The project was carried out by Science-Metrix, part of Elsevier, and focused on papers published between 2016 and the end of 2023. A comparative approach was taken, with 1429 papers acknowledging EDCTP2 support being compared with a full set of papers in the disease areas of interest to EDCTP2 or those from other funders. The analysis focused on several areas:
Patterns of collaboration: An analysis of the institutional affiliations of authors was used to examine the extent of cross-border collaboration. As expected, EDCTP2-funded papers were highly collaborative, with a high representation of authors from Africa (86.3% of papers) and with authors from both Europe and Africa (62.0%). Several country pairs appeared on papers together more often than in the global paper set, including pairs of African countries. EDCTP2 therefore appears to have stimulated new collaborations beyond existing colonial ties.
Authorship: Authors from African institutions are well represented on EDCTP2 papers. Importantly, such authors were lead authors on 70.8% of papers with an author from Africa. The proportion of women authors is about the global average but EDCTP2 papers have a relatively high proportion of women authors from Africa. Notably, the proportion of lead women authors (first or last authors) is also relatively high (32.8%).
Research focus: The analysis examined how often papers referenced two areas of particular importance to EDCTP2 – vulnerable populations often excluded from clinical trials (such as children and pregnant women) and the affordability and accessibility of interventions. The bibliometric data indicate that these themes are more strongly represented in EDCTP2 papers than in the global data set, confirming that these key issues are an important aspect of EDCTP2 projects.
Citation analysis: Citations are one way of assessing the scientific impact of papers. By two different measures, EDCTP2 papers are relatively highly cited compared to global averages, suggesting that EDCTP2 projects are generating impactful findings.
Policy impact: The project also analysed references to EDCTP2 papers in the Overton global database of policy documents. In total, 276 EDCTP2 papers were referenced by 970 policy documents. Many of the referencing policy documents were published by international agencies such as WHO. These findings suggest that EDCTP2 outputs are influencing global and national policy.
The analysis covers outputs from a relatively early stage of the EDCTP2 programme, before many projects had completed their work and published their findings. Nevertheless, they suggest that EDCTP2 funding is achieving its key objectives. A paper summarising the analysis is currently in preparation.
Nevertheless, bibliometrics is only one tool being used to assess the programme. Bibliometric analysis is less suited to assessing other programme impacts, for example on capacity building and strengthening of national regulatory systems.
Ultimately it is impacts on health that matter. Recent years have seen multiple EDCTP2 projects deliver findings that have had a major impact of policy and regulatory decision making, advancing drug treatments, new formulations, vaccines and other interventions towards regulatory approval and implementation.