Developing leaders in research and innovation
Dr Rodrigo Henriquez (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium) described an innovative new fellowship programme (the Southern African Human Resources Initiative, SAHRI) designed to build leadership in science and innovation. Through the programme, 12 budding leaders will take part in a three-year master’s training programme that will include intensive training in Belgium, an industry placement at BioNTech in Germany, and a ‘resettlement’ period in their host institution.
The fellows will also receive additional support through regular mentoring and personal development plans. The training will provide the fellows with a broad and system-wide perspective on the development and production of medical interventions, positioning them to assume key leadership roles on their return.
Strengthening pharmacovigilance
Professor Eleni Aklillu (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden) described the extensive range of activities carried out through the EDCTP2-funded PROFORMA project. Focused on Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, PROFORMA has conducted multiple activities to boost pharmacovigilance capacity in these countries.
Bringing together academic, public health programmes and regulatory structures, the project mapped baseline pharmacovigilance capacity and developed national development plans, undertook in-depth post-marketing surveillance studies focused on mass drug administration campaigns and vaccine introductions, and facilitated short-term and long-term training. The cascade approach has led to training of 50,000 individuals through the project, five students have been supported through master’s studies, and five senior staff have completed PhDs. The programme has had many impacts, and helped regulatory authorities enhance their maturity levels.
Building clinical trial capacity
Dr Emily Nyanzi (Uganda Virus Research Institute, UVRI) discussed the capacity-building activities carried out by the East African Consortium for Clinical Research (EACCR) to support greater participation in clinical trials. Founded in 2009, EACCR has received three rounds of EDCTP support. It undertook a needs assessment at more than 15 sites across the network to identify development needs, and has supported sites by strengthening infrastructure, enhancing data collection and management capacity, and upgrading laboratories.
Some 20 PhDs have been supervised through the network, along with 44 master’s students and three postdoctoral researchers, while 500 individuals have benefited from 20 short courses. Several of the PhDs have taken on leadership roles. The network also hosts an EDCTP-funded PhD programme for women researchers (CaFE-SEA). EACCR has also trained 35 clinical trial monitors through a reciprocal mentoring schemes.
New technologies
Adriaan Kruger (nuvoteQ, South Africa) showcased the results of a collaboration with EDCTP, the Clinical Trial Community Africa website. This is designed to showcase the clinical trial opportunities in the region, integrating data from multiple sources on, for example, clinical trial centres, disease burden and R&D funding on different diseases. It includes information on more than 400 centres and 30,000 clinical trials, with all information accessible through a customisable map-based interface.
An additional tool is the Clinical Trial Community Africa Network (CTCAN), which provides centres with a tool for benchmarking their clinical trial preparedness and identifying their development needs.
In addition, Prince Ebenezer Adjei (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana) described the AI4GH project, which is collating information on the use of AI tools in various areas of health and medicine, including sexual and reproductive health, pandemic preparedness, and maternal health.
All resources are available through an interactive map available on the Global Health Network (TGHN) website. Workshops and other online events are being organized, and working groups have been set up to take forward various thematic and cross-cutting issues.
Gender equity
Finally, Dr Ogechukwu Aribodor (Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria) described an innovative approach to enhance gender equity in research mentorship. Mentorship can contribute significantly to progression in science but most guidance on mentoring has a high-income country perspective. Social Entrepreneurship to Spur Health (SESH) and the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI), in collaboration with TDR Global, used an open call and scoping review to develop HERMES guidance for enhancing mentoring in low- and middle-income countries.
Piloting of this guidance identified a need for a greater focus on equity and inclusivity. Another ‘crowd-sourcing’ open call was launched, which attracted 64 submissions from more than 20 countries. Three finalists were selected from Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Liberia. A ‘designathon’ for HERMES 2.0 was organised in Addis Ababa in May 2025 and a launch is planned for September or October 2025.