IVI and Denmark

 

Danish Leadership at IVI

 

Dr. Lars Pallesen of the Statens Seruminstitut & Danish Pharmaceutical Association was a founding leader of IVI and served on the Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2001.

 

Danish Funding to IVI

 

In 2022, The Danish Minister for Health, H.E. Magnus Heunicke, visited IVI on 30 August 2022 and announced Denmark’s core budget contribution of 4 million DKK ($570,000 USD) to IVI.

 

The Danish contribution to IVI supported both the Institute’s mission and advanced the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through strengthening health security in LMICs. The funding also boosted collaboration between Danish researchers and IVI in disease surveillance and vaccine R&D to combat Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

 

Ongoing Collaboration

 

Strengthening External Quality Assurance for AMR in Asia (EQASIA)

IVI is part of a consortium led by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) along with the Veterinary Faculty at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand to strengthen External Quality Assurance (EQA) for AMR in Asia through the EQASIA project.

 

Phase I of the project identified and mapped the coverage, availability, and uptake of EQA programs in Asia and provided seven rounds of EQA services and relevant training (two virtual and one face-to-face workshop) to National Reference Laboratories and Centers of Excellence across One Health sectors in Asia during 2021-23. The report from the first six rounds of EQA has been published. Similarly, IVI developed the EQAsia costing tool for cost analysis and cost forecasting of the EQA program.

 

The EQAsia project started in January 2019 and continued until October 2023. The project transitioned into the second phase in November 2023 with a similar scope of work and will continue to run through December 2025. The second phase will provide four rounds of EQAs to 33 National Reference Laboratories/Centers of Excellence in Asia and support two out of 13 countries participating in the EQAsia project to establish a National External Quality Assurance program, provide training in Quality Management Systems, and build up countries’ capacity to conduct One Health-focused EQA independently.

 

Partnership with ICARS (International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions)

In December 2020, IVI began its partnership with ICARS through a jointly-hosted webinar titled “Advancing the Antimicrobial Resistance agenda during a pandemic.” Officials from ICARS, IVI and the Embassy of Denmark in Korea offered strategies to tackle AMR and improve evidence and data collection in low- and middle-income countries where this issue poses a particularly large threat.