"EDCTP is pleased to be able contribute to small start-up grants that would facilitate collaborations between researchers and health professionals in national disease programmes in sub-Saharan Africa." - Prof. Moses J. Bockarie, EDCTP Director of South-South Cooperation and Head of Africa Office

The call is aimed at strengthening capacity for implementation research conducted through close collaboration between researchers and national disease programmes. Diseases covered include malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, lower respiratory tract infections, yellow fever, and neglected tropical diseases. Implementation research activities supported by this call may be complementary to those supported through other stakeholders interested in these diseases. Only residents from the WHO African Region are eligible to apply.

This call signifies a commitment by the funders to increasing the level of implementation research in order to deliver high quality and cost-efficient health care solutions to people in resource-poor settings. Whilst EDCTP and TDR already have a long-established partnership in research capacity development, this is the first time that EDCTP and WHO AFRO are collaborating on a joint initiative, reflecting the expansion of the second EDCTP programme (EDCTP2) as a true European-African partnership and the extension of its scope to include product-focused implementation research and to strengthen African research capacity in this area.

“The collaboration between WHO AFRO, TDR and EDCTP will align the strategic priorities of the three organisations for strengthening implementation research in sub-Saharan Africa”- Dr Ole Olesen, EDCTP Director of North-North Cooperation

WHO AFRO is managing the implementation of the call, with a TDR contribution of up to US$ 150,000 and an EDCTP contribution of up to € 300,000. EDCTP’s contribution will be jointly provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). As such, this small grants scheme also represents a joint initiative between the three European countries: Germany, Sweden and the UK. National research activities such as this, which fall within the scope of EDCTP and are independently funded and administered by EDCTP member countries, are an integral part of the EDCTP2 programme. These so-called Participating States’ Initiated Activities (PSIAs) contribute to achieving our common objectives and, when implemented jointly and through EDCTP, demonstrate EDCTP’s role in promoting the coordination and alignment of national research programmes and activities on poverty-related diseases – one of the key objectives of the EDCTP2 programme.

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