The relentless rise in diabetes is one of the greatest global health emergencies of the 21st century. The increase is most pronounced in low and middle income countries where today three quarters of people with diabetes live and over 80% of the deaths attributed to non-communicable diseases occur. In light of the wealth of knowledge already available about how to tackle the problem, most major international organizations call for the adoption healthy public policies and initiatives to strengthening health systems. However, implementation of recommended action remains limited in many settings. Most evidence comes from high-income settings and may generate recommendations that cannot be successfully implemented in other settings without careful consideration and contextualization. I propose here that this “know-do” gap can be reduced by revealing the barriers to implementing evidence-based recommendations, engaging local stakeholders in developing context-led innovations and developing a tool-kit for contextualizing and implementing diabetes recommendations in low-resource settings. I plan the research in two carefully selected settings in Ecuador, with mixed-methods combining quantitative epidemiological research and qualitative methodology to generate the rich and varied knowledge that is required to trigger policy action and/or changes in care models. Furthermore, I will engage patients, community members, health workers and decision makers in the process of knowledge generation, interpretation and use. The overarching objective is hence, to explore the process by which global recommendations can be translated into context-specific, evidence-informed action for diabetes prevention in low-resource settings. The findings will support the global endeavour to bridge the global “know-do” gap, one of the most important public health challenges this century and a great opportunity for strengthening health systems and achieving health equity.

Healthcare fragmentation is a main cause for delay in cancer diagnosis and treatment, contributing to high and steadily increasing mortality rates in Latin America(LA), particularly among disadvantaged populations. Building on Equity-LA I (GA223123) and II (GA305197), this research focuses on integrated care interventions, which have proven effective at improving early diagnosis of cancer, mostly in HIC, and are also promoted by national cancer plans in LA, but limitedly implemented or evaluated. The objective is to evaluate the contextual effectiveness of scaling-up a multicomponent integrated care intervention to improve early diagnosis of frequent cancers in healthcare networks of Chile, Colombia and Ecuador. Method: This participatory, interdisciplinary and mix-methods implementation research is two-pronged: a) a quasi-experimental design (controlled before and after) with an intervention and a control healthcare network; b) a case study design. Focussing on the most vulnerable socioeconomic population, it develops in four phases: 1) analysis of delays, related factors and contextual barriers to early diagnosis (base-line); 2) adaptation and scaling-up of the intervention (PC training, fast-track referral pathway and patient information, adapting available ICT tools) in real life; 3) intra-country evaluation of intervention; 4) cross-country analysis. ICT tools will be also adopted in research activities as needed in a Covid-19 on-going or post- pandemic context. Relevance: EquityCancer-LA contributes to H2020 call objectives advancing cancer control policies by generating: 1) robust evidence on contextual effectiveness and costs-effectiveness of an affordable, tailored intervention to reduce diagnostic delays; and a validated strategy for its large-scale implementation in LA and LMICs; 2) novel data on delays and key barriers and facilitators to early diagnosis and inequalities in access; 3) e-tools to improve clinical practice and research on early diagnosis.

"ECALFOR project (Evaluation of teacher training in Latin America and the Caribbean. Guarantee of quality of education degrees) rests on two axes of action with high educational and social utility aligned with the strategic needs of higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean for training of compulsory education teachers:- Improvement of the disciplinary and pedagogical training of compulsory education teachers.- Quality assurance processes of higher education programs and international certification of degrees.The first of the axes is developed by carrying out an analysis of the characteristics and quality of the training that the future teachers of the compulsory education centers in primary and secondary education receive in the institutions of higher education (HEI) of the participating countries. The results of this analysis will be compared with teacher training in HEIs of the four participating countries of Europe, in order to create a transnational and harmonized model of teacher training and exchange good pedagogical practices, ""building capacity"" and synergies between the partners and energizing the internationalization and homologation of higher education of compulsory education teachers, and the qualifications that form it, in Latin America and the Caribbean.The second axe implements systems and protocols for quality assurance in teacher training qualifications, based on the creation of Quality Units in each of the Latin American and Caribbean HEIs. For this, technicians are trained in the HEIs of the partner countries with the advice of the Agency for the Quality of the University System of Galicia (ACSUG), guaranteeing this institution the application of quality assessment criteria supported by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA)."