Abdulkarim Ekzayez is Senior Fellow at the Syria Development Centre. He has a PhD in Health Systems from King's College London, MSc in Epidemiology from LSHTM with a clinical experience in neurosurgery from the University of Aleppo. Abdulkarim is a Health System Expert at the Centre for Conflict and Health Research at King's College London and a Co-Investigator of a four-year NIHR funded project, Research for Health System Strengthening in Northern Syria (R4HSSS). He specialises in health systems strengthening, humanitarian health, health security, epidemiology, and building health research capacity in conflict settings. His publications span over 40 academic journal articles and book chapters. His 15 years experience includes academic, policy and humanitarian health programmes for Save the Children International, Expertise France, Chatham House among others with involvement in polio eradication programmes, primary health care, health information systems and health governance initiatives.