U8 Oxford began three Oxford based reseach projects in October last year.

1. Dphil candidate Paul Kadetz in international development is leading a team studying public policy of nutrition and lines of power and communication between municipal, national, international and NGO actors in Guatemala. The team is giving attention toquantitative and qualitative primary data acquired in the field that Paul wouldn't have found time to do.
2. Public Health (Msc) student Sara Canavati is leading a project that is gathering substantial research on how 'outsiders' can best improve public health in Katchin State in junta-ruled Burma. Sara has three years experience in Burma, and her team has been able to draw upon her connections in their attempts to gather data
3. Philosophy, Politics and Economics (Ba) student Preeti Dhillon leads a team evaluating development in Uganda. Covering a variety of areas, the team is drawing on primarily secondary literature to evaluate education policy, the implications of new-struck oil, HIV-AIDS policy and donor-recipient government relations, and is appreciating how these intertwine in Uganda's development

The projects will be presented at Oxford's Forum for International Development in February, and are hoping to take their work on tour around whichever student conferences will have them. All the projects are hungry to share their work, and welcome debate and collaboration from anyone out there who wants to get involved.

In particular, the project working on institutions in nutrition public policy in Guatemala is looking for collaborative groups at other universities. The primary data allows a lot of opportunities, and the group would like to begin to build a data base of actors and groups working on nutrition in Guatemala, so that the project can make a real contribution. Please feel free to get in touch!

With the start of the U8 research projects, Oxford participants will meet weekly to share progress in their projects, and plans to make some meetings public so that other interested members can join the debate too.

And of course, everyone at Oxford can't wait till the UK Regional Summit in May!