The Robert Koch Institute (RKI): main building in Berlin. more
Germany’s Public Health institute RKI monitors the population’s health and wellbeing. more
The Robert Koch Institute is the German government's central institution for the identification, surveillance and prevention of infectious diseases in the Portfolio of the German Ministry of Health. more
GIBACHT is a training programme funded by the German Federal Foreign Office to raise awareness of and strengthen capacities against the potential threats and risks posed by biological agents and bioweapons, and to successfully prevent and control their spread.
The training programme is part of the German Biosecurity Programme launched by the German Federal Foreign Office in 2013. It has been implemented by a multidisciplinary consortium led by the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) and consisting of the BNITM, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), and representatives of the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET). GIBACHT is primarily aimed at public health experts from Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and, since 2023, Eastern Europe.
Over the course of a year, content related to biosecurity, nonproliferation and infection epidemiology, among other things, is taught in an alternation of independent learning phases (e-learning) and two face-to-face seminars. In simulations and practical exercises, participants implement and apply their learned knowledge. Since the first cohort in 2015, GIBACHT has trained seven cohorts with 137 participants from 35 countries. During 2024 and 2025 the ninth cohort will be trained.
The long-term project implementation in the countries and institutes of GIBACHT participants is supported by the accompanied development of training material in the form of a case study in order to enable the development and multiplication of further case studies and trainings (train-the-trainer concept), as well as the establishment of a GIBACHT Alumni network. The application phase for the respective cohort takes place every year and is announced on the BNITM web site and on the German Online Platform for Biosecurity & Biosafety (GO4BSB), as well as on the web sites of the partner institutes.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, GIBACHT supported its alumni with additional trainings. These were the COVID-19 Strategy (COST-19) initiative to strengthen SARS-CoV-2 control in partner countries in 2020 and 2021, and the Regional Strengthening Initiative for the Africa and Asia regions in 2022, with the aim of encouraging GIBACHT alumni to enter into new partnerships and implement small-scale biosafety and biosecurity-related projects in their countries.
Date: 22.05.2024
