Global Hubs Network Meeting 2024
Join us for the Cornell Global Hubs network meeting on October 31 and November 1.
The 2024 Global Hubs Network Meeting will be held in London, co-hosted by our partners in the UK. Building on the success of our inaugural meeting in Ithaca in 2022, we look forward to connecting and developing our international collaborations in innovative, inclusive, and sustainable ways.
Connect and Collaborate
“To tackle global challenges, international engagement is crucial. Join us at the network meeting to strengthen ties, brainstorm new ideas, and enhance our impact through teaching, research, and social engagement.”
~ Wendy Wolford
Join us for discussions on impact-oriented research and teaching, student mobility, and more, exploring ways to enhance partnerships and benefit all stakeholders. Connect with Cornell senior leadership, faculty, staff, and peers from the Global Hubs network in valuable networking sessions. Exchange ideas and pave the way for future collaborations and engagement to build a better world.
We encourage our partners to send representatives from faculty, staff, and leadership ranks.
More information is to come on sessions, social activities, and accommodations as we finalize the agenda and logistics. Here are some of the preliminary details.
Network Meeting Venues
The second Global Hubs Network Meeting will be held in the United Kingdom at multiple Hubs partner locations.
Queen Mary University of London
University College London
Learn about all of our Hubs partners in the United Kingdom.
Tentative Schedule
Thursday, October 31
Global Hubs Affinity Groups and Thematic Meetings
Sessions are open to all Global Hubs partner universities participants interested in the following themes.
Day one features affinity groups and thematic meetings hosted at Hubs partners throughout the city focused on the global public health crisis and prioritizing women's health, medical schools network, sustainable tourism, research collaborations with external funding leverage, and innovative student mobility models and creative pedagogy.
Morning Sessions
Global Public Health Crisis: Prioritizing Women's Health (8:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m., followed by lunch)
Co-hosted by Queen Mary University of London
The current global crisis in women's health is a complex and pressing issue shaped by various social, economic, and political factors. While there are many facets to this crisis, the major challenges center on several key themes. These include reproductive health and rights for women of different cultures and socioeconomic spheres, access to healthcare together with a lack of appreciation for specialized health risks facing women, and finally, a general inequity in the relative investment of time and resources for understanding the unique biological and health risks faced by women.
Solving these problems requires a truly interdisciplinary comprehensive approach that encompasses experts across the academic spectrum, ranging from clinicians and social workers to basic researchers, nutritionists, and global development experts, coupled with a detailed understanding of how regional differences might manifest different strategic complications for women across the globe. Policy changes, increased funding, education, and the empowerment of women to take control of their health and well-being are essential steps toward resolving this global health crisis.
A truly pan-global approach that leverages the networking interactions and breadth of disciplines exemplified by the Cornell Global Hubs network would allow us to use shared expertise to effect change at the regional and global level through a multipronged approach. Such strategies would investigate women’s health issues at the most basic level of biology right up through tiered healthcare deficiencies, at the same time allowing us to understand how the geopolitical landscape influences these issues across different regions.
The goal of the forum is three-fold:
- As a worldwide community, we will identify the major challenges to women’s health by sharing insights and data from our global partners.
- We will establish key criteria and metrics across a challenging, yet achievable timeline to develop workable strategies that we can put in place for addressing these challenges.
- Using the strengths and diversity of the Global Hubs network, we will build a coalition of healthcare workers, researchers, ethicists, public health strategists, and community leaders to establish a set of guiding principles for all, mobilizing the immense strength of this network to identify key areas in which we can effect positive change over the short, medium, and long term.
Sustainable Tourism: An Industry/Academia Conversation (8:00 a.m.–12:45 p.m., followed by lunch)
Co-hosted by King's College London
Cornell Global Hubs and King’s College London Global Engagement, in collaboration with King’s Business School and the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, invite you to an engaging morning focused on sustainable tourism.
Our world is more connected through travel and tourism than ever before. Yet reconciling human industry and curiosity in ways that are compatible with environmental and social realities will require close examination and innovative action.
For tourism to be more sustainable requires interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration, from food and hospitality to real estate, infrastructure and energy to finance, supply chains, marketing, and more. Academics from Cornell, King’s, and universities around the globe will be invited to share the current state of knowledge and research exploration. Representatives from industry will be invited to share the state of practice and to illuminate areas needing new insight.
The objective of this convening is to build bridges of knowledge between scholarship and practice in order to instigate impactful research to take us forward.
Creative Pedagogies and Practice in Student Mobility (9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., followed by lunch)
Co-hosted by Imperial College London
Cornell and the Global Hubs network are building student mobility and exchange models that go beyond conventional pipelines. However, there’s much more we can do together. Cornell, unique among its US peers in this field, is launching our affinity network of student mobility and partnership professionals for precisely this purpose: to build, practice, and sustain creative and successful student programming. We ask ourselves and you: What makes Global Hubs student mobility and exchange special for students? What is missing? What student programming do we want to build? How will we get there? What are the opportunities, and what are the challenges and needs? In this first affinity group meeting, we will focus on three primary themes:
- Enhancing academic exchange: Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), thematic and customized semesters, curricular integration, applied learning, research, multipartner programming, faculty engagement, short-term.
- Creating partnerships to develop opportunities for high-impact cultural and professional learning & practice: Community engagement (alumni, private/public), global Internships, community-engaged learning (CEL), short-term
- Deepening staff cross-collaboration: Shared pre- and post-departure programming, joint student support, student access and increasing volume
Afternoon Sessions
Medical Schools Network Meeting (12:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m., starts with working lunch)
Co-hosted by Queen Mary University of London
Representatives from medical schools from across Cornell Global Hubs partners are invited to join us! Topics include potential research collaborations, aligned clinical improvement goals, student and faculty exchanges, and other topics of interest, such as AI in healthcare delivery and medical education.
A representative from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) will be attending the event. NIHR is the British government's major funder of clinical, public health, social care, and translational research. Given this, we encourage you to come prepared to share any research topics that might be of interest for collaboration with members and faculty from across the Global Hubs network.
Best Practices, Opportunities, and Challenges in Scaling Up International Research Partnerships: Insights from UK-U.S. Collaborations (2:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m., followed by networking)
Co-hosted by University College London
Join us for an engaging conversation with academics and research support professionals from UCL and Cornell, as well as representatives from UK and U.S. funding agencies. This session will explore best practices, opportunities, and challenges in fostering and scaling international research collaborations. Using UK-U.S. partnerships as a key example, our panelists will provide valuable insights and practical advice on building effective research partnerships, securing external funding, and expanding both bilateral and multilateral collaborations. This session will offer a wealth of knowledge to advance our collaborative international research endeavors.
Friday, November 1
Global Hubs Network Meeting, King's College London, 8:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Interactive, action-oriented panels and break-out discussions will deepen our collective ties as we explore and workshop ideas for programming and long-term impact through teaching, research, student mobility, and social engagement. We will generate deliverables with real utility!
8:30–9:00 a.m. | Check-in, light breakfast, meet-and-greet
9:00–9:30 a.m. | Welcome and Introductions
9:30–10:45 a.m. | Session 1
Purposeful Knowledge: Strengthening Our Collective Impact Locally and Globally
Across the Global Hubs network, our campuses are dedicated to turning knowledge into impactful action in distinctive ways, striving to drive positive societal change. Central to these efforts are the design and implementation of effective programs and the cultivation of strategic partnerships to ensure their relevance, accessibility, impact, and sustainability. The Global Hubs network offers significant opportunities to enhance, co-create, and amplify these programs both locally and globally.
During this session, we will:
- Explore various methods for impactful engagement, including advocacy and public policy engagement, capacity-building training programs, community service and partnerships, collaborations with the private sector, and the expansion and strengthening of our multilateral networks.
- Share successful examples of knowledge application and identify opportunities for collaboration and joint initiatives.
- Collaboratively develop actionable plans to scale existing initiatives and co-create new projects aimed at broadening the impact of our activities and network. These plans will focus on ensuring sustainability, inclusivity, and the ability to adapt to evolving societal needs as well as emerging trends and innovations.
10:45–11:00 a.m. | Break
11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | Session 2
Leveraging International Partnerships to Create Innovative and Impactful Educational Opportunities
Partnerships like the Global Hubs network, comprised of elite universities in our countries, are valuable for creating robust international education programming. They can also help us to advocate for resources, address barriers, and advance institutional strategic student mobility priorities. Panelists will provide examples of leveraging partnerships for these purposes. We will then workshop our Hubs network mobility potential, objectives, and challenges for the year ahead.
12:30–2:00 p.m. | Lunch and Networking
2:00–4:00 p.m. | Session 3
Enhancing Research Collaborations and Leveraging External Funding Opportunities and Partner Networks
A key goal of the Global Hubs initiative is to foster and expand successful research collaborations, both bilateral and multilateral. We have made significant progress through our joint seed grants and pilot programs for PhD student research visits, yet there’s much more we can do together. In this session, we will focus on strategies for advancing research partnerships and maximizing external funding opportunities. We will:
- Hear examples of successful interdisciplinary international research partnerships and explore the factors that contributed to their success.
- Share major interdisciplinary challenges and top research areas that each campus prioritizes, exploring how to align these priorities to uncover potential collaboration opportunities across partners and disciplines.
- Gain insights into key funding agencies in partner countries and their internationalization programs. Learn about prominent professional societies and how each campus collaborates with them.
- Develop actionable deliverables to advocate for increased international and cross-national funding and coordinated strategies for engaging with professional societies. This might include crafting joint letters to funding agencies and op-ed pieces endorsed by university leaders, and other strategies for engagement to enhance collaborative research visibility and support.
- Discuss a proposal for a Global Hubs PhD exchange program and work towards its launch next year.
4:00–4:30 p.m. | Break
4:30–5:45 p.m. | Closing Panel
Strategic Alumni Engagement and University Partnerships
Alumni are invaluable strategic partners for universities, significantly amplifying their impact. Networks like Global Hubs offer exciting opportunities for alumni to connect with faculty and students, further expanding their professional and personal networks. Through their engagement, alumni build deeper relationships within the Global Hubs community and become vital allies in offering opportunities for students, such as internships, community-engaged learning, and service. They also help create valuable resources for research collaborations, significantly enhancing our societal impact.
This engaging panel will feature alumni from Cornell and Global Hubs partner institutions, who will share their experiences and insights on effective alumni engagement. The session will provide an opportunity to:
- Discover what excites alumni about multilateral networks like Global Hubs and explore their perspectives on enhancing meaningful engagement and collaboration within our network.
- Discuss innovative ways for universities to harness the potential of their global alumni as strategic partners.
- Explore strategies for deepening alumni involvement and utilizing their expertise to support global education, research, and engagement initiatives.
5:45–6:00 p.m. | Closing remarks and next steps
Reception to follow.
Extend Your Stay
Saturday, November 2
3:00–5:30 pm
Join Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff and Glenn C. Altschuler MA ’73, PhD ’76, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies Emeritus, in a wide-ranging, timely, and candid conversation on the impact, challenges, and potential of the American university.
2022 Global Hubs Network Meeting
The inaugural Global Hubs Network Meeting was held in Ithaca, New York, on November 16–17, 2022. Global Cornell welcomed partners from 16 universities around the world to the Cornell campus.
Transcript