FUNDING ORGANIZATION	RESEARCH ORGANIZATION	PROGRAM	DIRECTOR	CITY	COUNTRY	ABSTRACT
	EC	UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE	AFRICA BUILD (BUILDING A RESEARCH AND EDUCATION INFRASTRUCTURE FOR AFRICA)	DJIENTCHEU, VINCENT	YAOUNDE	CAMEROON	View
Topic: AFRICA BUILD aims to improve capacity for health research and education in Africa, through Information Technologies (IT). It will provide innovative learning and research opportunities. Background: The EU has supported many IT and health initiatives, with significant results. In contrast, there has been no significant transfer of expertise, methods and tools to neighbour countries in Africa. Main objective: To promote health research, education and practice in Africa through the creation of centres of excellence, by using IT, “know-how”, e-learning and knowledge sharing through Web-enabled virtual communities. Initial EU-Africa transfer aims to create sustainable South-South communities of African researchers. Sub-objectives: (1) To analyse the state of the art in health research and education in Africa. A Roadmap for future European actions will be released. (2) To implement an IT-enabled, open and collaborative infrastructure for education, training and knowledge sharing for health researchers in English-, French- and Arabic-speaking African countries, developing virtual communities of practice. (3) To develop and offer a large number of e-learning courses, validated learning resources, methodologies and supporting evidence for improving the education capacities of health-focused centres of excellence in Africa. (4) To facilitate researchers’ mobility and participation in local and international meetings. (5) To validate the AFRICA BUILD impact in pilot research and education initiatives related to reproductive health and HIV/AIDS research. (6) To disseminate outcomes in scientific conferences and journals, media and workshops and conferences in Africa. Expected impact: Based on the experience of the partners —including WHO— we aim to improve know-how, research and technological capacities at the African centres of excellence. Successful actions will be transferred to other organizations and industry.
	EC	UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE	POVERTY RELATED DISEASES COLLEGE(INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ON BIOMEDICINE AND DEVELOPMENT)	MBACHAM, WILFRED FON	YAOUNDE	CAMEROON	View
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.
	EC	UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE	TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PERMANENT EUROPEAN VIRTUAL INSTITUTE DEDICATED TO MALARIA RESEARCH (EVIMALAR).	MBACHAM, WILFRED	YAOUNDE	CAMEROON	View
This is a proposal from 54 partners from 37 institutes to form a NoE that will seek to integrate European malaria research that is directed towards a better understanding of the basic biology of the parasite, its vector and of the biology of the interactions between the parasite and both its mammalian host and vectors. All the member institutes and researchers have demonstrated both their excellence and their ability to contribute to a successful network. The structure of the proposed network significantly evolves prior concepts of network structure introducing new modes of research that have recently emerged. Comprising of 5 research clusters the core activities will include molecular cell biology of the parasite, host immunity, vector biology, population biology and systems biology. One arm of the network activities will be concerned with the timely and effective translation of research respecting the IP rights of partner institutes. The network will also contribute significantly to the production of the next generation of malaria researchers through the operation of an expanded European PhD School for malaria research based at EMBL, students enjoying two supervisors based in different member states. Bespoke training courses for PhD students and network personnel will be offered throughout the duration of the network to maximise individual potential. To create a long term benefit from network activities a limited programme of post-doctoral fellowships within the network will be established. Furthermore, individual career mentoring facilities and an alumni association will continue to guide and engage network graduates. New members will be affiliated annually on a competitive basis with an emphasis on young, emerging Principle Investigators. Through the establishment of an umbrella Foundation and active lobbying of government and non-government funding agencies as well as the establishment of a charitable profile the network will strive to become self-determining.