The government of the island nation of Cyprus has pledged $8.8 million towards increasing opportunities in public health education, research, and outreach as part of a recent agreement between the Harvard School of Public Health and the Cyprus University of Technology.

Under the five-year agreement, signed on October 2, the CUT will absorb the Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public Health, which was founded in an earlier agreement between Harvard and Cyprus when the partnership between the two began in 2004.

Four new masters programs—public health, biostatistics, epidemiology, and health systems—will eventually be offered as part of the revamped CUT curriculum. Plans for initiating doctoral programs are also underway.

Discussions aimed at strengthening the existing collaboration between HSPH and the Cypriot government began soon after the nation’s new president, Dimitris Christofias, took office in February of last year, according to Monique Bertic, the associate director for international advancement at HSPH who coordinates the partnership.

“This is a new phase in the development of our relationship with Cyprus, where we both have a shared commitment to strengthen public health in the region,” Bertic said.

Bertic and Douglas W. Dockery, the chair of the environmental health department at HSPH, emphasized the regional focus of the project—which is intended to target more than just Cyprus.

“The vision is the same [as before]— to use Cyprus, which is in such a geographically important part of the world, as leverage to... train a whole generation of scientists in environmental and public health,” said Dockery.

Under the new agreement, approximately 35 Harvard faculty members who are involved in the Cypriot partnership program will be able to teach courses in Cyprus, according to Bertic.

“This is a unique opportunity for students everywhere,” said Andreas Panayiotou, the consul-general of the Republic of Cyprus. “Cyprus can take advantage of the expertise Harvard offers, and there will be much intellectual exchange.”

Ultimately, Bertic said, the goal of the collaboration with Cyprus is to develop the existing degree programs into a school of public health on the island, which does not yet have such an institution.

“I’m hoping this’ll keep being renewed every five years,” said Behrooz Behbod, a third year doctoral candidate at HSPH who was in the first class of students in Cyprus to benefit from the Harvard partnership.

“There’s definitely a need for greater diversity of public health degrees in Cyprus,” Behbod said.

—Staff writer Helen X. Yang can be reached at hxyang@fas.harvard.edu.