“FOI is one of Europe’s leading research institutes in the field of defence and security, and especially in the area for health and environmental assessments where FOI is a world leader,” to quote the Swedish Government Offices’ decision to grant this funding.
For the last few years FOI has been collaborating with and supporting the United Nations in questions concerned with environmental protection and health risks associated with peace support operations.

The UN has on  a number of occasions expressed its appreciation for FOI’s expert support and has asked that we at FOI should extend our collaboration on health and environmental risks,” says Anders Norqvist, Head of Division for CBRN Defence and Security at FOI in Umeå. That Sweden is now better able to support the UN in this way is evidence of how seriously Sweden takes questions such as the invaluable expert support that FOI is able to offer society at large.

The new UN project will run for two years and will cost a total of SEK 8 million. It will be conducted with close collaboration between FOI, the Swedish Armed Forces and the various UN bodies concerned with care of the sick, health and peacekeeping measures. The project will be directed towards the UN operations in western Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic.

“Experience shows that health and environment issues affect the feasibility of carrying out peace support operations,” says Birgitta Liljedahl, the scientist at FOI who will be managing the project.