News

Talking Science, Talking Sense - November 2011

The Humanitarian Futures Progamme has produced the following short film (available in English and Wolof) on science-humanitarian policy dialogue from their recent exchange work in Senegal.

Many QWeCI partners are involved in Humanitarian Futures Progamme and Dr Jacques-Andre Ndione (CSE) appears in the film.

In English:

Talking Science, Talking Sense from Humanitarian Futures Programme on Vimeo.

In Wolof:

Talking Science, Talking Sense (IN WOLOF) from Humanitarian Futures Programme on Vimeo.

QWeCI Newsletter issue 3 is now available - October 2011

Click here to download issue 3

Second Annual Meeting Pictures - October 2011

Some pictures from the Second Annual Project Meeting in Trieste have been uploaded.

Please check them out  here

QWeCI Partners publish an article in Environmental Health Perspectives - September 2011

QWeCI partners Volker Ermert, Andreas Fink and Andy Morse have recently published an article in the Environmental Health Perspectives Journal.

The article, titled 'The Impact of Regional Climate Change due to Greenhouse Forcing and Land-Use Changes on Malaria Risk in Tropical Africa' can be viewed here.

QWeCI Wireless Work presented at US Workshop - August 2011

At the recent ‘National Science Foundation Workshop on Science and Cyberinfrastructure in Africa’ in Boulder, Colorado, Dr Marco Zennaro of ICTP presented ICTP’s work on wireless and spoke about the QWeCI Project.

Dr Zennaro’s slides can be found here.

More information on Science and Cyberinfrastructure in Africa can be found here.

HEALTHY FUTURES website launched - July 2011

The HEALTHY FUTURES project aims to respond to global environmental concerns through construction of a disease risk mapping system for three water-related, high-impact VBDs (malaria, Rift Valley fever and schistosomiasis) in eastern Africa, taking into account environmental/climatic trends and changes in socio-economic conditions to predict future risk.

For more information, visit http://www.healthyfutures.eu.

Bluetongue Modelling Paper published - July 2011

QWeCI Partners, Prof Matthew Baylis, Dr Andy Morse, Dr Cyril Caminade et al. have published a paper in the Journal of the Royal Society of Interface.

The paper, titled 'Modelling the effects of past and future climate on the risk of bluetongue emergence in Europe', can be accessed here

QWeCI Bilingual Brochure – 11 May 2011

A letter of presentation and a bilingual (English / French) brochure have been developed to help introduce the QWeCI project to various stakeholders across Europe and Africa.

The brochure presents the QWeCI project mission, its pilot projects and partners, its funding bodies and participating countries, and describes the positive impacts the QWeCI project will have on health and society.

The letter of presentation and bilingual brochure can be viewed below:

Click here to view the QWeCI Letter of Presentation.

Click here to view the QWeCI bilingual brochure.

The QWeCI Atmospheric Database is now online – 26 April 2011

The alpha version can be entered via a web portal (visithttp://qweci.uni-koeln.de and go to "Atmospheric database").

Initially, short profiles are presented of different datasets. Subsequently, the user can either enter particular metadata, visit the original provider of the data, or is able to directly download data files. Detailed metadata is provided for each dataset according to the ISO 19139 geographic information metadata XML schema implementation.

The datasets of the QWeCI atmospheric database can be downloaded from a publicly accessible FTP server (free access viaftp://ftp.uni-koeln.de/institute/qweci).

The data files, example graphics of the data, the XML file of the dataset, and supporting files are all downloadable.

If you have any questions, please contact Volker Ermert.

QWeCI partners publish articles in the Malaria Journal - 7 April 2011

QWeCI partners Volker Ermert, Andreas Fink, Anne Jones and Andy Morse have recently published two articles in the Malaria Journal about the development of the new version of the Liverpool Malaria Model. The two articles can be found here:

Development of a new version of the Liverpool Malaria Model. I. Refining the parameter settings and mathematical formulation of basic processes based on a literature review, Published: 11 February 2011

Development of a new version of the Liverpool Malaria Model. II. Calibration and validation for West Africa, Published: 16 March 2011

Formal FP7 Reporting – 5 April 2011

The first round of formal FP7 reporting will be due in M18. In order to prepare for this, all partners and financial administrators are requested to register on the European Commission’s Participant Portal website: click here.

EID Database accessible online – 17 March 2011

The ENHanCE Project has made the Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) database available online. If you would like to access the database, please use the following link:http://www.zoonosis.ac.uk/eid. 

September QWeCI meeting planned in Trieste, Italy - 15 March 2011

A second project meeting has been planned in Trieste, Italy from 14 to 16 September, 2011, hosted by ICTP. The QWeCI meeting will be preceded by ICTP workshop events which may also be of interest to QWeCI partners – these will be held from 12 to 13 September, and QWeCI partners are welcome to attend, if they wish. QWeCI partners should contact the organiser directly (tompkins@ictp.it) to register the dates of their arrival and departure.

QWeCI Newsletter issue 2 is now available - February 2011

Click here to download issue 2

UP becomes IPCC leader in climate change and human health - 4th February 2011

Dr Jane Olwoch (UP) was asked to serve as Lead Author of the chapter on Human Health in the forthcoming Fifth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Click here to read more.

Rainfall Data - 2nd February 2011

Adrian Tompkins has made available some gridded rainfall data. Daily precipitation datasets available here:

http://clima-dods.ictp.it/d10/tompkins/qweci/data/

CMORPH: 25km
FEWS : 0.1 and 1.0 degree (please note fews_20071113.nc is a dummy file, repear of the 12th, as is missing from FEWS archive)
GPCP 1dd: 1.0 degree all in NETCDF.

QWeCI newsletter issue 1 is now available - July 2010

Click here to download issue 1

Kick Off Meeting - February 2010 and April 2010

The QWeCI project started in February 2010 and was planned to have a first kick–off meeting within the first three months to launch the project into full motion. The rather unexpected occurrence of an Icelandic volcano reduced the scope of the original QWeCI kick–off meeting to a smaller scale event. It proves that a proposal contingency plan can never include all circumstances!

April’s meeting was, nevertheless, very valuable with a small group of UK–based QWeCI scientists, early arrivers and others joining via teleconference able to discuss uses of atmospheric model output, bias correction and downscaling techniques and the atmospheric and health databases and data access issues during the meeting. A particular focus was made on the seamless aspects of the QWeCI systems to be developed. Administration aspects of the project were also covered, including the details of the consortium agreement, the ethical clearance procedures, and the workpackage leaders were allocated. The selection of possible advisory board members was deferred to the June meeting.