Projects
SPARK has a number of consortia-associated projects, details of which are here.
COVID-19 Modelling Activities
March 2020-June 2023
SPARK collaborators produced various high-level and governmental reports, publications and articles in relation to COVID-19 preparedness and situational analysis work in 2020. SPARK provided scenario modelling and situational awareness support in Malaysia and the Philippines in relation to COVID-19 and tuberculosis.
Related staff:
SAFETY-NET Training
November 2020-December 2020
To increase regional capacity, SPECTRUM and SPARK collaborators hosted a workshop entitled ‘Understanding Infectious Disease Modelling’ to a select group of participants for the Taiwan Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), in partnership with the South Asia Field Epidemiology and Technology Network (SAFETYNET) at their regional conference in November 2020, and at the Australasian COVID-19 Virtual Conference (PHAA) in December 2020. This workshop had a focus on modelling for COVID-19, highlighting the significance of epidemiological modelling in the development of public health interventions, situational analyses and emergency response. Targeted at policy advisors and public health officials, this workshop aimed to assist policy and decision makers make better expert use of evidence in adaptive control programs.
Related staff: Dr Patricia (Trish) Campbell, Dr Eamon Conway
WHO Seminar Series
September 2020-September 2020
SPARK worked in close collaboration with Linh-Vi Le (Lead, Strategic Epidemiology and Modelling, COVID-19, WPRO, member of SPARK’s expert reference group) in appropriate uses of modelling and translation of modelling outputs to policy. SPARK contributed over June/July to a webinar series for WHO regional and country staff across the Asia-Pacific, covering topics of preparedness modelling for policy, non-pharmaceutical interventions and health economics. A subsequent series delivered in September 2020 considered outbreak response, mobility assessment and impacts, optimal use of testing and the use of excess mortality data as an indicator of epidemic activity.
Related staff: Prof. Jodie McVernon
Mahidol University Scholarships
March 2020-June 2023
Key training partner Mahidol University in Thailand recruited six students from the Asia Pacific region to undertake the university’s Masters in Biomedical Health and Informatics. These scholarships were funded through SPARK.
Related staff: A/Prof. Wirichada Pan-Ngum (Pan)
The use of mobility data to model the transmission of COVID-19 in Indonesia
June 2020-June 2023
SPARK collaborators engage with research staff at EOCRU in Indonesia, where they have adapted and developed models to better understand transmission pathways and mobility of COVID-19 in Indonesia. A small technical team of SPARK researchers, supported by DiNeMo at CSIRO and WEHI, have supported the team at EOCRU to collect and clean COVID-19 case and mobility data, adapt models to accurately model transmission of disease and analyse the data received. As well as high-level technical support and guidance provided by SPARK, two Indonesian researchers within this team were awarded scholarships to undertake Masters degrees in Biomedical Health and Informatics scholarships to support this work.
Related staff: Dr Iadine Chades, Dr Dean Paini, Dr Iqbal Elyazar, Dr Ihsan Fadilah, Prof. Raja Jurdak, Karina Lestari, Dr Kamran Najeebullah, Rahmat Sagara
Supporting public health preparedness and response for COVID-19 in Papua New Guinea
May 2020-November 2020
NA
Related staff: Prof. Jodie McVernon, Prof. Barbara McPake, Dr Iadine Chades, Prof. Ivo Mueller, Dr Patricia (Trish) Campbell, Dr Eamon Conway, A/Prof. Roslyn Hickson, Dr David Price, Dr Freya Shearer
Seed Grants for Early- and Middle Career Researchers
June 2021-June 2024
Eleven seed funding grants were allocated to SPECTRUM & SPARK early- and middle-career researchers between throughout 2022. Grants were to be awarded based on demonstrated cross-node collaboration and the development of innovative tools for the control of infectious diseases using quantitative methods.
Related staff: