Global Center for Health Security
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University of Nebraska Medical Center

International Engagement & Partnerships

GCHS acknowledges the vital importance of global partnerships in achieving health security, as emerging pathogens do not recognize borders. Effective pandemic control necessitates international collaboration and engagement. Although the COVID-19 pandemic hindered global cooperation, GCHS has made it a priority to reconnect with partners and implement lessons learned from the pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 has been significant, affecting not only global health but also the ability of health security organizations to collaborate internationally. With a decrease in cases and fatalities, GCHS is increasingly focusing on outreach to health experts worldwide through various initiatives. Strengthening these connections is essential for the field’s readiness to address any future global health emergencies swiftly and effectively.

International Engagement

  • GCHS provided direct support for response in the 2024 Marburg virus disease outbreak in Rwanda and the 2022 and 2025 Ebola (Sudan) virus disease outbreaks in Uganda.
  • Ongoing GCHS international partnerships focus on infection prevention and control, healthcare training, infectious disease curricula, and health security leadership. This has led to regional strengthening fueled by local resources, such as the Uganda team fielding to Rwanda in to embed in the recent Marburg response.
  • GCHS accomplishes this through collaboration within country partners before and after such emergencies. These collaborations include the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, the Infectious Diseases Institute at Makerere, University for Global Health Equity, University of Rwanda, and Amref International University.
  • East Africa remains a key region for global health security, given its emerging disease threats and strategic role in trade. Over the past year, GCHS has strengthened partnerships with government, academic, and NGO groups in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Key initiatives include improving infection prevention, developing healthcare training programs, building infectious disease curricula, and fostering leadership in health security. Collaborators include Uganda’s Makerere University, Rwanda’s University for Global Health Equity, and the Rwanda Biomedical Centre.
  • In FY2024, GCHS launched a major new partnership with the Jumuiya Economic Development Secretariat (JEDS) to organize the 2025 East Africa Region Global Health Security Summit. JEDS represents six coastal Kenyan counties, including Mombasa. The leadership and enthusiasm from the business sector give GCHS hope that East Africa can become a global model for community-based preparedness.
  • The East Africa Region Global Health Security Summit was held in Mombasa, Kenya in January 2025. Learn more. 
  • The GCHS and the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit (NBU began a reciprocal educational partnership with Japan’s National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCMG) in March 2023. Over the course of a year, the two facilities met virtually to discuss biocontainment best practices and answer questions about processes and care that are unique to the respective nations.
  • In October 2022, a delegation from Japan’s National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM) visited the GCHS for a series of meetings and a tour of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. In June 2023, a NETEC team traveled to Tokyo to reciprocate that visit and continue collaboration-setting discussions between NCGM and NETEC. Further, facilitated by NETEC’s International Partnership and Programs, the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit and NCGM’s Disease Control and Prevention Center are participating in a pilot “Twinning," a dynamic peer-to-peer collaboration that includes networking and the exchange of ideas and resources. The teams began “Twinning” in April 2023 and finished a 1-year pilot in March 2024, although the hope is for the relationship between the two organizations to continue.
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In July 2019, Jocelyn Herstein, PhD joined GCHS directors John Lowe, PhD, and James Lawler, MD in Ghana to help strengthen existing efforts for infectious disease surveillance and response. Working with key leaders from the U.S. Embassy, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Global Health Security, the Ghanaian Directorate of Agriculture, and the University of Ghana's School of Veterinary Medicine, our team explored new opportunities for OneHealth Research, investigating antimicrobial resistance with Ghanaian collaborators, and established collaborative partnerships with the 37th Military Hospital in Accra and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.

A team of UNMC/Nebraska Medicine physicians, nurses, and researchers conducted the second round of preparedness and response training for Nigeria Biopreparedness Initiative in July 2019. The GCHS, in partnership with the Walter Reed Program Nigeria, Henry Jackson Foundation, Nigeria Ministry of Defense, and U.S. Consulate Nigeria, continues to lead the way in readiness training all over the world.

Dr. Lawler, GCHS executive director, and Dr. Herstein, director of the Sub-Saharan Africa Region, traveled to Berlin, Germany, to attend the 2019 World Health Summit to learn from notable speakers such as World Health Organization Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyeus, PhD, and ministers of health representing Uganda, Ghana, Brazil, Paraguay, and Germany.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense established a multi-institute project after the 2013-216 Ebola virus spread in West Africa: the Joint Mobile Emerging Disease Intervention Clinical Capability (JMEDICC). Since its inception, the GCHS has worked with the JMEDICC project in Fort Portal, Uganda.

International Partnerships

  • Partnering with institutions with high-level isolation units in Singapore, Germany, South Korea and China, we are are developing a clinical trials network and clinical response force to ensure a rapid exchange of information and resources during pandemics. The goal: Local and worldwide health system and public health preparedness.

  • SPRN is a network of U.S. institutions with high-level clinical isolations units that are committed to the development and maintenance of rapid response clinical research infrastructure. The GCHS leads the SPRN with the network Director at UNMC and with core network central IRB infrastructure being housed at UNMC. The network has been leveraged and funded by federal agencies such as NIH and BARDA as well as industry to rapidly implement special pathogens clinical trials and expand access investigational new drug protocols. The network receives longitudinal extramural funding through the National Emerging Special Pathogen Training and Education.

  • The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), a World Health Organization network, provides international public health resources to control outbreaks and public health emergencies across the world. GCHS leadership has recently attended GOARN meetings in Switzerland, Rwanda, and Jordan. These meetings focused on the operational work of the steering committee to strengthen and advance GOARN's agenda and enhance regional strategic initiatives and collaborations.

NETEC’s International Partnerships and Programs (IPP) focuses on strengthening networking and collaboration with representatives from high-level isolation units and other special pathogens programs, globally. Since 2022, NETEC IPP has established an informal network of over 40 special pathogens programs in 20+ countries.