About starting a chapter
We're excited to know you're interested in starting a chapter! At UAEM, we are looking forward to developing our international collaborations and seeing UAEM chapters starting throughout the world.
To date, UAEM has been mostly present in Northern countries like the US, Canada and the UK. However, since early 2008, we have been working hard to change that, as we believe and know that students at universities in the South have a crucial role to play in addressing the access to medicines crisis we face today.
As you may know, UAEM's vision is that universities and publicly funded research institutions will be part of the solution to the access to medicines crisis by promoting medical innovation in the public interest and ensuring that all people regardless of income have access to essential medicines and other health-related technologies.
We approach this issue from three angles: changing norms and practices around university patenting and licensing based on a global access licensing framework we have developed which universities can adopt for their health innovations, ensuring that medical research meets the needs of the majority of the world’s population, and empowering students to respond to the access and innovation crises.
There are many different activities that each UAEM chapter can decide to do. Some hold "teach-ins", where members educate each other, a class, or a group of professors or scientists on the important issues related to UAEM (such as licensing, the "drug development pipeline" and neglected diseases). Others advocate with their university administrators, politicians and pharmaceutical companies to reconsider their current business practices. We also hold a Global Access to Medicines Day each year where we collectively choose a focus and each chapter organizes events relevant to their campus during the same week.
Of course, it is up to you to determine which angles are most relevant to your context and suitable for your situation. In fact, we would love to hear what you think are relevant activities for your chapter.
As far as chapter requirements go, we ask all chapters to adopt the UAEM Vision, Mission and Values. Chapters are responsible to develop their own local funding for activities they may want to take part in. There are some limited possibilities for small grants (up to $200) for specific relevant projects. Any funding or actions that a chapter takes must be in accordance with the vision, mission and values of UAEM. Please feel free to contact us for advice in advance of accepting funding or embarking on an activity.
Some good first steps include finding a faculty mentor/sponsor who is sympathetic to the cause of UAEM. In addition, it is useful to hold a general interest meeting to educate and gather membership. There are some good power points that you can use to this end posted on the website.
Your chapter contact will be will be able to support you as you get a chapter going. More information and resources for starting a chapter can be found in documents posted on our chapter resources page. And to officially become a UAEM chapter, please register here.
We look forward to working with you!
— Gloria, Taylor, Kevin, Emma, and Pratik (chapter outreach coordinators)
