Celebrating 10 Years of Global Strategy Lab

We’re thrilled to announce an exciting milestone: 10 years of research at the Global Strategy Lab (GSL)! Join us in commemorating 10 years of making the world a healthier place for everyone.
Over the coming months, we’ll be featuring key moments that have shaped GSL’s journey through a series of events on a living timeline on our website.
As we reflect on the journey that brought us here, we invite you to join us in celebrating a decade of dedication to advancing global health and well-being by sharing your reflections on social media using the hashtag #GSL10.
2014

The Global Strategy (GSL) Lab Begins
In July 2014, the Global Strategy Lab is born from a fundamental belief: the need to bring a science to bear on how countries, non-governmental organizations and researchers can all work together to solve health threats that defy national boundaries.

A Decade of Growth
Lathika Laguwaran, Director of Operations at the Global Strategy Lab, shares her journey, taking us into the lab’s origin and her role in its evolution over the past decade. Click here to watch the video.

GSL Moves to Ottawa University
The Global Strategy lab sets up its first offices in the Faculty of Law alongside the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. With funding from the Research Council of Norway, GSL starts on projects focused on AMR, international law and scientific advice.

The i4C Consortium
GSL and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health joined together to launch a consortium of researchers and partnering institutions to focus on “Strengthening International Collaboration for Capitalizing on Cost-Effective and Life-Saving Commodities (i4C)”.
2015

Publication of “To Save Humanity”
“To Save Humanity: What Matters Most for a Healthy Future,” edited by Julio Frenk and Steven J. Hoffman, was published on May 12, 2015. This collection of essays from global health experts addresses key issues such as pandemics, healthcare systems, and climate change, providing actionable insights for a healthier future. The book emphasizes the importance of global cooperation, universal health coverage, and effective health governance.

A growing team
Maxwell Tran, former Research Assistant at the Global Strategy Lab (GSL), reflects on his experience from 2015 to 2017 while an undergraduate at McMaster University. Watch his interview here.

JLME Special Issue on AMR and Legal Agreements
A workshop in Uppsala, Sweden, organized by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, the Global Strategy Lab, the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (JLME), the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and ReAct – Action on Antibiotic Resistance resulted in a special issue featuring eleven articles. These articles highlight the need for collective action to mitigate antibiotic resistance and propose strategies for states and non-state actors to tackle this challenge effectively.

Elliot Gunn becomes one of the first ever GSL post-bachelor fellows
Discover Elliot Gunn’s inspiring journey as a post-bachelor fellow at GSL during 2016-2017. Watch his interview here.
2016

International Law’s Effects on Health and Social Determinants (ILSR) Published in Systematic Reviews
The publication of the ILSR protocol marked the first step in an ambitious project to assess the effectiveness of international laws on global health challenges. It outlined the methodology and data analysis plan for the systematic review.

International legal barriers to Canada’s marijuana plan
In this interview, Roojin Habibi discusses her tenure as a research fellow at the Global Strategy Lab (GSL) starting in 2016. She highlights her initial involvement through a health law internship at the University of Ottawa and her work on the legalization of cannabis in Canada and its international legal implications.
Watch the interview here.

Ebola Again Shows the International Health Regulations Are Broken: What Can Be Done Differently to Prepare for the Next Epidemic?
This paper evaluates the International Health Regulations (IHR) through the 2009 H1N1 influenza and 2014 Ebola epidemics, identifying similar lessons from both. It highlights missed opportunities to act on these lessons and examines political barriers to implementation. The authors propose strategies to overcome these barriers and stress the urgency of reforming the IHR before future epidemics, like Zika, emerge.

Patrick Fafard becomes Associate Director of GSL
With a distinguished career in government and academia, Patrick Fafard joined the Global Strategy Lab as Associate Director. Watch his interview here.
2017

GSL relocates to York University
GSL relocated from the University of Ottawa to York University, becoming part of the growing Global Health Profile of York University. Now housed in the Dahdaleh Building, adjacent to the new Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, GSL draws upon the full strengths and resources of the Faculty of Health and Osgoode Hall Law School.

Ranjana Nagi shares her story
Former Research Fellow Ranjana Nagi reflects on her transformative experience working at GSL, where she began her professional journey as an undergraduate student at York University in 2018. Watch her interview here.
2018

Optimizing Scientific Advisory Committees
In 2018, GSL contributed to a special issue that brought together a broad range of insights from researchers across several disciplines, including public health, medicine, economics, history, law, and political science. This series addressed the gap in research on SACs, offering perspectives on what constitutes an effective SAC and what factors make SACs more effective. As a result of this research, GSL was invited to present its findings to the WHO, underscoring the global relevance of this work.
2019

The International Network for AMR Social Science
Since 2019, the Global Strategy Lab has been a founding member of the International Network for AMR Social Science (INAMRSS)—an international consortium uniting research leaders to strengthen social science approaches to AMR policy and research.

WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
In 2019, GSL published two landmark studies in the British Medical Journal: The first-ever impact evaluation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and created a publicly accessible dataset of international cigarette consumption by collecting, evaluating, selecting, and reporting the best available national estimates from 1970 to 2015. These projects have led to regional impact evaluations and new research on the gendered impacts of the WHO FCTC on global cigarette consumption trends.

WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance
In 2019, GSL became the first designated WHO Collaborating Centre (WHOCC) at York University. During its inaugural mandate, the WHOCC at GSL worked closely with institutional and academic partners around the world to improve both global political mobilization and accountability on the WHO’s Global Action Plan on AMR, as well as improving the scientific evidence base on national and global responses to AMR.
2020

The International Health Regulations
In 2020, the Global Health Law Consortium (GHLC), an initiative housed at the Global Strategy Lab, published important statements regarding the international health regulations. They wrote a statement providing a legal interpretation of Article 43 of the International Health Regulations, guiding countries in responding to global health emergencies.
2021

Understanding the Role of Senior Public Health Officials
GSL’s research on Chief Medical Officers of Health (CMOHs) has been a key part of the efforts to inform the balance between political and public health responsibilities among public health leaders and its implications. As with projects across the Public Health Institutions stream, this interdisciplinary project draws on public administration and political science insights to understand the role and institutional context of the CMOH.
2022

The Launch of the AMR Policy Accelerator
In 2022, GSL was awarded $8.7M from Wellcome Trust to establish a policy think tank, later known to be the AMR Policy Accelerator. This initiative bridges scientific evidence and policy to support evidence-informed decisions around AMR policymaking around the world. The AMR Policy Accelerator is designed to advise the world’s governments, public health institutions, and decision-makers on effective and equitable policies to promote antimicrobial stewardship globally.

Uncovering the Impact of International Treaties
International treaties are often used by countries to address concerns that cross national boundaries, including the environment, human rights, humanitarian crises, maritime issues, security, and trade. GSL conducted a systematic field-wide evidence synthesis of 224 studies to uncover which treaties have effects, what those effects are, and how future treaties could be designed for greater effectiveness.
2023

Policy Implications of the Phrase “Following the Science”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians frequently claimed to be ‘following the science’ when discussing contentious decisions. This 2023 article analyzed their use of this phrase in the early months of the pandemic and was recognized as the best article representing excellence in the field published in the Policy & Politics journal.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Global AMR Governance
The SAFE AMR partnership of world leading social science research centres came together in 2023 to develop global governance strategies to tackle AMR. This partnership brought together experts in economics, ethics, evaluation, evidence synthesis, gender analysis, law, political science, and veterinary science. Listen to our podcast episode diving into the meaning behind our SAFE acronym.
2024

Unifying Goals to Mobilize Global Action on Antimicrobial Resistance
Ahead of the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance 2024, GSL brought together global policy and AMR experts at the Bellagio Center in Italy to develop a proposal for unifying goals on antimicrobial resistance. The resulting goals are designed to rally public and political support for effective measures to address AMR using a One Health lens. The final proposal was shared through a well attended webinar, a policy brief, and was published as a collaborative commentary in Globalization and Health.

Designing an Independent Panel on Evidence for Action against AMR
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Meeting (HLM) on AMR provided a historic opportunity for Member States to make an actionable commitment to establishing an independent panel on evidence for action against AMR (IPEA). The AMR Policy Accelerator put together a policy brief examining how lessons can be drawn from climate change to design a scientific panel on AMR with a clear mandate. This effort led to a commentary in The Conversation and a webinar on the design of a scientific panel on AMR.