Introduction

The Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation) is a pan-African, non-profit, and public charity organisation that supports, strengthens, and promotes science and innovation in Africa. The SFA Foundation is committed to improving African people's quality of life and promoting research uptake in communities, industry, and the public sector. We serve the African research ecosystem by designing, funding, and managing programmes that support excellent science and innovation; and that build and reinforce environments that are conducive for scientists to thrive and produce quality research that impacts development. SFA Foundation is distinctive in that it focuses on the ecosystem surrounding research and the production of research itself. It also supports initiatives that directly influence the quantity, quality, and impact of research. SFA Foundation operations are hosted within the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) as a programme in the Republic of Kenya.

Overview

The Problem

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a profound challenge globally and to the continent of Africa specifically. The initial focus was naturally on the burden of disease and impacts on fragile health systems and vulnerable populations. Several years on, the focus is now widening to recognise the deep societal and economic consequences, including decreases in production, increased unemployment rates, reduced family incomes and consumption, and impacts on livelihoods, education and societal interactions.

At any one time, the African continent has 100 or more ongoing disease outbreaks. These risks will only increase as Africa undergoes rapid demographic growth, as the continent becomes increasingly connected, and as environmental degradation continues. Investment in African pandemic sciences will protect and enhance the healthcare system, improve health and help protect African economic stability through the mitigation of future adverse socio-economic impacts from epidemic and pandemic diseases.

Although Africa represents 17% of the global population, the continent produces just 1-2% of global health research, a gap driven by systemic under-investment and structural challenges. There are roughly 200 researchers per 1 million people in Africa, compared to over 4,000 per million in high-income countries (UNESCO, 2021). In addition, only ~15% of early-career researchers access structured mentorship, according to systematic reviews across 12 African countries (TENET, 2019).

To respond to this need, a unique, high-impact multi-year partnership has been formed between the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford, the Science for Africa Foundation, and Mastercard Foundation. This partnership, known as the Africa Pandemic Sciences Collaborative (The Collaborative) will achieve its goals by strengthening African research and higher education institutions to enable them to conduct world-class, innovative research, and translate findings into impactful, locally relevant solutions that contribute to shaping and strengthening pandemic resilience and, ultimately, the health ecosystem on the continent for the benefit of future generations.

The Intervention of the Africa Pandemic Sciences Collaborative

The Africa Pandemic Sciences Collaborative seeks to nurture and equip the emerging generation of young African scientists and researchers to address current and future health challenges, contribute to strengthening the continent’s health ecosystem and pandemic preparedness and response capabilities, and to create pathways to dignified and fulfilling careers in pandemic sciences. A thriving research ecosystem in Africa will be essential for achieving this goal and retaining a critical mass of high-calibre young scientists across the continent, ensuring knowledge continuity between generations of researchers.

Over the next seven years, the Collaborative aims to advance the continent’s preparedness for, and response to, epidemic and pandemic in the following ways:

One of the investments is the Epidemic and Pandemic Sciences Innovation and Leadership Networks (EPSILONs). Following a competitive selection process between late 2023 and early 2025, seven successful EPSILON consortia were selected from a total of 230 applications. Each EPSILON consortia is led by an outstanding African investigator and comprises up to six institutions, majority of which are based in Africa. The lead institution in each consortium has recently signed an award letter with SFA Foundation and work will start in earnest in the coming months.

Each EPSILON will undertake a research programme in one of seven thematic areas:

• Vaccinology / early-stage vaccine research for epidemic- and pandemic-prone infections
• Virology – genotype to phenotype
• Clinical research and clinical trials on epidemic and pandemic-prone infections
• Epidemic and pandemic public health policy research
• Climate change, biodiversity and pandemic prevention
• Advanced data assembly and analytics for threat assessment and mitigation
• Social and behavioural sciences

Beyond funding scientific research (EPSILONs), the collaborative supports a substantial portfolio of capacity-strengthening, knowledge exchange and policy engagement activities including:

• Developing young African scientists and professionals through training and capacity-strengthening initiatives, under the mentorship of senior African scientists, thus expanding and retaining the research workforce to improve public health in Africa.
• Strengthening African higher education and research institutions to build their capacity for conducting world-class, locally led research that shapes public policy and practice, fostering scientific excellence, innovation and leadership in pandemic sciences.
• Fostering partnerships and collaborative exchanges among scientists, policymakers, public health institutions, industry and global peers.
• Enhancing research institutions’ capacity to nurture environments where research careers and innovation thrive.

These interventions align with and contribute to the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, which aims to enable 30 million young Africans, of whom 70% are young women, to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. 

Objectives of the Assignment 

The purpose of the baseline assessment is to generate a structured, evidence-based understanding of each EPSILON consortium and the Collaborative’s broader operating ecosystem. This baseline is essential to grounding the Collaborative’s approach in operational realities and anchoring its ambition to close Africa’s global health research gap with current, context-aware insights.

It will serve as a critical foundation for the Collaborative’s Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEAL) workstream, informing performance benchmarks and adaptive learning strategies. It will also act as a reference point for future midline and endline evaluations and tracking progress across key domains, including the inclusion of youth and underrepresented populations, policy engagement, innovation, and institutional strengthening. Additionally, this assessment will refine the strategic positioning of the Collaborative and its EPSILONs within Africa’s pandemic sciences landscape by identifying strengths, gaps, enabling networks, and opportunities for collective action to achieve the Collaborative’s objectives (Establishing the Epidemic and Pandemic Sciences Leadership and Innovation Networks and the Africa Pandemic Science Knowledge Exchange).

Building on existing work, such as due diligence conducted by SFA Foundation on the lead institutions in each EPSILON consortium, and landscaping analyses to be conducted by the workstream implementation teams, the baseline will examine both internal capacities and external contextual factors (affecting institutional operations and governance, and the broader operating environment) related to epidemic and pandemic research excellence and its translation, equitable career pathways for young scientists, institutional support structures, and the Collaborative’s potential for impact.

Focusing on elements of the Collaborative’s Theory of Change (Increased translation and uptake of Epidemics and Pandemics research outputs into contextually relevant solutions, regulations, approaches and policies; Sustainable career pathways for young researchers and professionals working on Epidemics and Pandemics, and Enhanced professionalism and a well-resourced (financial and human resource) Epidemics and Pandemics sector to support research in Africa), the assessment will include:

• Assessment of EPSILON consortiums’ research and institutional capacity, and systems for capacity-strengthening and inclusion, research translation (to policy and/or innovation), and monitoring and learning.
• Landscape analysis of the Collaborative’s broader operating ecosystems (e.g., policy, economic, social, technical (research), environmental, market (research topic, competition, etc)).
• Development of a structured framework to assess EPSILONs’ capabilities and capacities to function as a “networked centre of excellence” within their field.

The purpose of the baseline assessment is therefore expected to establish a contextual performance benchmark for the EPSILONs, assess institutional and programmatic readiness, inform strategic learning and adaptive implementation, map the broader operating environment of the EPSILONS and inform accountability and reporting. 

DOWNLOAD THE FULL RFP HERE

Instructions on the Proposal Submission Process

1. 1. Proposal to be sent by email to: [email protected] on or before 18 September 2025 at 5.00 pm East African Time (EAT)
   2. Protect your proposal with a password and share the password on 5 September 2025 by 8.00 am EAT
   3. The proposal to be marked as follows on the subject line: REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES FOR BASELINE ASSESSMENT RFP/023/2025

Important Downloads

• Full RFP
• Responses to Bidders RFP/023/2025