2023:

• Swiss Red Cross: Removing barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health services in centres for displaced people from Rakhine State in Bangladesh
• Swisspeace: Supporting the psychosocial and psychological wellbeing of displaced Syrian women struggling with complex loss in Syria, Lebanon and Germany
• FAIRMED: War, displacement, economic and food crises, and disease – overcoming multiple stresses on the way to better health and wellbeing by improving gender equality in Jaffna and Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka.
• Swiss TPH: Democratisation of measures against neglected tropical diseases through “citizen science” to improve women’s health in a precarious environment at Lake Chad, Chad

ParaSahel – DIMAS

In crisis areas, health systems struggle to serve refugee, internally displaced people (IDPs) and host populations. These struggles are even multiplied when crisis occur in countries with a low economic status, as it is the case for Chad in central Africa. Here, the governmental health sector’s reality is marked by insufficient funding, weak infrastructure and shortage of qualified health staff. As a consequence, the negative impact on lacking health services for all population groups is inevitable and to counter this vicious cycle dependence on international aid is unavoidable. The project ParaSahel – Dimas aims to democratize Neglected Tropical Diseases Interventions through Citizen Science for Improving Women’s Health at Lake Chad.

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