RIGHT PLUS network formalised in Buenos Aires as a collaboration between academic centres and civil society in Ibero-America

The Ibero-American network RIGHT PLUS, of which the Centre for Epidemiological Studies on Sexually Transmitted Infections and AIDS of Catalonia (CEEISCAT) is a founding member and, together with Coalition Plus, co-coordinator, has presented its launch at a meeting in Buenos Aires (Argentina) on 28-29 August. RIGHT PLUS is an initiative of a group of researchers, academic/research centres, and community-based organisations from various Ibero-American countries, currently integrated into the Coalition Plus structure, interested in promoting research on issues related to sexual health and vulnerable populations.

At the meeting, the different research centres, universities and community-based organisations that make up the network agreed on their organisational framework and the process for defining the 2025-2028 Action Plan. At this event, which brought together around twenty people from 10 different countries, the lines to be followed to strengthen its action were drawn up, and it was agreed that one of the fundamental projects will be the repetition of the LAMIS II survey, probably next year. The LAMIS Project is an online survey that in 2018, in its first edition, included more than 64,000 participants from Latin America with the aim of monitoring the evolution of behaviours, access to health services, stigma and other aspects related to the sexual health of men who have sex with men (MSM).

The activity of the network co-coordinated by CEEISCAT, which will soon become one of the Coalition Plus community research hubs in Europe, is part of the Public Health and Primary Care Transversal Programme of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP).

CEEISCAT's presence at the XX Scientific Symposium of the Fundación Huésped

The day after the end of the meeting to launch the RIGHT PLUS network, one of its members, the Argentinean Fundación Huésped, held its 20th Scientific Symposium in Buenos Aires from 30 August to 1 September. Among the different sessions programmed, CEEISCAT participated in the round table "Community research efforts for comprehensive health in MSM", where Dr Jordi Casabona, director of the centre, presented, among others, the case of RIGHT PLUS as a successful model of international cooperation between academia and civil society.

Next, Dr Nicolás Lorente, member of COALITION Plus and CEEISCAT collaborator, presented "Knowledge and behaviours related to mpox in gay men", based on the results obtained in Libero-Pox, carried out by the RIGHT PLUS network. Libero-Pox is a survey conducted in 10 Ibero-American countries with the aim of collecting comparative data on preventive and vaccination behaviour among gay men, bisexuals, other MSM and transgender people, in which CEEISCAT has played an active role in its design, implementation and data collection.