Plenary speakers

Dr. Jean Kaseya was appointed Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa-CDC) during the thirty-sixth African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government in February 2023. Dr. Kaseya, a Congolese Medical Doctor with advanced degrees in Epidemiology and Community Health, brings to this position over 25 years of expertise in the field of public health, having held pivotal roles both at the national and international levels. 

As the Director-General of Africa-CDC, Dr. Kaseya oversees the organisation’s fundamental political, strategic, and technical functions. At the forefront of his agenda is his commitment to advancing a transformative “New Deal” for Africa CDC, with the primary objective of strengthening health security across the continent. This undertaking involves establishing sustainable and innovative financing mechanisms, enhancing robust governance structures, cultivating technical expertise, strengthening health systems, and efficient response to health crises. 

Under Dr. Kaseya’s leadership, the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) demonstrated regional leadership by sounding the continental alarm for mpox and declaring the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of Continental Concern. His efforts facilitated accelerated regulatory approvals for vaccines and secured donation pledges from various countries. This progress was achieved by leveraging vaccine development during inter-outbreak periods, enabling a more agile and effective response to emerging health threats.

Before assuming his role as Director-General of Africa CDC, Dr. Kaseya had a distinguished career, holding multiple significant roles. At the national level, Dr. Kaseya has been entrusted with significant responsibilities, contributing his expertise to the health initiatives of his home country. These roles have included serving as a Senior Adviser to President Laurent Desire Kabila at a ministerial level, where he played a vital role in shaping healthcare policies and strategies. Additionally, he has taken on roles such as the Head of Routine Immunization within the National Expanded Programme on Immunization, showcasing his dedication to enhancing healthcare delivery at the grassroots level. 

On the international stage, he has worked with prominent organizations such as UNICEF, Gavi, CHAI, and the World Health Organization, where he has been instrumental in driving forward various health initiatives of continental significance. 

Dr Michael Makanga started his tenure as the Executive Director of Global Health EDCTP3 on 16 November 2023. He has extensive experience in the global health research sector and was previously the Executive Director of the EDCTP Association.

He is a clinician-scientist with nearly thirty years of health and clinical research work experience in African and European institutions. He has a medical degree from Makerere University, a master’s and PhD in pharmacology and therapeutics from the Liverpool University and School of Tropical Medicine, and is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

He has vast experience in global health, research for health capacity development, engagement with policy makers, ethics and regulatory authorities in both Africa and Europe. Moreover, he has served in various scientific and policy advisory boards involved in developing medical products and associated technologies for infectious diseases, including the World Bank, international product development organisations, philanthropies and pharmaceutical companies. 

Jutta Reinhard-Rupp is the Chief Scientific Officer of FIND, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics and she is also representing the H3D Foundation in an ambassador role, based in Switzerland. At FIND, Jutta contributes to the innovation, development and deployment of new diagnostics in LMICs covering infectious and non-communicable diseases.

She is a senior Global Health expert and former Head of the Global Health Institute at Merck. Her focus is on catalyzing innovative health solutions for most vulnerable populations and on strengthening research skills and capacity to foster human progress. 

With more than 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, Jutta specialized in the Global Health field focusing on malaria and neglected tropical diseases. Under her leadership, an integrated portfolio encompassing diagnostics and new treatment options combined with local capacity strengthening and trainings has been developed. As Chair of the Board of the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium, she steered the development of a new pediatric formulation for young children suffering from schistosomiasis which received EMA approval and WHO pre-qualification.

Jutta currently serves as scientific advisor for DZIF (German Center for Infection Research), Global Health EDCTP3 (European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership) and CPCDI (Cross-Pharma Capacity Development Initiative).

Dr. Bilal Mateen, MBBS, MPH, PhD, is the inaugural Chief AI Officer at PATH, where he leads the organization’s AI strategy while overseeing a number of programs focused on AI-based solutions for addressing key health care challenges. Dr. Mateen is a physician by training, and he previously served as Executive Director of Digital Square, overseeing over $250M in digital health initiatives across Africa and Asia. Dr. Mateen has held leadership roles at the Wellcome Trust and academic appointments at University College London and the Alan Turing Institute. He is passionate about ethical, inclusive AI and its potential to advance health equity worldwide.

Dr. Agnes Kiragga is a biostatistician and global health data science leader based in Nairobi, Kenya, where she serves as Head of the Data Science Program at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). She holds a PhD in Statistics from Makerere University and completed postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is a previous recipient of the EDCTP Career Development Award.

Agnes leads a 30-person, cross-disciplinary data science team working across close to 35 African countries, with a portfolio spanning the INSPIRE Network of demographic surveillance sites, Data Science Without Borders, and Evidence for AI in Health (EVAH). She leads the current EDCTP-funded ANTENNA  project, which is building capacity in epidemiology and biostatistics in Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal.

She is Lead of the Africa OHDSI Chapter and was recently appointed Director of the International Population Data Linkage Network (IPDLN) for 2026-2028. Agnes has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and is keen to build data systems and capacity to increase data-driven evidence for health in Africa.

Olivier Collignon is a Senior Biostatistician at the European Medicines Agency, where he contributes to the scientific evaluation of complex clinical trial designs and results supporting the marketing authorization of new medicines in Europe. 

Prior to joining EMA, Olivier was Director of Statistics at GSK in the United Kingdom, where he led teams of statisticians responsible for the design and analysis of clinical development programs in vaccines and immune-inflammatory diseases. His work focused on the implementation of innovative trial designs, quantitative decision-making, and the application of probability of technical and regulatory success to drug development.

Olivier holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and has more than 25 years of experience in biostatistics across regulatory agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, and applied research in France, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. His methodological interests include platform trials, the use of historical controls, clinical prediction models, and the application of AI to clinical development.

Dr. Miguel Luengo-Oroz is a scientist, entrepreneur, policy advisor, and engineering professor committed to imagining, building, and sharing responsible AI for humanity and the planet. He is the founder and CEO of Spotlab.ai, an AI platform advancing universal diagnosis and biopharma research worldwide, from neglected tropical diseases to blood cancers. Previously, he served as the United Nations’ first Chief Data Scientist in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, building teams that brought data science and AI to operations and policy in humanitarian response, global health, sustainable development, and human rights. Dr. Luengo-Oroz teaches at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid’s doctoral school and has co-authored +100 multidisciplinary publications on biomedical AI applications and responsible AI. He is also the Scientific Director of the Hermes Foundation for Digital Rights and innovation leader of the EDCTP AI for microscopy project MultiplexAI. His honors include Ashoka Fellow, MIT TR35, Obama Foundation Europe Fellow, EU Responsible Research & Innovation Award, Red Cross Innovation Award, and La Caixa Fellow. He holds a PhD and MEng from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and a MSc from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Prof.  Marleen Temmerman, MD, MMED-OB/GYN, MPH, PhD. Director, Centre of Excellence Women and Child Health, Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya. AKU UNESCO Chair Youth Leadership in Health, Education, Gender & Sciences. Chair of the AKU-WHO Collaboration on Women’s Cancers. Professor-Em Ghent University, Belgium. Adjunct professor School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Technical University Mombasa.

Previously 1) Director Reproductive Health Research Department, World Health Organization, Geneva; 2) Senator Belgian Parliament – Chair Commission Foreign Affairs & Defense. Vice-President European Parliamentary Forum, Chair HIV/AIDS Advisory Group Inter-Parliamentary Union; 3) Founding Director International Centre Reproductive Health (ICRH), Ghent University, (1994), ICRH Kenya (2000) and ICRH Mozambique (2010), with a global academic network to translate research into impact (ANSER).

Over 600 peer-reviewed publications (H-index 113). Supervised over 60 PhD students. 

Ambassador African Academy of Sciences; Member US National Academy Medicine and American Academy Arts and Sciences; Fellow Royal College OB/GYN; Board Member CONSAMS; BMJ Lifetime Achievement Award;Moran of the Burning Spear, Presidential award Kenya; EDCTP Award for Outstanding Female Scientist, 2016.

Dr David Reddy PhD

David Reddy joined IFPMA as Director General in April 2024, following 13 years as Chief Executive of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV).

At MMV, he contributed to the development of a substantial portfolio of malaria drugs, advancing 15 medicines that have saved more than 15 million lives.

He currently serves as Chairman of Malaria No More UK.

Previously, David was Vice President at Roche, where he led the company’s response to the 2009/2010 influenza pandemic, including its strategy with governments and the WHO on pandemic preparedness and sustainable access. He also led Roche’s HIV/AIDS Disease Area Strategy Team.

David holds a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Auckland and completed post-doctoral research in molecular neurobiology at the FriedrichMiescher Institute in Basel. He has more than 30 years’ healthcare management experience spanning drug development, diagnostics, vaccines, antiviral strategies, licensing, alliances, market analytics, business planning, and engagement with governments, NGOs, and patient groups.

Pooja Jha is the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, a role she has held since the journal's launch in October 2020. Prior to this, she was an editor at Nature Metabolism (Nature Research, Berlin), contributing to the journal's launch in 2018.

Pooja holds a BSc in Chemistry, Botany, and Zoology, and an MSc in Medical Molecular Biology and Human Genetics. She completed her PhD in Molecular Medicine at the Medical University of Graz, where she investigated adipose tissue–liver cross-talk in NAFLD progression, followed by postdoctoral research in computational genetics, mitochondrial supercomplexes, and metabolic diseases at EPFL, Lausanne.

She has published numerous primary research articles and convened two major ongoing commissions: the Lancet Regional Health – Europe Commission on Climate Change, Migration, Displacement and Health, and the Commission on Inequalities and Disparities in Cardiovascular Health. 

Her editorial interests span all areas of clinical and global public health. Additioanlly, Pooja has keen interest in philosophy, politics and economics, as significant determinants of health and societal evolution at large.

Prof. Pauline Byakika-Kibwika is the Vice Chancellor of Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), Uganda, and a Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. She is a clinician-scientist with over two decades of experience in global health research, clinical trials, research capacity strengthening, and higher education leadership.

Her research has focused on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and implementation science, with a particular interest in translating research evidence into policy and practice. She has led and collaborated on numerous multinational research projects and clinical trials supported by international funding agencies and has contributed significantly to strengthening research systems, ethics oversight, and clinical research capacity in Africa.

Recognized as a leader in global health research, Prof. Byakika-Kibwika was nominated to the Global Health EDCTP3 Stakeholders Group, where she currently serves as the Chair. In this role, she provides strategic leadership to a diverse international body of stakeholders and contributes to shaping the programme's priorities in clinical research, epidemic preparedness, capacity strengthening, and equitable Africa-Europe research partnerships.

As Vice Chancellor, she champions research excellence, innovation, partnerships, and institutional transformation. Her work continues to advance evidence-based solutions to health challenges while supporting the next generation of African scientists and research leaders.

Professor Ntobeko Ntusi is the President and CEO of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). He is also appointed as Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town. He is a distinguished and highly respected figure in the medical community as a key global opinion leader. His lifelong passion for evidence-based healthcare, noncommunicable disease multimorbidity, and universal health coverage has positioned him as a trailblazer in medical research.

Prof. Ntusi is committed to advancing medical research and innovation; and is passionate about improving healthcare outcomes aligned with the SAMRC's mandate to advance the nation’s health and quality of life. His leadership spans various national, regional, and international platforms, where he has played pivotal roles in shaping academic agendas, postgraduate medical education standards, and advancing key national strategic priorities. His commitment to mentoring young professionals and supervising postgraduate students underscores his passion for nurturing the next generation of medical leaders, instilling hope for the future of medical leadership.

He is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and has fellowships from The World Academy of Science, the Royal Society of South Africa, the Royal College of Physicians, and the University of Cape Town College of Fellows. Prof. Ntusi obtained a BSc(Hons) degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Haverford College, USA, and an MBChB degree from the University of Cape Town. He is a qualified physician and cardiologist, and holds numerous additional qualifications, including a DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine from the University of Oxford, St. Cross College, and an MD in Cardiology from the University of Cape Town.

Prof. Ntusi provides key scientific leadership globally through boards and scientific advisory committees of numerous organisations he serves on. 

Salim S. Abdool Karim, FRS is a South African clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist widely recognized for scientific contributions and leadership in AIDS and Covid-19. 

He is Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Durban, and Professor of Global Health at Columbia University, New York. He serves as Special Advisor on pandemics to the WHO Director-General. 

He is an adjunct Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University, adjunct Professor of Medicine at Cornell University and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. 

His research on TB-HIV treatment shaped international guidelines on clinical management of co-infected patients. He co-led the CAPRISA 004 trial that provided proof-of-concept for antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). He is co-inventor on HIV vaccine and broadly-neutralising antibody patents. 

He has been ranked among the world’s most highly cited scientists by Web of Science. He serves on the Boards of the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Global Health and Lancet HIV. His many awards include the Lasker Prize, Canada Gairdner Award, Japan’s Hideyo Noguchi Prize and the African Union’s Kwame Nkrumah Prize. 

He is member of the US National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Kelly Chibale is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where he holds the Neville Isdell Chair in African-centric Drug Discovery & Development. He is also a Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Senior Fellow, Full Member of the UCT Institute of Infectious Disease & Molecular Medicine, founding Director of the South African Medical Research Council Drug Discovery & Development Research unit at UCT, Founder & Director of the UCT Holistic Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre and Founder and CEO of the H3D Foundation. 

Kelly obtained his PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge.  This was followed by postdoctoral stints at the University of Liverpool and Scripps Research Institute. 

Kelly’s research interests are in drug discovery and the development of tools and models to contribute to improving treatment outcomes in people of African descent. 

He serves as Editor-In-Chief of the American Chemical Society (ACS)’s ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 

Placide Mbala Kingebeni is a physician, microbiologist, and virologist specializing in infectious disease surveillance, viral genomics, outbreak investigation, and pandemic preparedness. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Kinshasa School of Medicine and serves as Head of the Epidemiology and Global Health Department and the Pathogen Genomics Laboratory at the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also serves as Africa CDC's Director of Research, Clinical Trials and Innovation. His research focuses on emerging infectious diseases, including Ebola, mpox, and other high-consequence pathogens. As a Principal Investigator and collaborator on numerous international research initiatives, Dr. Mbala has played a key role in advancing outbreak response, clinical research, and laboratory capacity across Africa. His contributions to global health have earned international recognition, including being named to « Nature's 10: People Who Shaped Science in 2024 » and « TIME100 Health » in 2025.

Magdalena Skipper is Editor in Chief of Nature and Chief Editorial Advisor for the Nature Portfolio. A geneticist by training, she holds a PhD from University of Cambridge, UK. She

has considerable editorial and publishing experience, having worked as Chief Editor of Nature Reviews Genetics, Senior Editor for genetics and genomics at Nature and Editor in

Chief of Nature Communications. She is passionate about mentorship, research integrity, as well as collaboration and inclusion in research. As part of her desire to promote

underrepresented groups in research, in 2018 she co-launched the Nature Research Inspiring Science Award for women early-career researchers.

Lilian Mayieka is a Senior Research Scientist and the Acting Deputy Director of Resource Development & Knowledge Management at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). A certified Knowledge Manager with over 15 years of experience in health research, she has established expertise in evidence synthesis, knowledge translation, research uptake, and science communication. Her work focuses on strengthening the use of research evidence to inform health policy, practice, and decision-making, while fostering collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to promote evidence-informed health systems.

Throughout her career, Lilian has led and supported initiatives in knowledge management, evidence-informed decision-making, health systems research, and capacity strengthening at national and regional levels. She has contributed to the development of strategies, policies, and knowledge products that enhance the accessibility and utilization of scientific evidence to improve health outcomes. She also has extensive experience in research management, stakeholder engagement, and the translation of research findings into policy and practice.

Lilian holds a Master's degree in Public Health and is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Health at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

Ms. Maria Pilar Aguar Fernandez joined the European Commission in 2001, beginning her career by auditing national food safety control systems at the Directorate-General for Health & Consumers. Between 2005 and 2012, she managed European research programmes in industrial technologies, focusing on nanotechnology safety and new materials. 

From 2012 to 2017, she led the Joint Research Centre’s Unit on Chemical Assessment and Testing, where her teams developed testing methodologies for EU chemicals, consumer products, nanomaterials, and supported health technologies legislation. 

In 2017, Ms. Aguar returned to DG Research & Innovation, where she supervised research programmes related to health and environment, health innovations, and health systems, also representing the European Commission at the Innovative Medicine Initiative board. 

From 2021 to August 2025, she headed the Health and Food Audits and Analysis Directorate (DG SANTE), monitoring and ensuring compliance with EU legislation on food safety, animal and plant health, animal welfare, and certain areas of human health protection. 

Since September 2025, she serves as Director at DG Research and Innovation for the Directorate "People: Health and Society", guiding EU research and innovation efforts to address health, well-being, and democratic challenges in a world facing environmental and socio-economic changes. 

Ms. Aguar holds degrees in Pharmacy and Food Science, with specialisation in toxicology and public health. Before joining the European Commission, she worked at Spain’s Ministry of Health.

Dr Joseph FOKAM is a renowned Public Health Virologist and a leading global expert in HIV/AIDS and emerging viral infections. He received an EDCTP2 Career Development Fellowship grant in 2015 (Evaluation of treatment response, drug resistance and HIV-1 variability among adolescents on first- and second-line antiretroviral therapy in Cameroon – “the READY-Study”), followed by EDCTP2 Emergency Funding Mechanism for COVID-19 research rapid funding mobilisation grant in 2020 (Diagnostic Performance of Molecular and Serological Tests of SARS- CoV-2 on well-Characterised Specimens from COVID-19 Individuals in West and Central Africa: the “PERFECT-Study”). 

Dr Fokam is part of the 2026 alumni of the USA International Health Leadership program on Global Health and Program Management; he is an EDCTP-supported Global Health Leader for his contributions in the field of HIV/AIDS response and research, COVID-19 emergency response and research, capacity-building and international networking. He is the Permanent Secretary (program manager) of the National AIDS Control Committee in Cameroon where he coordinates the national AIDS response. He leads the Virology Laboratory at the Chantal BIYA International Reference Centre, a WHO reference lab for HIV drug resistance surveillance. He is a Senior Lecturer of Medical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I and other states and international universities. He is a 2016 trained WHO Expert on invitro diagnostics and currently serves as Cameroon representative at the WHO diagnostics guideline development group and WHO HIV drug resistance network (ResNet). He serves as national expert for the Public Health Emergencies Operations Coordination Centre and the national genomic surveillance network. Dr Fokam has several awards for his scientific and programmatic contributions from INTEREST 2016, International HIV drug resistance workshop 2017&2019, CPHIA 2022, CAM-HERO 2022&2024, Cameroun Health forum 2022 and 2024, Cameroon PMTCT Forum and CAMELS 2021. 

Through his EDCTP grants, Bill & Melinda Gates funding with ICGEB, CIPHER, ANRS funding and other fellowships, he has trained and mentored health professionals and scientists with new grant awards (HIV Research Trust, RSTMH, EDCTP, CIPHER, ANRS, African STARS Fellowship, NIH AFRICURE, etc), and has developed a team of emerging young researchers and public health experts. He serves as consultant and expert reviewer for EDCTP and other organizations. He is a member of professional bodies (IAS, HIV research for cure academy, ASM, ASLM, Cameroon Academy of Young Scientists), alumni of the UTV-Rome postdoctoral fellowship of Medical Virology and of the US Exchange Alumni network. He has coauthored about 227 scientific publications, and serves as Editor and reviewer in several journals.

Rector of the Lurio University, until recently he was Director of the Mozambique Pharmacies Company, Farmac SA, a public company responsible to managing all public Pharmacies owned by the Government. He also worked as Director at the Manhiça Health Research Centre (CISM). Macete was graduated in medicine at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. He obtained a master’s degree in public health, from Pompeu Fabra University and a Ph.D. degree from Barcelona University in Barcelona, both in Spain. Macete has been working at the Epidemiology Department of the Ministry of Health from 1996 to 1999. He joined the CISM in 1999 and he becomes Manhiça Health Research Centre Director in 2007. Macete worked as an intern at the IVR Initiative for Vaccine Research at the World Health Organization, Geneva. Since then, he has participated in the design, implementation, and analysis of several clinical trials, including the evaluation of intermittent preventative malaria treatment in infants, and the evaluation of the RTS,S malaria vaccine in Mozambique. He represents Mozambique at the EDCTP (European and Developing Countries Clinical Trial Partnership), at the General Assembly and serves as Vice Chair of the EDCTP Association. He acted as coordinator of the TESA-II network (including Centres of Excellence in Southern Africa). Is currently member of the African Polio Regional Certification Committee (ARCC). From 2021, is a member of the National Malaria Control Program, Technical Advisor Committee in Mozambique.

Dr. Yewande Alimi is an esteemed professional, holding a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. She serves as the One Health Unit Lead at Africa CDC and co-leads the Africa Union Task Force on AMR. Dr. Alimi has been pivotal in developing and executing comprehensive strategies that seamlessly integrate human, animal, and environmental health concerns.

Under her visionary leadership, Africa CDC has established crucial programs addressing AMR, zoonotic diseases, food safety, and climate change, effectively addressing critical One Health issues across the African continent. With her diverse background encompassing veterinary medicine, public health policy, and research, Dr. Alimi oversees the implementation of various strategies, including the Africa Union Framework for AMR Control and Africa CDC's Framework for One Health Practice.

Dr Alimi's impact extends globally as she serves on multiple advisory boards and groups, advocating for global health equity and gender equality. Notably, she has contributed as a One Health Technical Advisor for the Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium and as a member of the Scientific Task Force to Prevent Pandemics at the Source for the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Center.

With over a decade of expertise, Dr. Alimi has significantly strengthened the technical capacity of African Union Member States in preventing and controlling infectious diseases using a One Health approach. She is recognized as a Subject Matter Expert in One Health and holds advisory and committee roles at esteemed institutions.

Dr. Alimi's vast experience includes setting up technical programs, establishing flagship programs at Africa CDC, and leading initiatives such as AMR awareness and advocacy efforts for young Africans. Her commitment to advocating equitable public health policies demonstrates her unwavering dedication to making a difference in global health, promoting equity, and advancing gender equality.

Twitter: Wande_A

LinkedIn: Yewande Alimi

Professor Alice Norton leads the Pandemic Sciences Institute Policy and Practice Research Group at the University of Oxford, conducting applied research on pandemic preparedness and response, with a focus on global preparedness frameworks, research prioritisation, and research funding systems.

She is Scientific Director of the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R), leading technical and policy work to support international research funders in preparing for and responding to infectious disease threats. 

Alice is Principal Investigator of the Pandemic PACT programme, and previously led the COVID-19 Research Coordination and Learning Initiative (COVID CIRCLE), which tracks global pandemic preparedness relevant funding and identifies priority research needs in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders.

She is Academic and Policy Lead for the Africa Pandemic Sciences Collaborative, a partnership with the Science for Africa Foundation and Mastercard Foundation, and serves as Course Advisor for the MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford. 

With more than 20 years' experience in global health, Alice has held previous roles at Imperial College London, the Wellcome Trust, the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, and the UK Collaborative on Development Research. Her work is currently funded by Wellcome, IDRC, EDCTP, ANRS, WHO, and UKRI.

Prof. John Amuasi heads of the Global Health Department of the School of Public Health at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana, where he is an Associate Professor of Global Health, and holds a W2 Professorship in Global One Health at the Bernhard Nocht Institute of Tropical Medicine (BNITM), University of Eppendorf in Hamburg. Prof. Amuasi is also Leader of the Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research Group at the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR). He is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford in the UK. For over 20 years, Prof. Amuasi has engaged in malaria, neglected tropical diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and One Health research. He has also consulted for several Global Health-focused organizations and supported civil society organizations with technical expertise and strategic advice related to Global Health research priorities. Prof. Amuasi is also Co-Chair of The Lancet One Health Commission and a regular technical advisor/contributor to the WHO, Africa CDC, and several other Global Health organizations. Prof. Amuasi is passionate about mentorship and sustainably building both clinical and non-clinical health research capacities in low- and middle-income countries using One Health approaches.

Dr. Delese Mimi Amoakoa Darko is the inaugural Director General of the African Medicines Agency (AMA), where she leads Africa’s continental drive to strengthen regulatory systems, accelerate access to quality-assured medical products, and advance health sovereignty across all Member States. 

A pharmacist, pharmacologist and public health leader with over three decades of service, Dr. Darko has dedicated her career to building resilient, trusted, and innovation-driven health-regulatory institutions. Before her appointment to AMA, she served as Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority from 2017 to 2025, where she transformed the Authority into one of Africa’s most advanced regulatory agencies. Under her leadership, Ghana’s FDA achieved WHO Maturity Level 3, ISO 9001 and ISO 17025 certifications, and was designated a Regional Centre of Regulatory Excellence (RCORE) by AUDA-NEPAD. She spearheaded major institutional reform, established the National Centre for Pharmacovigilance and launched the “Zero Tolerance for Unregistered Products” campaign, which reduced unregistered imports by 75 percent.

At AMA, Dr. Darko is building a unified continental regulatory ecosystem grounded in trust, transparency, and digital innovation. Her leadership is focused on operationalizing AMA as a strategic platform for regulatory harmonization, capacity development, and local production of safe, effective, and affordable health technologies across Africa. She also serves as Chairperson of the African Vaccines Regulatory Forum (AVAREF) and contributes to several global advisory bodies, including the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety, the CEPI Scientific Advisory Committee, and the Pharma Connect Advisory Board.

Dr. Darko’s outstanding contributions have been recognized through numerous
distinctions, notably Ghana’s highest civilian honour, the Order of the Volta (Companion Division), for her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as international accolades from the UN Inter-Agency Task Force, AUDA NEPAD/WHO, and Impact Africa Summit. 

She holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Pharmacology) and a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, and an MBA from the University of Northampton, UK. A fellow of both the Ghana College of Pharmacists and the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists, Dr. Darko continues to champion the cause of regulatory excellence and equitable access to quality medicines as a cornerstone of Africa’s health security and sustainable development.

Marina Pollán has a degree in Medicine from the University of Salamanca and is a specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. She also studied at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (Baltimore, USA), also at the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden), and obtained the extraordinary doctorate prize with her thesis on breast cancer at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). In 2023 she was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Granada.

Pollán is the first director of the ISCIII to have spent her entire career in the organisation, as she joined ISCIII in 1990. She has been a Research Professor at the National Epidemiology Centre (CNE-ISCIII) since 2016 and has held the position of scientific director of the Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP) since 2017. She was director of the National Epidemiology Centre between February 2019 and October 2022, coordinating the work of the centre during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was also the scientific coordinator of the National Seroprevalence Study of SARS-CoV-2 infection (ENE-COVID), internationally recognised as a reference study. 

Her priority line of research is the study of cancer risk factors, mainly those associated with lifestyle and specifically those related to breast cancer, but also other common malignant tumours. As a researcher, she has more than 300 scientific articles (index H=52) and has extensive teaching experience in subjects related to cancer epidemiology and epidemiological methodology. 

She has been part of the coordination of project evaluation in both the National Agency for Evaluation and Prospective (ANEP) and the ISCIII´s Health Research Fund (FIS), and has participated in numerous expert groups and national and international scientific committees. Since 2021, he has coordinated the Predictive Medicine área of the IMPaCT project (Infrastructure for Precision Medicine associated with Science and Technology), which aim is to create with the Health Services of all the Autonomous Communities a large national cohort based in Primary Care that will serve as a research infrastructure in Spain. 

Professor Clara Menéndez is an internationally recognised physician-scientist and a leading expert in maternal, child and reproductive health in low-resource settings. Over four decades, she has combined clinical medicine, epidemiology, implementation research and capacity strengthening to improve the health of women and children, with a career overwhelmingly dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa. After early work in The Gambia and Tanzania, she has worked primarily in Mozambique since the 1990s and was a key member of the founding team of the Manhiça Health Research Centre (CISM), which became one of Africa’s leading health research institutions and, together with three other African centres, received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in 2008. Her scientific work has focused on the determinants of maternal, newborn and child morbidity and mortality and on developing, evaluating and translating effective interventions into policy and practice. She is internationally acknowledged as a pioneer in malaria in pregnancy, contributing to understanding placental malaria and its consequences and leading landmark studies of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) and infancy (IPTi, now Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention, PMC), which informed WHO recommendations. She has also contributed to understanding maternal anaemia, iron deficiency and the interaction between nutritional interventions and infectious diseases. Professor Menéndez has revitalised the use of pathology in global health, leading major work on causes of maternal mortality and contributing to the conceptual development and validation of minimally invasive tissue sampling (MITS) for cause-of-death determination. More recently, she has extended her translational research to child-survival interventions in Sierra Leone, including a large individually randomised study involving 20,000 newborns and combining azithromycin delivery through routine immunisation with expanded malaria chemoprevention. Capacity strengthening is integral to her career: she has supervised 19 completed doctoral theses, with six additional theses ongoing, and has fostered long-standing Africa–Europe scientific partnerships. She is Research Professor at ISGlobal/Hospital Clínic/University of Barcelona, leads the Maternal, Child and Reproductive Health Programme, remains actively engaged at CISM, and collaborates with research groups across sub-Saharan Africa.