| To bridge the gap between the biological sciences, health and development in Africa, a consortium is created and named the PRD College, which proposes to reorganise and educate young African and European scientists to perform research, on poverty related and neglected diseases (PR&ND) that is relevant to development. These diseases are common ground for both the African nations who wish to develop and the European Union who wishes to contribute to and collaborate with Africa for development. Experiences with members of this consortium on the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) that was begun by the TDR of World Health Organisation and subsequently the Gates Malaria Partnership of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and recently with the EU funded Network of Excellence (BioMALPAR) post-doctoral programmes, confirmed that scientific capacity building in Africa is beneficial for both disease control as well as for national development, but that the scientific sector in Africa cannot yet stand on its own feet and needs to be enhanced and directed towards development in order to be sustainable. The PRD College will stimulate an early collaboration and enable young scientists to place science within the context of development in Africa. Certain capacity areas will be given focus through elective and mandatory courses followed by an internship in development at an African institution and a science exchange program. Divided into a 6 work packages and 4 committees, training capacity will be strengthened at 3 PRD Centres in Uganda, South Africa and Cameroon and involve MDs, advanced PhD Students or Post-Docs participants from Africa (12) and Europe (12). The PRD College will transform every trainee scientist to a level where participants can become trainers in their own country, using the oil-stain effect principle to spread knowledge and this new approach. |
