SNF Global Health Initiative 14th Progress Update

This is the fourteenth Progress Update on the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Health Initiative (GHI), published as part of SNF’s commitment to transparency and keeping the public up to date with timely and accurate information on the development of all the projects included in the initiative.

SNF’s GHI constitutes a commitment of more than $1 billion to date and includes a wide range of projects that aim to enhance public health, increasing equitable access to high-quality care. Commitments include the design, construction, and outfitting of three new SNF hospitals plus numerous complementary programs across Greece, as well as a growing number of projects in the United States and around the world.

In total, the GHI has committed support to approximately 70 projects to date, approximately 60 of which are active and ongoing in 13 countries around the world, across five thematic pillars: (1) development of new infrastructure, (2) procurement of state-of-the-art equipment, (3) enhancing the provision of care through training programs for health workers and knowledge exchange and partnerships that connect and broaden global expertise, (4) improvements to access and quality of mental health services, especially for children and adolescents, and (5) support for science, technology, and innovation focused on translating research advances into real-world benefits.

This report covers major highlights since the thirteenth Progress Update, published in September 2023. It features substantial updates on the three new SNF hospitals under construction in Thessaloniki, Komotini, and Sparta, the launch and expansion of several new efforts worldwide, the commencement of key activities for major global programs and hubs established under the GHI, and more. A summary of key updates, which are covered in greater detail through the remainder of the report, follows below.

SNF Hospitals

Construction of the three new SNF hospitals in Komotini, Thessaloniki, and Sparta by AVAX S.A. has commenced and is currently underway. Hill International is leading the project management effort, in close collaboration with the Design Team, under the leadership of Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and the Health Initiative S.A. Following an initial mobilization and preparatory period by the contractor, on-site construction activities started for the new SNF General Hospital of Komotini in November 2023 and for the SNF University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki in February 2024. Preliminary demolition and site clean-up for the new SNF General Hospital of Sparta were concluded in March 2024, and excavation began in May 2024. At the same time, the complementary infrastructure works by the Greek state to connect the hospitals with public roads and utility networks are progressing per schedule, with coordination on this front continuing amongst all stakeholders to ensure synchronization on key construction milestones.

The three projects are expected to be completed and handed over progressively by SNF to the Greek state towards the end of 2026, fully outfitted with state-of-the-art medical equipment and comprehensive information and communications technology systems. Upon delivery to the state, all three hospitals will operate under the country’s national health system, aiming to raise the bar in Greece and internationally by prioritizing models of human-centered care and operating frameworks inspired by connection with nature and environmental sustainability.

Community engagement is at the heart of the development process for the hospitals. Honoring this commitment and in a continuous effort to keep the public informed and involved in the process,  the seventh round of Town Hall discussions with the local communities of Sparta, Thessaloniki, and Komotini took place on  May 13, 16, and 17, respectively. SNF Co-President, Andreas Dracopoulos, opened the discussions by situating the creation of the three new hospitals under SNF’s broader focus on the GHI and underscoring the significance of the townhalls as a platform for maintaining an open, two-way exchange with the communities and local stakeholders in the three regions. The Deputy Minister of Health, Marios Themistocleous, referred to the state’s commitments and latest progress with regards to the ratified staffing plans and accompanying public infrastructure works. AVAX S.A. and Hill International provided a detailed presentation on the progress of the construction process since the previous round of Town Hall discussions in November 2023, while members of the Design Team highlighted elements of the architectural design and vision of Renzo Piano. The participation by local health and municipal authorities, end users and residents was encouraging, with questions and remarks mostly focusing on the future operation and provisions of the hospitals. 

Launch & Expansion of Efforts Globally

The global expansion of the GHI, which began in 2022, has progressed further in the last months, seeing the launch of eight new and expanded partnerships with organizations in Europe, Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the United States.

• Three new partnerships in mental health that aim to uncover root causes of trends in youth mental health globally (Sapien Labs) and to reduce stigma and discrimination among young people – in the US through school mental health clubs (Bring Change to Mind), and in Greece through a public awareness campaign (Breathe Hellas).
• Essential medical services and equipment at the Lao Friends Hospital for Children in Luang Prabang, Laos, with support from a new grant that builds on a years-long partnership with Friends Without a Border, which operates the hospital.
• Training in microsurgery for early-career surgeons provides critical sub-specialty training not otherwise widely available in Greece, led by Regeneration & Progress (R&P) with the University of Ioannina and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
• Access to fundamental health services, including for underserved and underinsured people in the US (Remote Area Medicall) and to reduce maternal and child mortality in rural communities in Madagascar (Doctors for Madagascar).
• Bioethics education for early- and mid-career professionals in Greece via a five-year extension of an existing partnership with the SNF Bioethics Academy.
  
  

In addition, major SNF commitments for global hubs of expertise—including the SNF Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute, the SNF Institute for Global Infectious Disease Research at The Rockefeller University, and the SNF Center for Precision Psychiatry and Mental Health at Columbia University—completed their first year of implementation having formed dedicated teams, forged strategic partnerships, delved into new research streams, established international collaborations, and more.

The end of 2023 also saw the launch of programming by GHI partners including the National Children’s Alliance, delivering training in trauma-informed therapy for children; the Tygerberg Hospital Children’s Trust, which began renovating the Tygerberg Hospital Adolescent Psychiatry Unit; and Yorkshire Cancer Research, which has launched its expanded Active Together program out of its new homebase at the nonprofit’s recently completed Harrogate Center.

Finally, given the dynamic and evolving nature of the GHI and recognizing that it builds on a history of SNF grantmaking in the health sector, a total of 15 grants previously made by SNF in health have been newly integrated into the initiative.

• Highlights from these newly integrated grants presented in this report include support to the Foundation of Orthopedic and Complex Spine (FOCOS) for the construction of the first orthopedic rehabilitation center in Ghana and the enhancement of hospital quality management systems, as well as to Grassroot Soccer, which supports the delivery of a holistic, sport-based mental wellbeing intervention for youth ages 10-19 in Kenya.
• Apart from those mentioned above, additional grants that have been newly integrated under the GHI are to: Remote Area Medical, The Jed Foundation, The Sonia Nabeta Foundation, the Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS), EMS Access Inc., Lifeline New York, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the American Society of Clinical Oncology / Conquer Cancer Foundation, AMREF, MindUP / the Goldie Hawn Foundation, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, Partnership to End Addiction, the Hellenic Society of Nephrology, and the 251 Hellenic Air Force General Hospital.
  
  

Ongoing Grants in Greece

Grants under the GHI in Greece continue to proceed as envisioned, primarily in the context of the public-private partnership between SNF and the Greek state that has been in place and dynamically evolving since 2018. In the area of mental health, implementation of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI) has advanced considerably in partnership with the Child Mind Institute and a nationwide network of public mental health providers working to build clinical capacity and deliver targeted trainings to a range of professionals caring for children, all while listening to and integrating the views of young people across the country. In parallel, design studies and end-user consultations for the renovation of a building at Paidon Agia Sofia Children’s Hospital in Athens were concluded and construction work commenced in late April 2024 under a four-month completion timeframe. Per the grant legislation that has been submitted for ratification by the Greek state, the new building will ensure new spaces for the CAMHI’s clinical and educational services in collaboration with the hospital's Child Psychiatric Clinic.

Additional support to revamp critical care units and vital infrastructure at major public hospitals in Athens continues, specifically at Attikon General University Hospital and Evangelismos General Hospital, while a wide range of educational and training programs in nursing, trauma, intensive care, and infection control continue to enhance the skills of hundreds of health professionals across the country as they reach approximately the midpoint of their implementation under the GHI.

Descriptions of all GHI-supported projects under GHI pillar

Detailed Progress Updates: Highlights for GHI Ongoing Grants

The following update covers major developments for grants under the SNF GHI since the previous Progress Update.

• The three new SNF Hospitals
  
  Construction of the three new SNF hospitals in Komotini, Thessaloniki, and Sparta by AVAX S.A. is underway under a collaborative project management approach led by Hill International with ongoing support from the Design Team (with architectural leadership from Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Betaplan) and the Client (Health Initiative S.A., the nonprofit special purpose vehicle established by SNF for the coordination, implementation, and handover of GHI projects falling under SNF’s public-private partnership with the Greek state). 

Since the previous Progress Update, upon being awarded the construction contract in August 2023, the contractor launched all preparatory regulatory, contractual, and mobilization processes to commence on-site construction activities in line with the agreed project milestones. In the case of the new SNF General Hospital of Komotini, the construction site was handed over to AVAX in September 2023 and excavation commenced in early November after an initial period that entailed settling building permits, drawing up site organization plans,  design coordination and quality control, site fencing, installation of site offices, and so on. The excavation works were completed in February 2024 and the excavated soil has been stockpiled in neighboring plots granted by the Municipality of Komotini so that it can be treated and reused for landscaping and plantings of the new hospital. Ongoing work includes the construction and testing of micropiles, waterproofing of the excavated area, and lean concreting. Concrete work is expected to run until February 2025. In parallel, the accompanying infrastructure work under the purview of the Greek state to connect the hospital with public utility networks and roads are progressing per schedule, with important and ongoing support from the local prefecture.

The site of the SNF University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki in Filyro was handed over to AVAX in September 2023, and construction activities commenced in early January in accordance with the contractual timeline. During fall 2023, the contractor fenced the two plots, installed the project signboard and site facilities, established site offices and utility connections, and commenced excavation of the topsoil, thus preparing the site for the deep excavation which started start in mid-February 2024. A significant portion of the excavation is due to be completed in summer 2024, and it is expected to wrap up in September 2025. At the same time, the contractor has also begun concrete work in the area where the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Center will be housed. In support of the construction process, the Hellenic Ministry of Health has granted AVAX two plots adjacent to the building site, which will be used for storage purposes and installation of mock-ups construction for all three SNF hospital projects. In parallel, SNF and the Greek state are in regular discussions to ensure that the state’s accompanying work for connections to public utilities, amelioration of road accesses, and creation of underground connections between the two plots are executed in alignment with the hospital’s construction timetable.

Preparatory work ahead of the start of construction of the new SNF General Hospital of Sparta has been completed in full. Since the new SNF hospital will be built on the same land plot where the current General Hospital of Sparta is operating, these preparatory works involved demolition of existing hospital infrastructure to allow space for the construction of the new premises and relocation of medical departments from the demolished building to reconfigured and renovated parts of the existing hospital that will remain operational while the new facilities are built. Specifically, in October 2023 and after completion of the relocation and renovation work, the first phase of demolition of the existing General Hospital of Sparta resumed; demolition and site clean-up work concluded in March 2024, providing AVAX with a leveled construction site. Despite the challenging nature of this work, the demolition conducted by Ballian Techniki S.A. was executed safely and with minimal disruption to the operation of the existing hospital. This was aided by continuous on- and off-site coordination between Ballian, the existing General Hospital of Sparta, the 6^th Regional Health Authority, the Project Manager, SNF, and the Ministry of Health.

The collaborative approach described above will be followed throughout construction of the new SNF hospital. Presently, AVAX is settling into the new construction site, making all necessary arrangements and site adjustments in close collaboration with the local hospital, having started top-soil excavation in May 2024. Meanwhile, the Municipality of Sparta and the local hospital have arranged a new transfer bus service for hospital personnel, since the available parking has been reduced due to construction needs and to regulate traffic flows in the hospital area.

According to the current timelines, the three projects will be completed and handed over progressively to the Greek state towards the end of 2026. The hospitals will be delivered by SNF fully equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment and highly advanced information and communications technology systems, ready for immediate operation as part of Greece’s national health system. In the spirit of collaboration and exchange that permeates SNF’s global grantmaking, partnerships with international organizations such as Memorial Sloan Kettering, Johns Hopkins Medicine International and New York Presbyterian will also be tapped to further enhance the clinical profile and standing of the three SNF hospitals.

In keeping with SNF’s commitment to open communication with the local communities throughout the development of the three new hospitals, the seventh round of Town Hall discussions took place on May 13, 16, and 17 in Sparta, Thessaloniki, and Komotini, respectively. The meetings were an opportunity to present recent progress with the hospitals’ construction as well as to discuss questions and ideas of residents and local stakeholders in the three regions. The next round of townhall discussions will be scheduled for winter 2024.

• Support for the Renovation of two Intensive Care Units and Emergency Department at Athens Evangelismos General Hospital
  
  The renovation project at Evangelismos General Hospital of Athens funded by SNF and the Athanasios and Marina Martinou Foundation is progressing. The focus is on revamping the 2nd Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the former Heart Attack unit, with priority given to expanding the hospital’s ICU capacity with 32 beds for critical care. Bids were validated in February 2024, the construction contract was finalized in April 2024 and the works started in May 2024. Per the contractual timeline, the project is expected to be completed by the end of November 2024.

• Design, Construction, and Outfitting of Two New Buildings at Attikon General University Hospital of Athens

SNF’s GHI grant to the Attikon General University Hospital of Athens pertains to the design, construction, and outfitting of two new buildings within the hospital complex.

The first building will house new on-call rooms and modern rest areas for doctors, addressing a longstanding shortcoming in the hospital infrastructure. Importantly, creation of the new on-call facilities will allow the hospital to free up spaces currently used as rest areas and to dedicate them to patient-serving purposes, thus significantly increasing inpatient care capacity.

Under the auspices, and with the collaboration of Attikon General University Hospital, the second building will consolidate: the institutional headquarters for the National Coordination Center of the Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) implemented by Regeneration & Progress, extended services for patients, and an additional floor which will house a center focusing on complex bone and joint reconstruction in collaboration with teaching hospitals in the US. ​

Reflecting the expanded scope and budget that was approved by SNF at the request of the hospital, the Design Team is currently amending the schematic design in collaboration with the hospital, R&P, and the end users. The Grant Agreement between SNF and the Greek state will be submitted for ratification under the GHI law within summer 2024, while construction works are expected to commence in fall 2024 and to conclude at the end of 2025.

• ÚNICAS Center for Rare Pediatric Diseases, SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital
  
  SNF’s most recent partnership with the Sant Joan de Déu (SJD) Barcelona Children's Hospital supports the construction and outfitting of the ÚNICAS Center for Rare Pediatric Diseases, which will provide specialized care and support to children and families affected by rare diseases. This support builds on SNF’s longstanding collaboration with SJD, as well as with the Leo Messi Foundation for the creation of the SJD Pediatric Cancer Center completed in 2022.

The Center will bring together and expand existing departments at SJD in a new building near the main hospital to provide precision diagnosis, advanced therapies, multidisciplinary care, telemedicine services, and research initiatives. Recently, SNF attended an event in Barcelona held on International Rare Disease Day to mark the start of the construction of the ÚNICAS Center.

As one of the leading specialized pediatric centers, SJD has already treated over 12,000 children with more than 1,200 types of rare diseases, making it one of the top hospitals in Europe in this field. With construction slated for completion by the end of 2025, the ÚNICAS Center at SJD will become one of the world’s largest complexes dedicated to rare disease management and research.

• Hospital for Special Surgery
  
  A recent grant from SNF under the GHI is supporting the construction of the new Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Tower at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York, which will expand space for HSS joint replacement and spine care services. This support builds on a nearly two-decade partnership with HSS and helps the world-leading orthopedics institution expand and modernize its facilities. Part of a larger transformation of its campus, the creation of the new Kellen Tower will help HSS better serve patients’ musculoskeletal health needs and advance clinical research that aims to raise the standard of care available to all. A Digital Inpatient Experience spanning three floors of the new building, including patient rooms equipped with state-of-the-art technology for optimal care and recovery, will reflect SNF’s support

With construction currently underway, the Kellen Tower is expected to open and begin serving patients in late 2025. At that point, the Kellen Tower will also become the new home of the SNF Complex Joint Reconstruction Center (CJRC). The SNF CJRC specializes in care of and research into the most challenging cases in the already demanding field of joint replacement, centralizing the world-class resources of HSS to create a one-stop experience that improves patient outcomes.

• New York Stem Cell Foundation
  
  

A GHI grant from SNF for the Susan L. Solomon Center for Precision Medicine at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute is helping the institution expand its clinical research capabilities. The grant, provided in parallel with grants from other foundations, builds on a longstanding collaboration between SNF and NYSCF since 2008 and assists the organization in further accelerating medical breakthroughs through stem cell technologies.

As the largest nonprofit stem cell research institute in the world, NYSCF seeks to bridge the gap between the academic institutions where research with healing potential takes place and the companies translating that research into treatments that can reach patients. The new facilities created by the SNF-supported expansion—which will be adjacent to NYSCF’s existing premises—will include clinical-grade laboratories, a precision medicine drug discovery center, and a cancer drug screening laboratory. The Center for Precision Medicine is named in honor of late NYSCF co-founder and CEO Susan L. Solomon, whose tireless efforts helped catalyze the field of stem cell research, transforming the future of medicine in the process.  With new leadership now in place, and the architects, engineering firm, and construction group already engaged for the project, construction is expected to commence in 2024.  

• Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine
  
  

The Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine (FOCOS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1998 by orthopedic surgeon Professor Oheneba Boachie-Adjei with a mission of providing optimum orthopedic care and improving quality of life in Ghana and other countries. FOCOS Hospital has treated over 60,000 patients and performed over 3,100 complex, life-saving surgeries for free or at highly subsidized rates, with the support of charitable donations from individuals and organizational partners, including SNF. More than 700 medical and non-medical professionals from nearly 30 countries have volunteered their services with FOCOS. The hospital itself provides employment to nearly 200 Ghanaian medical and non-medical professionals.

A grant to FOCOS from SNF, which has been integrated into the GHI, supports the construction of the first rehabilitation center in Ghana and the enhancement of hospital quality management systems. Specifically, this includes the construction of a modern rehabilitation center with orthotic and prosthetic fabrication facilities; a mobile rehabilitation van service serving those most vulnerable with no access to health care; improved patient information recording, management, and research registries; increased alignment with Joint Commission International (JCI) Quality Improvement standards; increased capacity of stakeholders for management of injury-related disability; and efforts to increase public knowledge on the prevention of injuries and diseases that lead to disability. SNF’s support builds on over 15 years of partnership and will bring to Ghana and West Africa the first rehabilitation center that will serve as a center of excellence for the region and treating patients in Ghana, the region, and beyond.

FOCOS is continuing to fundraise for the construction; it is expected that the tender process will begin in July 2024 with a contract awarded by November 2024. Improvement of the Hospital Information Management System is approaching completion, with 41 out of 44 modules undergoing development. Toward JCI accreditation, FOCOS has closed more than 70% of gaps identified following its benchmarking activity and has also completed more than 50% of the required policies and standard operating procedures.

All training programs included under the GHI are in active implementation, with ongoing cycles of training offering programs that enhance the skills of health care professionals working in the public sector across a range of specialties and fields. Theoretical and practical components provide opportunities for trainees to practice and directly apply new skills. Close monitoring of these grants in collaboration with implementing organizations is ongoing. The programs which have been ratified by Greek law are expected to be integrated into the Greek national health system following the period of SNF’s grant support; as the programs progress, planning for integration and sustainability will be initiated at the appropriate juncture by each program.

• Support for the Nursing Sector in Greece

The GHI supports training, research, and scholarship programs via the nursing schools of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) and at Evangelismos General Hospital of Athens.  

At NKUA, training programs cover a variety of topics including care for deaf patients, advanced nursing skills, safety and quality of nurse training, management of acute and chronic pain, palliative care, nursing in school settings, smoking cessation, and information and communications technology for nurses. In addition, research projects address migrants’ access to health care and bipolar disorder. As of the end of 2023, five programs have been completed, six are ongoing, and one is anticipated to begin within 2024; 15+ academic scholars have also been supported, providing essential assistance to faculty in their research and teaching endeavors.

At Evangelismos, as of the end of 2023, 56 scholarships have been awarded for postgraduate, doctoral and post-doctoral studies, and continued education for hospital nurses and doctors, in Greece and abroad, plus three visiting professorships.

SNF’s support for the two institutions moreover entailed large-scale procurement of specialized equipment for training purposes. The equipment includes a wide range of laboratory instruments, simulators, models, training devices, digital teaching technology, and other equipment. Delivery of equipment began in November 2022, proceeded incrementally, and has since been fully completed at both institutions. An event held in mid-March at NKUA to inaugurate the new Asclepius Laboratory of Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Anatomy featured a digital anatomy table provided through this component of the grant.

In May 2024, NKUA organized an event to recognize the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s (SNF) contributions to the University’s Department of Nursing. Professor Pavlos Myrianthefs, Chair of the Department of Nursing at NKUA, underlined SNF’s vital role in supporting the nursing sector in Greece through his remarks. On behalf of SNF, Board of Directors member George Agouridis accepted a commemorative plaque and provided remarks as well. In coordination with the event, SNF recently released a two-part video highlighting the importance and impacts of the Nursing Sector support grants under the GHI.

• Infection Prevention and Control

The Greek Infection Prevention Program (GRIPP-SNF) is a five-year program exclusively funded by SNF under the GHI with the goal of improving prevention and control of hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial resistance. The program is led by the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Outcomes Research, working in collaboration with the National Organization for Quality Assurance in Health, the Hellenic National Public Health Organization, and NKUA’s Nursing Department through the digital platform of the Center of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning.

The program includes a national training program for infection prevention and control, strengthening of hospital infection committees, establishment of a unified electronic surveillance database to track infection related indicators, and interventions aimed at reducing infections and antimicrobial resistance. To date, nine cycles of training have been completed, with 600+ health workers certified. At 10 of the largest public hospitals in Greece, 11 infection surveillance nurses have been added to the infection committees, the database continues to be used to monitor infections on an ongoing basis, and the first bundle of infection-prevention interventions have been introduced while additional bundles targeting other types of infections will follow later this year. Since the last update, the program has announced that the Ministry of Health supports the installation of the database at all ICUs in public hospitals across Greece, a positive signal for future sustainability and the adoption within the national health system as envisioned through the relevant legislation.

In February 2024, a GRIPP-SNF programmatic event recognized the hospital departments and personnel that have excelled in implementing the program. The event was received positively by participants, and the intent is to make it an annual occurrence. The event marked two years since a series of interventions at the ten participating public hospitals began working to reduce rates of hospital-acquired infections by applying internationally recognized best practices.

• Trauma Management

Also in ongoing implementation is the five-year educational program for the treatment of trauma in Greece, implemented by the nonprofit Regeneration & Progress in collaboration with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). The program includes a number of different seminars for medical and nursing students, doctors, and emergency responders.

Through February 2024, a total of 100 seminars have been completed, including 20 Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) seminars for medical students; 27 Advanced Trauma Care for Nurses seminars (ATCN); 38 Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) seminars for first responders, doctors, and nurses; 1 Advanced Pediatric Life Support (APLS) seminar; 11 Hands on Cadaver Courses (HOCC) for specialists; and 3 Operating Room Personnel courses for scrub nurses.

Beyond the training seminars, also supported under this grant are a Surgical Simulation Lab and a Bioskills Surgical Lab. The Surgical Simulation Lab, officially inaugurated in January 2023, runs under the medical supervision of the 1^st Orthopedic Surgery Clinic of Attikon General University Hospital for the field of orthopedic surgery, and the 3^rd University Surgical Clinic of Attikon Hospital for the field of general surgery. SNF support has supplied four state-of-the-art virtual reality surgical simulators to the Surgical Simulation Lab, and to date more than 600 early-career surgeons, residents, and medical students have been trained in the Lab.

The Bioksills Surgical Lab, officially inaugurated in June 2023, serves as a training facility for residents and certified surgeons to hone their skills using human cadavers donated for medical research as well as anatomical models. SNF support has equipped the lab with 9 surgical stations, each with an operating table, a supplementary instrument table, a complete set of surgical tools, and overhead lighting. To date, 11 hands-on cadaver courses have been completed, addressing topics such as wound management, advanced surgical techniques in joint reconstruction, and others.

Finally, 24 fellows have been selected to participate in the grant-supported Trauma Management Fellowship program for general and orthopedic surgeons at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) in Johannesburg, South Africa. With the first fellowships under the program having begun in 2023, one fellow has successfully completed the program to date. CHBAH is home to one of the world’s leading trauma training centers, affiliated with the University of Witwatersrand. This fellowship program is made possible through a recent partnership between NKUA and the University of Witwatersrand. During this program, fellows gain indispensable clinical and hands-on experience in treating patients with severe trauma, under the guidance and supervision of highly experienced personnel at CHBAH.

• Microsurgery Training

Since the last update, the SNF has committed support to a Training Program in Microsurgery which aims to strengthen the skills of early-career surgeons in Greece. The five-year program is exclusively supported by SNF and implemented by Regeneration & Progress with the University of Ioannina and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Microsurgery is a technique involving complex operations in which a microscope is used to improve surgical precision and is applied by surgical specialties to treat injuries to vessels, nerves, and tendons, mainly in the extremities. Despite its widespread use, microsurgery remains a sub-specialty and is not comprehensively taught within any other specialty or during medical school. The program involves immersive weeklong seminars, providing intensive one-on-one laboratory instruction in microsurgical techniques. The seminars will occur three times per year for the duration of the grant, with each hosting ten participants per year.

More broadly, the program offers early-career surgeons the opportunity to deepen their specialized knowledge, helping upgrade the surgical services available to patients in Greece. The inaugural seminar on microsurgery took place in January 2024 at the state-of-the-art Microsurgery Lab of the Orthopedic Department at the University of Ioannina, and the second seminar was completed in Athens in April 2024.

This grant builds on SNF's long support for the field of surgical training, including educational programs in collaboration with the Orthopedic Department at the University of Ioannina and the Microsurgery Training Weeks at the James R. Urbaniak Microsurgery Laboratory of the Panayiotis N. Soukakos Orthopedic Research and Education Center at Attikon University General Hospital.

• Training Program on Intensive Care

Launched as part of SNF’s global relief initiative for the COVID-19 pandemic, the five-year program in intensive care training in Greece is supported exclusively by SNF and is implemented by the THORAX Foundation under the supervision of the National Organization for Quality Assurance in Health. The programs are designed to cover a wide range of basic and specialized training for doctors and nurses, both in intensive care units and in related specialties. These trainings are expected to have immediate and long-term benefits for strengthening the quality of intensive care across Greece.

To date, more than 30 training seminars have been completed with more than 600 trainees comprising health professionals working in hospital intensive care units across Greece. The seminars are certified with continuing education credit by the Panhellenic Medical Association and the Hellenic Nurses Association. In addition, 10+ scholarships have been awarded to clinicians to support their attendance of training offered through the European Society for Intensive Care Medicine.

SNF also supported the procurement of specialized equipment for these training seminars, all of which has been delivered and is being actively utilized. There is ongoing discussion among national stakeholders in Greece regarding the potential of integrating the ICU training seminars into the required curriculum for medical students.

• Yorkshire Cancer Research
  
  

The first full of SNF’s partnership with Yorkshire Cancer Research has supported the expansion of its Active Together Cancer Rehabilitation Service, a pioneering, evidence-based exercise program that aims to improve outcomes and quality of life for patients before, during, and after cancer treatment. The service involves personalized exercise, nutrition, and psychological support programs for cancer patients as a free supplement to other treatment delivered through the UK’s National Health System.

After successfully implementing the Active Together service in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, SNF support allowed the charity to expand in North and West Yorkshire, including Leeds—through a new facility based in Harrogate—and to patients with all types of cancers. The expanded program officially launched in November 2023, following the opening of the new Harrogate Center in October 2023. Since November 2023, more than 85 new patients have been enrolled in the program with significant additional demand that the program is actively working to accommodate. By 2025, an estimated one thousand patients will have benefited through the expanded service, with a long-term vision that the service will become a standard part of care embedded in the UK’s NHS. In November 2023, SNF attended a supporter event organized by Yorkshire Cancer Research, affording the opportunity to see the new program headquarters in Harrogate.

The SNF grant also supports the launch of an exercise oncology fellowship program implemented by Yorkshire Cancer Research in collaboration with nonprofit Regeneration & Progress, exclusively supported by the SNF. The fellowship program design has been finalized and the inaugural cohort will begin in September 2024. The program will provide unique and valuable opportunities for exchange, learning, and collaboration for physicians in the UK and Greece alike.

• King Hussein Cancer Foundation
  
  

The King Hussein Cancer Foundation and Center (KHCF/C) is the leading cancer center in the Middle East, offering high-quality comprehensive care for all types of cancer to both child and adult patients. Under the GHI, SNF and KHCF/C have partnered to ensure access to cancer care for children in need across the region. More specifically, SNF’s grant supports KHCF/C’s Goodwill program enabling treatment for underprivileged child patients in need of immediate medical care across the Middle East.

The impact of the KHCF/C Goodwill program is lifesaving; over the first year of the grant, SNF’s support under the Goodwill funds enabled KHCC to provide holistic care for 75 pediatric patients from 8 different countries facing more than 15 different types of cancer. This amounts to approximately 40% of pediatric cancer cases treated annually at the Center, with patients in need prioritized under the Goodwill funds. The grant is now well into its second year of implementation supporting KHCF/C’s tireless efforts to respond to the most urgent treatment needs of underprivileged pediatric patients in Jordan and the broader region.

• The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative in Greece
  
  

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI) is fully under implementation across all its programmatic components in five regions of Greece. Under the public-private partnership between SNF and the Greek state and ratified through Law 5015/2023, the CAMHI is being implemented on the basis of a collaboration model between the Child Mind Institute and a nationwide Network on Child and Adolescent Mental Health, enabling cross-fertilization of local and international expertise with an explicit focus on documented needs on the ground and within the Greek public health system.

Since the last Progress Update, the CAMHI Network has been fully developed to comprise five regional hubs in Athens, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Alexandroupoli, and Crete, established through institutional partnerships with six public CAMH clinics.

In parallel, important progress has been made on the CAMHI’s capacity-building activities to empower and support professionals working with children and adolescents. To this end, the CAMHI team has developed a series of training courses tailored to the work and needs of different groups of professionals, including:

• Basic trainings on the basic principles of child mental health and child protection tailored to educators and school personnel. This training package has been developed in full and is currently under a wide pilot implementation phase across the country with the aim of continuously improving and refining the training materials based on the feedback and assessment of trainees. The pilot phase will run until September 2024, and work is underway for the development of a training-of-trainers methodology in partnership with the Ministry of Education to enable the next phase of full and country-wide dissemination of the training.
• Advanced trainings on short-term, scalable, and evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions to treat the most commonly recurring mental health difficulties among children and adolescents in Greece. After an extensive process of drafting, culturally adapting and refining the training packages, this suite of advanced trainings exclusively for mental health professionals is currently under pilot implementation through six public CAMH clinics across Greece, enhancing the provision of specialized care to child patients and their families who seek services in the public sector. Based on the results and assessments of this pilot phase and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, a full dissemination phase will follow across public CAMH clinics.
• Basic trainings on early detection and screening for mental health difficulties and needs, tailored to pediatricians and general doctors. This training package is under development in consultation with the target group and slated for piloting at the end of 2024.

Additionally, there is ongoing collaboration with the National School of Judges for the development of bespoke trainings on the basic principles of child mental health specifically tailored to professionals in the judicial sector. This training package is under development and slated for completion in the summer of 2024 to enable a pilot in the form of seminars provided to the students at the National School of Judges as part of their standard curriculum. At the same time, the partnership with the Institute of Child Health is also underway with the aim of developing a set of training material for professionals in the nonprofit and social sector working with children and adolescents. This training package is expected to be fully developed and ready for piloting by November 2024.

Cutting across all the CAMHI’s programmatic activities is the Youth Engagement Scheme (YES). YES lies at the heart of the Initiative, providing for a safe platform to listen to the voices of youth and work toward incorporating their ideas and feedback in all programmatic components. Under the YES program, five Youth Advisory Groups have been established for the 2023-2024 school year in five cities with 118 participating adolescents who come from 88 different schools and diverse social backgrounds and living settings. The youth groups meet locally on a regular basis to discuss mental health, engage in recreational and creative activities, and advise on the CAMHI’s priorities. In parallel, the program is enabling the establishment and empowerment of a strong network of collaborating educators who act as multipliers of the YES activities, bringing them back into their classrooms and creating space and time to discuss mental health within the school context. The YES program also includes smaller-scale interventions with children in vulnerable situations. To this end, a parallel youth group including children from the Muslim minority of Thrace was launched in Soufli in the framework of an established partnership with the local public school to empower young people to take the initiative, discuss diversity, and enhance inclusivity both within the school setting and the broader local community. Similar interventions are under development to include children living in residential care and children in contact with the law as part the program’s active effort to ensure inclusivity and representation across minoritized groups of children.

• Paidon Agia Sofia Children’s Hospital in Athens
  
  

Under the GHI, SNF’s grant to Paidon Agia Sophia Children’s Hospital is enabling the renovation and outfitting of an existing building within the hospital’s premises, in partnership with the hospital’s Department of Child Psychiatry. Upon completion of the renovation work, the building will house the Athens branch of the CAMHI Network, including for the enhancement of mental health care services for children and adolescents in Athens. The renovated building will include dedicated training spaces, clinical rooms, and office spaces to further enable the implementation of the CAMHI’s programmatic components, as well as to enhance the provision of services by the hospital’s Child Psychiatry Department.

Since the previous GHI Progress Update, the final design study and permitting procedures were concluded through continued collaboration with all stakeholders and the early involvement of the contractor. The renovations work started in April 2024 and is slated for completion in the second half of 2024. In parallel, the individual Grant Agreement between SNF and the Greek state has been submitted for ratification under law.

• SNF Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute
  
  

The SNF Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute was established with a founding grant from SNF that came at a pivotal moment amidst widespread recognition of a global crisis in mental health and urgent calls for equitable, culturally sensitive, and evidence-based care. The overarching goal of the SNF Global Center is to systematically expand access to, quality of, and equity in child and adolescent mental health care worldwide with a specific focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The SNF Global Center aims to fill gaps in data about child and adolescent mental health globally, multiculturally adapt psychosocial interventions and training; develop digital innovations that can be applied in mental health care delivery and research; share reliable information for professional and lay audiences; implement anti-stigma campaigns; empower the next generation of leaders through fellowships for LMIC-based clinicians, researchers, and communicators; and regularly convene diverse groups of experts to accelerate international collaboration.

Having entered its second year of implementation, the SNF Global Center is working to develop numerous partnerships, with initial efforts concentrated in Brazil and South Africa as well as Mozambique, with a wide range of stakeholders such as public bodies, academic institutions, non-governmental and community-based organizations, and professional associations.

During year one, the SNF Global Center held its inaugural Expert Gathering which convened more than 50 experts from 17 countries, and a launch event, which introduced the center formally to the broader global mental health community. It established an International Advisory Council (IAC) comprised of experts from around the world which will advise on the center’s strategy. A critical partnership was also finalized with the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions to support a range of SNF Global Center efforts.

Year two activity includes the SNF Global Clinical Fellows program, through which an inaugural, multidisciplinary cohort of three Mozambican fellows will obtain specialized training for one year in Brazil, then return to posts in Mozambique’s national health system with a second year of fellowship support. Additional international partnerships and collaborative activities are expected to be launched throughout year two, and a second Expert Gathering was held in May 2024 in Brazil. New Researcher and Communicator Fellowship programs are also planned to launch within 2024.

• SNF Center for Precision Psychiatry and Mental Health at Columbia University
  
  

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health at Columbia University seeks to catalyze the scientific innovation and clinical implementation of precision medicine to advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness and provide pioneering international leadership in the emerging field of precision psychiatry.

The SNF Center leverages Columbia’s leading work across the fields of genomics, neuroscience, and epidemiology, drawing on expertise at the Department of Psychiatry, the New York State Psychiatric Institute, the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, and the Columbia-affiliated New York Genome Center. The Center is also committed to leveraging its partnerships to ensure that innovations are accessible to all, regardless of background.

Since the last Progress Update, the SNF Center has entered its second year of implementation. Its first year saw the establishment of its Scientific Advisory Committee, assembly of the center’s team including scientific, leadership, and administrative staff, as well as a range of activities and partnership-building across three main workstreams: Etiologic Studies, Translational Neuroscience, and Clinical Research.

To date, the SNF Center has established critical partnerships within and outside of Columbia, including with the New York State Office of Mental Health, the Columbia Department of Biomedical Informatics, and others in ongoing development. It has established two physical locations, with its headquarters at the New York State Psychiatric Institute currently under renovation, and a second space in the state-of-the-art Zuckerman Institute facilities already occupied by the team. The SNF Center has procured highly specialized lab equipment, which is being custom-built to the center’s specifications. The center is actively strategizing its next year of implementation, identifying high priority projects, building the required teams, and further developing partnerships to carry out its innovative work.

• National Children’s Alliance
  
  

As the national association and accrediting body for a network of nearly a thousand Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) across the United States, the National Children’s Alliance (NCA) is working to expand access to trauma therapy for children who have been victims of abuse. With SNF support, NCA has launched, in October 2023, a national training program for Child & Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI), an evidence-based treatment specifically designed for children and adolescents and shown to significantly reduce symptoms of traumatic stress.

Building on NCA’s experience delivering CFTSI training on a smaller scale in a number of US states, this scaled-up, national effort aims to address the shortage of therapists trained to deliver trauma-informed therapy for children—a major gap that prevents tens of thousands of children each year from accessing care. Delivered through the new NCA Institute for Better Mental Health Outcomes, NCA aims to train 1,000 clinicians who will reach up to 44,000 children by the end of the five-year grant, and 25,000 children per year thereafter.

Second and third trainings were completed virtually in January 2024 and April 2024. Going forward, training will be available multiple times per year going forward in both in-person and virtual formats, closing a major gap in accessibility and affordability, to enable clinicians to gain skills in delivering this treatment with the ultimate aim of getting more children the care they need and reducing potentially harmful waitlists and delays.  

NCA has also developed fact sheets and videos for caregivers and clinicians, available in both English and Spanish, that were published in January 2024. During 2024, the NCA will be developing additional resources to support clinicians in delivering CFTSI via teletherapy to further enhance access and flexibility for patients and providers alike.

• Tygerberg Hospital Children’s Trust
  
  

With SNF support, the Tygerberg Hospital Children’s Trust (THCT), a nonprofit based in South Africa, is carrying out renovations and other improvements to benefit the Adolescent Psychiatry Unit at Tygerberg Hospital. The hospital is one of the country’s largest public facilities, and the unit sees some of the most complex cases of mental illness among adolescents in the province.

Despite its critical role in the provincial health system, the unit requires important facility upgrades to ensure a sufficiently adolescent-friendly, inviting, and safe space. SNF support will also cover the transformation of the unit’s outdoor space for recreation, leisure, and contact with nature, including a vegetable garden, as well as activities and games that stimulate patients in healthy ways. It is expected that about 300 adolescents annually will benefit from the improvements once they are completed, along with unit staff who will be able to better serve patients.

Since the last update, designs for the minor renovation work and aesthetic improvements were developed, contractors and suppliers were selected, and a hospital project committee was assembled. The minor renovations kicked off in December 2023, contributing to the vision for a more functional and adolescent-friendly space that promotes healing. Work is ongoing for the internal areas of the ward and anticipated to be completed by mid-2024, after which work on the outdoor areas and additional areas of support will commence.

• SNF-Release Athens Grants

Following the close collaboration between SNF and Release Athens that welcomed thousands of people to concerts as part of SNF Nostos 2023, SNF had made €500,000 in new grants to a total of eight nonprofit organizations that support mental health (seven in Greece, one in the US).

Recipient organizations, in many cases, harness the power of music and the arts within the mental health sphere. 

Since the last update, programming for all grants has begun and implementation is ongoing with several grantees having made notable progress to date. For example, as of early 2024:

• El Sistema has served more than 350 students of 36 different nationalities at 7 locations including refugee camps, community centers, conservatoires, and its space in Athens.
• More than 200 people have participated in SevenEleven’s music and arts therapy workshops, as they implement the fourth cycle at the Elize & Basil Foundation Museum.
• EPAPSY has run 14 workshops around Greece and 1 music festival in Lamia, which raised awareness on mental health via the SNF-supported TALK! It’s OK! Program.
• 74 people have benefitted from Syn-eirmos’s services at the BABEL Day Center, including through psychiatric and psychological support sessions.
• The Institute for Child Health’s interdisciplinary team is already providing services to adolescents and their families. A partnership with Child and Adolescence Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI) is also underway for the development of training materials for professionals in the nonprofit and social service sector working with children and adolescents in Greece.
• Service Program for Older People (SPOP) has closed a critical budget gap with SNF’s support, allowing continuity of services to hundreds of individuals at senior centers in New York, many low-income, medically frail, non-English speakers, or people with vision loss, experiencing homelessness, or members of the LGBTQ+ community.
• Angels of Joy’s music therapy programs are ongoing at children’s hospitals in Athens, including neonatal intensive care units, oncology units, and psychiatric inpatient units, providing relief and support to children and their families and caregivers.
• Merimna is providing bereavement support to children and adolescents via specialist psychologists, as well as to families in general, to help them effectively navigate grief, to promote resilience, and to prevent chronic issues that may affect their mental health.
  
  
  

• Grassroot Soccer
  

  
  SNF’s support to Grassroot Soccer, which began in 2021, was recently integrated under the GHI and recognizes the urgent need to bring accessible mental health and wellbeing support to vulnerable young people across Africa. SNF support to Grassroot Soccer facilitates the adaptation and scaling of a holistic, sport-based mental wellbeing intervention for youth ages 10-19 in Kenya.

  At the heart of Grassroot Soccer’s strategy is the MindSKILLZ curriculum, developed after the success of its Mindset program in Scotland, aiming to comprehensively address adolescent mental wellbeing in the context of the current pressing global adolescent mental health crisis. Guided by trained mentors, the 12-session MindSKILLZ curriculum covers essential topics such as emotional expression, coping strategies, and stigma reduction. The program also enhances adolescents’ access to youth-friendly health services while building capacity across partner networks in Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, ensuring sustainability and scalability beyond the project’s duration.

  Supported by SNF, Grassroot Soccer and partners aimed to engage more than four thousand adolescents and 30 Coaches in Kenya by mid-2024, filling a critical gap in mental health support for African youths. Through sport and community engagement, MindSKILLZ lays the groundwork for a healthier, more resilient generation.

  

• The SNF Institute Global Infectious Disease Research at The Rockefeller University
  
  

The SNF Institute for Global Infectious Disease Research at The Rockefeller University represents a landmark investment in global health and biomedical science. It is led by Nobel laureate Charles Rice, head of the university’s Laboratory of Virology and Infectious Disease and Chair of New York State’s COVID-19 Clinical Advisory Task Force, and co-directed by immunologist Michel Nussenzweig, and Barry Coller, physician-in-chief of The Rockefeller University Hospital.

The SNF Institute's mission encompasses complementary efforts in research, global partnerships, education and training, and public engagement. The SNF Institute works to support early-career researchers, innovative projects, and clinical and translational studies at The Rockefeller University Hospital. It is working to build further international collaborations, and to engage intentionally with the public and its surrounding community by making scientific findings accessible to lay audiences, participating in outreach programs to attract young students into careers in science, and carrying out community-engaged research studies.

Since the last update, the SNF Institute has entered its second year of implementation. In year one, the SNF Institute held a successful inaugural symposium on campus, in which more than 25 labs participated, which will become an annual event. Following an open call announced at the symposium, 31 projects in 29 labs were awarded internal grants to support infectious disease research across campus. Under the leadership of Dr. Coller at The Rockefeller University hospital, 8 projects by early-career scientists were awarded pilot grants for clinical and translational research. A bimonthly SNF Institute seminar series was established to feature research in progress on campus in infectious disease-related topics, and the institute also became a co-sponsor of the existing weekly Seminars in Clinical Research series. A framework agreement with the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Switzerland was finalized, through which collaboration on specific studies is anticipated, starting with a focus on antibody therapy for tick-borne encephalitis. The SNF Institute has also begun a new community-engaged research project initiated on Chagas disease, addressing an issue faced by individuals arriving in the US from Latin America.

In the area of public engagement, discussions are ongoing between the SNF Institute and iMEdD as well as SNF Dialogues to explore opportunities for collaboration including on efforts to widely and impactfully communicate scientific advancements to the public. In addition, efforts to engage the university’s school-based outreach program, RockEDU, are in progress, as are conversations with global bioethics experts to integrate this perspective into SNF Institute work, furthering its goal of ensuring fair global access to scientific advances.  

Finally, in its first year, the SNF Institute established its International Advisory Board, comprised of 10 distinguished scientists and researchers. The first meeting of the Board took place in April 2024 in conjunction with the second annual symposium on campus.

• ETH Engineering for Humanitarian Action Initiative
  
  

The SNF GHI is also supporting the Engineering for Humanitarian Action (HAC) Initiative, which launched in 2020 as a partnership between ETH Zurich’s ETH for Development, the EssentialTech Centre at EPF Lausanne, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The HAC initiative will incubate scientific and technological innovations that improve service delivery to populations affected by humanitarian crises—among its focus areas is digital health and medical technologies. Projects are developed in close collaboration between researchers and practitioners at the ICRC and must address a demonstrated need in the humanitarian context. It is envisioned that solutions developed through the initiative will benefit the ICRC as well as the humanitarian sector more broadly. As previously reported, the program has also developed two massive open online courses (MOOCs) on the topics of digitization in humanitarian action and digital supply chain and cybersecurity which will be freely available online.

The fourth call for proposals ran through the end of March 2024. To that end, several thematic workshops were completed to help researchers in proposal development. For example, in December 2023, the Initiative held a workshop on how advances in Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models might disrupt or be integrated into humanitarian agencies’ management of data.

• ETH Zurich Foundation, Professorship in Architecture & Care
  
  

This grant supports the cross-disciplinary Professorship of Architecture & Care, established in 2023; SNF supported its launch and first decade of operation, while ETH has committed to support it for the following two decades. The Professorship of Architecture and Care is one of eight Professorships under ETH's Rehabilitation Initiative, which seeks improved medical care and a better quality of life.​ ​

In January 2023, Professor Anna Puigjaner was selected for the position of Full Professor of Architecture and Care at the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich. Dr. Puigjaner is an architect, researcher, and co-founder of MAIO, an architectural firm in Barcelona. Prior to joining ETH, she held the position of Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University in New York. Her work focuses on alternative and inclusive care architecture, and she has been awarded for her research with the Wheelwright Prize in 2016. ​

During the first year of the Chair’s existence, which has just come to completion, all research and teaching faculty have been hired. ​The Chair aims to create proposals with a transformative effect on society at large. ​The Chair has already successfully developed several courses, research proposals, and external collaborations with partner institutions. ​The first cohort of Diploma students were admitted in October 2023. 
​

• SNF Bioethics Academy
  
  

Launched in 2019 with exclusive support from SNF, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Bioethics Academy (SNFBA) aims to expand awareness of bioethics in Greece through participatory workshops on timely ethical questions. SNFBA is organized through a partnership between the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University and the Bioethics Chair at ETH Zurich and is codirected by Jeffrey Kahn, the Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Berman Institute, and Effy Vayena, Head of the Health Ethics and Policy Lab at ETH Zurich.

In February 2024, SNF approved support for the program for an additional five years.  To date, over 200 medical students, biomedical research scientists, and mid-career professionals in a variety of health-related disciplines have participated. The next five years of programming will include intensive courses for early- and mid-career professionals, a train-the-trainer program, a lecture series, and year-round support for projects that course participants and alumni are carrying out. As the ultimate goal of the program is to build bioethics capacity in Greece, Hopkins and ETH Zurich are exploring collaborations to strengthen and sustain the program and to create a more fertile environment in which alumni can grow their work and contribute meaningfully to the health care landscape in Greece.