The BIHSENA project is designed to respond to a profound lack of education opportunities in the interdisciplinary area of health, innovations and society in the two countries of Russia and Ukraine, and to bridge a gap between (bio)medical and social scientists, academics and practitioners in these two countries as well as between local and international communities. The need for such education and interdisciplinary/cross-sectorial engagements is urgent against the background of healthcare systems transformation and attempts to find innovative solutions for persisting health problems in the Eastern European neighbouring areas this project focuses on.Consortium members will develop relevant curricula:-Master specialization in ‘Innovations for Health’ and a preparatory course ‘Social studies of innovation’ in Russia -Post-graduate programme for medical professionals ‘Healthcare governance’, course ‘Introduction to health systems’ and course ‘Interdisciplinary epidemiology’ in Ukraine-Open online courses jointly developed and run by consortium members ‘Bridging medical and societal perspectives’ and ‘Health governance: cases from post-communist countries'During the work on the curriculum development, teaching staff from Ukrainian and Russian universities will receive training in student-centred education, use of ICT and English language; recent insights into complexities of health, innovations and society will be shared and discussed. As a result, education opportunities will be created, adequately preparing professionals to work for citizens' health under conditions of rapid technological change and increasing need for interdisciplinarity and internationalisation.The project team will also organize open events on the topics in health, medicine and society. These events will bring together scholars and practitioners of various disciplines and fields and will contribute to establishing a cross-sectorial dialogue.

Chronic disease is the major cause of death in the partner countries, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Russia.All the partner country governments have prioritised action in relation to chronic disease. The World Health Organisation point out that there is a need to increase the capacity of health care workers in this area and has noted that training of health care staff at primary level is inadequate to deal with diabetes. To improve healthcare outcomes and reduce the economic burden of chronic disease, enhanced training at post-graduate level is necessary. There is very little or no provision in the specific area targetted by this project in the partner countries.The specific objective of the project is to support the modernisation of the curriculum by developing new and innovative courses and methodologies in health studies related to chronic disease at masters level.The key deliverables are: •conducting a study tour of EU universities; •developing the approach and requirements for the masters programme; •developing programme curricula in line with the ECTS guidelines; •developing 12 modules and short courses; •developing a staff training and mobility programme; •running three one- week competence enhancing courses in the EU; •running 32 one-week “train the trainers” courses in partner HEIs. •launching the masters programmes with further “train the trainers” courses; •conducting 3 one-month long student mobilities.The impact of the project will be felt in the health sector by having health care workers trained in the new curricula, i.e. the use of the holistic approach to patient care and public health promotion, which acts as a model for other specialists in the sector. The final beneficiaries from the project are the patients who ultimately benefit from improved health competencies and governments who can reduce the costs of treating chronic disease.