Research Dissemination Conference: 20 Years of Collaboration in Stroke Rehabilitation, Uganda November 2025
On November 12, 2025, the conference Research Dissemination Conference: 20 Years of Collaboration in Stroke Rehabilitation was held at Makerere University, School of Public Health, Uganda. The event was organized by researchers from NVS/Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health, Karolinska Institutet and the Africa Medical and Behavioral Sciences Organization to share experiences from two decades of successful collaboration in education, research, and development of stroke rehabilitation.
The long-term exchange of teachers and students between the Uganda Institute of Allied Health and Management Sciences and NVS, as well as the partnership between Makerere University College of Health Sciences and KI, has contributed to strengthening global health through joint knowledge exchange, capacity building, and research initiatives.
Over these two decades, the collaboration has resulted in:
- Teacher exchanges: 26 exchanges in each direction between Uganda and Sweden, within the framework of the Linnaeus-Palme program (10 years) and the Erasmus program (3 years).
- Student exchanges: 20 students in each direction (10 years), plus 6 students from Uganda (3 years).
- Capacity building: 3 PhD candidates, one of whom graduated in 2018.
- Knowledge dissemination: Joint publications, training programs, and conferences to promote sustainable stroke rehabilitation and equitable global partnerships.
- Research: Two development research grants (PI Susanne Guidetti) and a network grant (PI Gunilla Eriksson) from the Swedish Research Council.
The conference emphasized the importance of long-term collaborations to improve stroke rehabilitation and strengthen research capacity in low- and middle-income countries. Presentations were primarily given by researchers and PhD students from Uganda, and stroke survivors shared their experiences of living with the consequences of stroke in Uganda. Additional participants included representatives from the Stroke Association, Stroke Foundation, Stroke Rehabilitation Center, and the Uganda Initiative for Integrated Management of Non-Communicable Diseases
