Helen Carlin is International Partnerships Manager in the Global Engagement and Partnerships team, which includes managing the University of Liverpool’s flagship partnership in the USA with the University of Georgia (UGA):
I have recently returned from a visit I coordinated with a group of our life scientists to Athens, Georgia for a workshop exploring Frontiers in Life Sciences, Future Health Challenges. This took place as part of the University’s ten year anniversary of successful collaboration with UGA, which has so far generated £22m of joint grant revenue.
During the workshop, discussions and ideas flowed around the health challenges we face. Researchers discussed how drawing on the expertise and facilities across the two universities could enhance infectious disease surveillance, drug discovery and the application of AI to scale up the speed with which we develop our understanding of life at the cellular and systems level.
News of our workshop had travelled to Atlanta and it was a pleasure to meet Rachel Galloway, the British Consul General based there, who described the University of Liverpool – UGA partnership as ‘a brilliant model of transatlantic co-operation’.
UGA campus
I have been managing the partnership with UGA for the last five years and it was a privilege to take our long-standing collaborators and also introduce new University of Liverpool staff to the facilities and expertise at UGA. The opportunities to draw on facilities such as UGA’s Centre for Complex Carbohydrate Chemistry were explored.
Our partnership with UGA extends well beyond the life sciences and while there I took the time to check-in with UGA colleagues on humanities collaborations. This included Professor David Okech who collaborates with the University of Liverpool’s Professor Alex Balch on our US State Department funded programme on Human Trafficking in West Africa. This programme has set up methods for measuring the prevalence of and understanding trafficking as well supporting victims.
I also heard about an established collaboration with Professor Stephen Soper (UGA) and Dr Stephen Kenny (University of Liverpool) on the understanding of transatlantic slavery and how crucial the collaboration between Liverpool and UGA is, each holding different parts of the puzzle. I met a new UGA collaborator in this field, Assistant Professor Tracey Johnson, working with Dr Kate Roscoe and Professor Barry Godfrey on Ethical Digital Public History, building on long established collaborations into prison populations and the legacy of slavery.
Meeting UGA researchers working with Liverpool colleagues
Our latest grant with UGA, jointly funded by EPSRC and College of Biomedical Equipment Technology in the US, will focus on low CO2 sustainable bioplastics.
This has been my third visit to UGA. Each time, I go, it feels like I am visiting old friends. This time it was fantastic to take new people and introduce them to this amazing partner and their wonderful hospitality.
For further information about University’s collaboration with the University of Georgia or to contact Helen Carlin, click here: USA – Global Engagement and Partnerships – University of Liverpool