Ugandan epidemiologist wins Dutch funds to tackle NCDs

A Ugandan epidemiologist has received funding to create a research programme to strengthen health system responsiveness in Africa, with a focus on non-communicable diseases.

Catherine Kyobutungi will do the work as part of her appointment, announced on 4 October, as a Joep Lange Chair. She will do it while carrying out her duties as executive director of the African Population and Health Research Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Joep Lange Institute based in the Netherlands offers chairs and fellowships to promote health system research in developing countries. The awards were created in 2015 in memory of Lange and Jacqueline van Tongeren, two Dutch HIV scientists who perished when their Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down over Ukraine in 2014.