Who can apply? 

Those students who are interested in gaining hands-on experience on public health research by working with two exchange students from Germany on the research project „ Analyse and Creatively Process the Effects of  Air Pollution“.

Background information: 

The afore-mentioned research project will be carried out in the frames of  Engagement Global ASA-Program, which enables students from Germany to carry out research in one of the partner countries. The ASA program is a developmental learning & qualification program. This time the host university will be Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy.

Project information
The objectives  of the project are:

• To achieve improved knowledge, awareness, and health conscious behaviour of community members in Tbilisi,  relevant to  air pollution which is a risk factor for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) and  Chronic Respiratory Diseases (CRDs) in particular;
• The improvement of the local health policies on NCD (risk) prevention, specifically on air pollution and  on the reduced risk factor prevalence. This will be achieved based on the  research conducted in frames of the project.

Project partners: 

Akkon University of Applied Human Sciences in Berlin (akkon-hochschule.de).

Petre Shotadze Tbilisi Medical Academy (tma.edu.ge).

Project phase (German Team):

June-August 2025. Students from Akkon University will be conducting a preparatory phase before coming to Tbilisi.

Project phase in Germany:

• Conducting a literature review on the harms of  air pollution
• Overview of the health-care system in Georgia
• Dealing with aspects of social, environmental and cultural determinants of health
• Design of  the questionnaire and the topic guide for the survey and the interviews with the participants
• Formulation and elaboration of the material for a health promotion campaign (brochures, posters, booklets) 
• Presentation at Int. Young Researchers' Symposium on Global Health - A Satellite Symposium of World Health Summit, Berlin

Project phase in Tbilisi:

September-December 2025. Students from Germany will conduct field activities and engage in write-up of the project summary and research paper.

Project phase (Georgian Team): 

• Getting trained on photography skills
• Validating the survey and the topic guide
• Direct interaction with the community members in the research area- gathering data (survey, interview, and photographs)
• Working on the gathered data (statistics, transcription)
• Focus groups among participating students to reflect on the experience
• Drafting the article for the research
• Refining the messages of health promotion campaigns based on the gathered data
• Elaboration of the policy brief
• Results' dissemination meeting.

Students from TMA:

2 students from TMA will have an opportunity to join students from Akkon University for this project. They will have online meetings during summer, and once German students come to Georgia for the field trip they will assist in project implementation.

Eligibility criteria for interested students from TMA:

1- Being in the 4^th, 5^th or  6^th year of study from September 2025.  

2- Provide a letter of motivation and a CV with a previous indication of participation in similar type of initiatives/research if any. 

3- Fluency in English is required and academic performance of the interested students will be taken into consideration during the selection process. 

Interested students should send a resume and motivation letter by May 9, 2025 to the following email address:  m.maglakelidze@tma.edu.ge