International collaborations

The Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) pursues bilateral and multilateral international cooperative actions, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education-Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), the main multilateral bodies - World Bank (WB), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), World Health Organization (WHO), etc. - universities, agencies and institutional technical-scientific counterparts of countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), developing and in transition, Italian embassies abroad and foreign embassies in Italy.

Particular attention is given to the list of priority countries defined in the three-year guidelines of the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the MAECI and to the activities that take place in contexts of fragility and in situations of crisis and conflict or post-conflict.

The overall coordination of the resulting activities is conducted by the External Relations Service and International Relations Center (SRECRI) through the implementation of projects, participation in thematic tables and missions, and in the multiplicity of different programs, in collaboration with the departments and centers, in order to ensure a cohesive institutional foreign policy approach.

The ISS promotes and supports the creation of national and international networks of technical and scientific excellence in order to advance knowledge and operational skills in particular areas of public health in a multidimensional and interdisciplinary logic.

Through the identification of specific institutional counterparts, the ISS therefore promotes the drafting of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by guaranteeing the sustainability and quality of the exchange of know-how and international technical-scientific experiences, and for the purpose of enhancing the health professions. In this sense, it favors the systematic insertion of health experts from various parts of the world in its scientific network both for the achievement of its institutional objectives and for the overall growth of the country system.