After the first virtual session held in September 2023 to introduce the participating universities, collaborators met again to share the progress of the ERASMUS+ CIELO Project. Collaborators from the 12 universities developing the ERASMUS+ CIELO project (Innovative Curriculum for Latin America to develop capacities in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) to prevent obesity) had their second virtual meeting to share progress on the proposal that seeks to improve children's health in Latin America through training students, teachers and health professionals.
In three online sessions, which were held on January 15, 16 and 17, the managers of each of the universities participated and addressed topics related to the administrative and economic budgetary organization of the project.
On this occasion, on the first day, Riga Technical University, Latvia, in charge of the administrative management of the project, presented the moments and formats that must be delivered as evidence of the work that has been developed since July 2023, when the project was approved. The next day, the Silva Henríquez Catholic University presented what has been achieved in relation to obtaining the permits issued by the respective Scientific Ethics Committees (CEC) of each of the Universities, for the application of questionnaires for professionals in health and university teachers; as well as the logistics for the application of questionnaires and the development of focus groups for university students.
"The application of these instruments will allow us to know, for example, how much university teachers and students, as well as health professionals, know about obesity, as well as their attitude towards obese people, which is key for the construction of the online course and the mobile application,” said Dr. Sebastián Loyola Arroyo, research academic at the UCSH Faculty of Health Sciences. It should be noted that UCSH already has its work protocol approved by the CEC, as well as the Universidad Del Alba, both universities in Chile, and is in the approval process in the specific organizations of the countries of Costa Rica and Mexico.
On the last day, La Salle Northwestern University presented the ERASMUS+ CIELO Dissemination and Communication Plan, sharing the link to the website where you can obtain more information about the activities, events and progress of the project.
In this meeting, topics related to the bibliographic search were also discussed based on the future results of the questionnaires and focus groups, the generation of the structure of the online course and the equipment with which the ERASMUS + program will support each HEI.
The face-to-face meeting will be held at the Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez in Santiago de Chile, it was scheduled for May 7, 8 and 9, to continue evaluating the progress of the project.
