Led by Prof Bassirou Bonfoh, Afrique One-ASPIRE focuses on endemic zoonotic diseases (diseases that are transmissible between animals and humans) through capacity building. Its aspiration is to harness the unique societal drivers of Africa to build a world-leading Pan-African research capacity in One Health.

Under the DELTAS Africa initiative, Afrique One-ASPIRE aims at building a generation of researchers and practitioners that are effectively implementing the One Health approach in their agenda for zoonotic disease elimination. The guiding principle is to offer a true transdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration platform for adding value to health systems.

Partners: Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, National Institute For Medical Research - Tanzania, Ifakara Health Institute, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Sokoine University of Agriculture, IRED, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Beca/ILRI, EISMV, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, University Of Dar Es Salaam, MAKUN, KCRI/KCMC, MUHAS and two northern partner’s institutions; University of Glasgow and Swiss TPH.

Understanding early-life brain development within the unique African context creates opportunities for scientific discovery and tailored healthcare. The ALMA integrated neuroscience network proposes to study these strongly interdependent topics within the research-rich environment of its African partners.  The network is co-led by two new African-run research institutes, the AKU’s Institute for Human Development in Nairobi, and the UCT Neuroscience Institute in Cape Town.

 Three important gaps will be addressed to identify the needs of African children and ensure their optimal development: a dearth of locally generated evidence that would inform locally relevant interventions; a lack of a critical mass of trained people to produce required evidence, and the need to exploit our centres of excellence to equip and train neuroscientists across Africa.

Partners:

University of Cape Town (South Africa), University of Malawi, University of Zambia, University of Oxford (UK), and the Harvard School of Public Health (USA).

ALC aims to translate advances in sciences including genomics for novel control and surveillance tools and strategies; to leverage the novel control tools to support diagnosis and patient management, and vector control; and to build interactive disease distribution- and predictive risk- maps for programmatic use; to engage strategic research and Think-Tanks to accelerate use of evidence in policy towards control and elimination of leishmaniases.

Partners:

University of Sciences, Techniques and Technology of Bamako (Mali), Armauer Hansen Research Institute (Ethiopia), Pasteur Institute of Algeria, Institut Pasteur of Morocco, Ibn Sina University (Sudan), University of Ibadan Research Foundation (Nigeria) and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (Spain).

Led by Dr Dixon Chibanda, AMARI aims to equip researchers to lead high quality mental health research programmes that meet the needs of their countries, and to establish a sustainable career path for these researchers. A particular focus is on integrating mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) research into existing programmes such as HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health work.

Partners: Addis Ababa University, College of Medicine - University of Malawi, University of Cape Town and University of Zimbabwe. These are supported by three UK universities namely, King’s College London, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

AMARI-II is a consortium of six African universities dedicated to mental health research capacity building. It will build on the success of AMARI-I by providing fellowships to African mental health scholars with a focus on building excellence in leadership, training and science. AMARI-II seeks to ensure that African scientists become leaders in GMH research, training and implementation aims to shift the centre of gravity in global mental health (GMH). The consortium will be driven by five research areas underpinned by ten cross-cutting themes: youth, gender, ethics, multi-morbidity, suicidal behaviour, COVID-19, complex interventions, mental health systems, climate change and public engagement.   

Three important gaps will be addressed to identify the needs of African children and ensure their optimal development: a dearth of locally generated evidence that would inform locally relevant interventions; a lack of a critical mass of trained people to produce required evidence, and the need to exploit our centres of excellence to equip and train neuroscientists across Africa.

Partners:

King's College London (UK), Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), University of Malawi, University of Zambia, University of Cape Town (South Africa), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK) and the University of Ghana.

Afrique One-REACH is addressing the lack of sufficient capacity and data in Africa to develop and implement transdisciplinary approaches to combatting some of the world’s most urgent and challenging health threats arising from interactions among people, animals and the environment, including Endemic and Emerging Zoonoses, Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) and nutritional and Non-Communicable Diseases. 

Through transdisciplinary research, REACH will jointly assess, co-design and test health intervention options in close collaboration with practitioners, communities, civil society and policy makers. As a follow up to Afrique One-ASPIRE, we will support a cohort of 50 competitively and equitably selected fellows to be equipped with contemporary and innovative research tools while working in supportive and empowering research environments.  We will work with African and northern partners to develop the next generation of research leaders who can harness the potential of One Health in Africa. 

Partners:

Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (Ghana), Université de Liège (Belgium), Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania), Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (Tanzania) and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Switzerland).

The CASCADE programe strengthens existing networks (e.g., FRACTAL) and builds new partnerships to improve understanding of the interlinkage and, often, cascading nature of climate health risks in African cities through integrating climate and public health sciences with other physical and social sciences to build rich disciplinary evidence. This evidence will be generated through strong engagement with city partners, including city governments, health care and delivery organisations, city agencies responsible for air quality monitoring, disaster risk management, water and sanitation services and others.

Partners:

Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre (Netherlands), University of Ghana, African Population & Health Research Centre (Kenya), Chinhoyi University of Technology (Zimbabwe), International START Secretariat (USA), the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and Makerere University (Uganda).

High-quality research capacity is key to addressing the many developmental challenges facing African countries. These challenges include but are not limited to the triple burden of infectious disease, non-communicable disease (NCDs) and injuries; emerging epidemic pathogens; antimicrobial resistance (AMR); over-burdened and dysfunctional health systems; climate change and other social challenges. All these impede human, economic, and social development. CARTA2025 seeks to address inter-related questions of how to promote health, improve health systems and scale up successful interventions using broad multidisciplinary approaches as it strengthens its host institutions, from their human capital to the support systems that are required for a research-conducive environment.

Partners:

University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), University of Nairobi (Kenya), Makerere University (Uganda), University of Malawi, Ifakara Health Institute (Tanzania), University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and the University of Rwanda.

CARTA is a consortium of eight African-partner universities, four research institutions, and nine non-African partner institutions jointly led by Dr Catherine Kyobutungi the, Executive Director of the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Kenya, and Prof Sharon Fonn from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa.

The consortium enhances the capacity of African universities to create sustainable multidisciplinary research hubs by supporting junior faculty members to undertake their doctoral training locally and to become internationally recognized research leaders. Ultimately, CARTA strengthens university-wide systems to support research. CARTA offers a well thought out approach to rebuild and to strengthen the capacity of African universities to produce world-class researchers, research leaders, and scholars.

Partners: University of Ibadan, Moi University, University of Nairobi, University of Rwanda, Obafemi Awolowo University, Makerere University, University of The Witwatersrand, University of Malawi, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Programme, Agincourt MRC, South Africa, Ifakara Health Institute, APHRC, University of Bergen, Umeå University, the University of Warwick, University of Gothenburg, Brown University, Canadian Association for Global Health and Swiss TPH

All too often, profit-driven climate solutions make people poorer. It naturally follows therefore that global climate solutions are rendered in terms of finance and geopolitical boundaries and can have unintended consequences. For example, commercial resource solutions result in profit to private shareholders rather than building a collectively owned infrastructure. How can research advance an African ecological policy of habitability that builds on local knowledge of how a landscape works and builds a local resource that serves everyone at the lowest possible cost?

CzASE will conduct comparative studies at three sites of about 50x50km in six countries: Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa.

Partners:

Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Malawi), University of Zimbabwe, University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique) and the Human Sciences Research Council (South Africa).

Led by Prof Abdoulaye Djimde, an eminent malaria researcher, the Mali-based DELGEME aims to develop advanced technical and analytical skills of African scientists in relevant areas of bioinformatics, next generation sequence analysis, population genetics, epidemiology, statistical and cellular and molecular biology in collaboration with local and international partners for malaria control and elimination in sub-Saharan Africa.

Partners: CSRS, NIMR, IHI, NMIMR, SUA, IRED, NM-AIST, Beca/ILRI, EISMV, TAWIRI, UDSM, MAKUN, KCRI/KCMC, MUHAS and two northern partner’s institutions; University of Glasgow and Swiss TPH.

DELGEME PLUS will build on the training and capacity development we did in genomics during DELTAS 1 to continue addressing major problems in malaria. We will conduct cutting-edge research to understand how the microbes that cause malaria and other diseases become resistant to drugs, how we can prevent the development of this resistance and invent or discover new drugs that will effectively kill the microbes. We will achieve these through training young scientists to become specialists who will produce new knowledge on AMR and through engaging doctors, health officials and communities to improve their behaviour in antimicrobial use.

Partners:

Universite des Sciences de la Sante (Gabon), Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (Ghana), Kenya Medical Research Institute, Medical Research Council Unit (Gambia), University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and Stellenbosch University (South Africa).

IDEAL’s vision is for African-led research teams to solve African health problems.  To achieve this, we focus on three objectives:  Find solutions to the major causes of childhood and adult morbidity and mortality in Africa, build sustainable research capacity in Africa through the creation of a critical and diverse mass of African researchers who can drive the continent’s research agenda and enhance intra-Africa research collaborations.

Partners:

Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, Epicentre (Niger), Pwani University (Kenya), Strathmore University (Kenya), University of Glasgow (UK) and the University of Oxford (UK).

Led by Prof Samson Kinyanjui, The Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL), based at the KEMRI – Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya, is a high-quality training programme that aims to develop outstanding young African scientists into world-class research leaders. It is available to young researchers, from undergraduate research attachments to postdoctoral fellowships, with the aim of keeping scientists at African institutions through a defined programme of recruitment, supervision, mentorship, multidisciplinary approaches, and clear career paths.

Partners:

MUII-plus is a collaborative capacity-building and research programme supporting excellence in infection and Immunity led by Prof Alison Elliott. Based at the UVRI campus in Entebbe, Uganda, MUII-plus attracts bright young biomedical researchers in Uganda and provides access to some of the best labs and research support in East Africa. It also provides access to collaborations with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Cambridge University, and other leading international centres.

Partners: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of Cambridge

MARCAD-Plus will build on the successes of MARCAD-1, continuing the successful Masters, PhD and post-doctoral programs by training the next generation of African research leaders in malaria and neglected tropical diseases. The Consortium maintains high-quality research which seeks to eliminate malaria and selected NTDs within the context of climate change, rapid urbanization, increasing population movements and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Partners:

Medical Research Council Unit (The Gambia), MRTC/Icermali/ USTTB (Mali), Bandim Health Project (Guinea Bissau), University of Sierra Leone, University of Health and Allied Sciences (Ghana), University of Yaoundé 1 (Cameroon) and the Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases (Cameroon).

Led by Prof Oumar Gaye, MARCAD seeks to train a core group of African scientists in West and Central Africa who will be able to provide relevant answers for the control and elimination of malaria. One PhD and two post-docs fellows are hosted at each partner institution across five African countries (Mali, The Gambia, Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal). Postdoctoral fellows and PhD students are integrated into established research teams with senior scientists in participating institutions within a stimulated research environment. Strong mentorship from leading scientists is also provided.

Partners: Kwame Nkurumah University of Science & Technology, Medical Research Council Malaria Research & Training Centre, University of Bamako, University of Yaounde I Cameroon, University of Copenhagen, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

REACCT-CAN is dedicated to strengthening African institutions and networks for cancer research and to training a large cohort of African cancer scientists with the mission to generate collaborative African-led, African-relevant multidisciplinary research of international standing in oncology and cancer sciences in Africa. We will provide post-graduate training for 87 young African researchers in cancer prevention and care. Researchers will form teams across institutions to complement their strengths and build international networks.

Partners:

Cairo University (Egypt), Wits Health Consortium (Pty) Ltd (South Africa), Martin-Luther-University Halle (Saale, Germany), World Health Organization (Switzerland), and the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (Tanzania).

There is a need to provide solutions to major public health, environmental and health system challenges in Africa through cutting-edge biostatistical methodology and contribute towards achievements of SDG3 ‘Ensure healthy lives and well-being for all’. SSACAB-II will build regional nodes of biostatistics research excellence, effectively collaborating and integrating with other consortia and research institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.

Partners:

University Medical Center Utrecht (Netherlands), University of Abomey- Calavi (Benin), Kenya Medical Research Institute, South African Medical Research Council, University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Moi University (Kenya) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK).

Led by Professor Tobias Chirwa, the University of the Witwatersrand based SSACAB consorti therefore brings together over 20 African and Northern academic and research institutions to develop and improve biostatistical skills among researchers. The goal of our consortium is to create research nodes of excellence to grow the discipline and a biostatistical network to nurture researchers with advanced skills and expertise. Our consortium emphasises the use of open access data generated through demographic and health surveillance sites and health research in the African region.

Partners: Addis Ababa University, College of Medicine - University of Malawi, University of Cape Town and University of Zimbabwe. These are supported by three UK universities namely, King’s College London, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

SANTHE is a multidisciplinary consortium of African-led research and capacity strengthening leading locally relevant discovery and policy-impacting science in Africa and globally. Given the widespread roll-out of antiretroviral treatment (ART) and an ageing population of people living with HIV, the long-term use of ART will shape the incidence and management of NCDs in sub-Saharan Africa. We believe that to tackle these public health challenges, collaborative, multidisciplinary research that includes the social sciences, clinical research and biomedical sciences is needed. Each partner site brings focused research strengths and needs aligned to SANTHE’s thematic areas of research -- amplifying the effectiveness of the individual research teams.

Partners:

Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Collaborative Clinical Research Centre (USA), Zambia Emory HIV Research Project, Makerere University (Uganda), KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (Kenya) and the Center of Research for Emerging and Re-Emerging Diseases (CREMER, USA).

Led by Prof Thumbi Ndung’u, the Africa Health Research Institute/University of KwaZulu-Natal based SANTHE consortium empowers African scientists to combat HIV, Tuberculosis and HIV/TB co-infection through pioneering basic, clinical and translational research.

HIV and TB disproportionately affect sub-Saharan Africa, but Africans are under-represented in the scientific effort to tackle these issues. Investing in talented young researchers, and in African institutions, SANTHE accelerates discoveries in these fields and equips the continent to be better prepared for the public health challenges of the future.

Partners: Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Rwanda-Zambia HIV Research Group and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme

Led by world-renowned HIV and infectious diseases researcher Prof Nelson Sewankambo, THRiVE-2 is hosted at the Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Uganda. It aims to transform East African universities into world class research hubs for key emerging health issues in the region.

By training and developing the scientific careers of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows, THRiVE-2 built on the successes of THRiVE, a regional network of research excellence, to create research leaders in infectious diseases, neglected tropical disease, maternal, neonatal and reproductive health, and non-communicable diseases.

Partners: CSRS, NIMR, IHI, NMIMR, SUA, IRED, NM-AIST, Beca/ILRI, EISMV, TAWIRI, UDSM, MAKUN, KCRI/KCMC, MUHAS and two northern partner’s institutions; University of Glasgow and Swiss TPH.

The unifying goal of the WACCBIP DELTAS II consortium is to use deep research approaches to gain a thorough understanding of the disease mechanisms for some of the major infectious and non-communicable diseases affecting African populations. WACCBIP’s DELTAS II programme seeks to build on its successes by providing high quality training and advanced research on the mechanisms underlying the development of infectious diseases (IDs) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

 WACCBIP has assembled a top-class team of scientists from institutions in Africa, Europe and the United States to conduct high-quality research and training for young African scientists. Our team seeks to address the double threat of IDs and NCDs facing Africa, by providing advanced laboratory-based research and training to build the skills necessary for effective disease surveillance, control of drug resistance, development of new diagnostic tools, drugs and vaccines, and characterization of genetic predictors of risk of NCDs.

Partners:

University of Cambridge (UK), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK), University of Liberia, Francis Crick Institute (UK),  Medical Research Council Unit (The Gambia), University of Lagos (Nigeria), John Hopkins University (USA).

Led by Dr Gordon Awandare, the University of Ghana based WACCBIP consortium seeks to improve the diagnosis, prevention, and control of tropical diseases in sub-Saharan Africa by providing advanced-level training and research excellence in cell and molecular biology. WACCBIP’s goal is to become a major hub for biomedical research training & a leading producer of home-grown African science. Prioritising world-class training, WACCBIP has established short-term, medium-term, and long-term training programmes, producing yearly cohorts of brilliant scientists at both master’s and doctoral levels.

Partners: Malaria Research & Training Centre, Medical Research Council, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, University of Cape Town, University of Oxford University of Cambridge, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh