FUNDING ORGANIZATION	RESEARCH ORGANIZATION	PROGRAM	DIRECTOR	CITY	COUNTRY	ABSTRACT
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	ACCESSING MEDICINES IN AFRICA AND SOUTH ASIA	WAAKO, PAUL	KAMPALA	UGANDA	View
The main aim of the proposed research is to investigate how the interplay of patent regimes, pharmaceutical regulation, availability of drug production facilities, health care infrastructure and service provision, and engagement by foreign donors influence appropriate, affordable access to medicines in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. We aim to map patterns of production, distribution, supply and consumption of medicines within seven health care areas – HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Reproductive Health, Tuberculosis (TB) control, Mental Health, Pain Management and Diabetes. We also plan to investigate the strategies and influence of selected Indian producers who are active as exporters, partners in joint ventures, or as direct producers in the selected South Asian and African countries.
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	AFRICAN PROGRAMME FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH EPIDEMIOLOGY TRAINING	RUTEBEMBERWA, ELIZEUS	KAMPALA	UGANDA	View
The APARET fellowship programme will catalyse independent research activities of graduates of Field Epidemiology Training Programmes (FETP) and Field Epidemiology Laboratory Training programmes (FELTP) in Africa. APARET fellows will be employed as research associates by African APARET partners for 2 years (salary provided by host institute). During the first year of their contract they will be embedded in the EU-supported APARET programme. A core part of the fellowship will be the application for a major research grant. The APARET programme will consist of: - Workshops: a two-week initiation workshop with face-to face contact between fellow and mentor and workshops on topics such as research funding, project management, ethical issues; a one-week proposal writing and project-planning workshop; a one-week final seminar, where fellows will present their result. - A mentoring programme linking each fellow with a local supervisor and an external mentor providing support for scientific and grant writing activities - Small research grants enabling the fellows to perform independent scientific activities at their host institutes. - Embedding the fellows in a network of African and European epidemiologists APARET can be credited towards a PhD degree of the respective university. EU-funding covers 3 successive cohorts of fellows. APARET will support the fellows in meeting the following objectives: I) Main objective: Prepare, write and submit a proposal for a major research grant. II) Additional objectives: 1. Plan, develop and conduct an epidemiological research project. 2. Perform epidemiological analyses 3. Submit a scientific manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal. 4. Critically review and provide feedback on a scientific paper. 5. Participate in the training of other epidemiologists. APARET supports well-trained epidemiologists in establishing a career in Africa.
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	AFRICAN REGIONAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT FOR HEALTH SYSTEMS AND SERVICES RESEARCH	TUMWINE, JAMES KASHUGYERA	KAMPALA	UGANDA	View
This project will add new research training capacity at Sub Saharan African (SSA) universities, for health systems and services strengthening. The focus is doctoral and post doctoral training, institutional strengthening for education, financial and administrative research management, and South-South network building. Novel capacity building approaches will reduce brain-drain, be more climate friendly and encourage gender equity with south based training. Internet mounted downloadable modules in quantitative (e.g., epidemiology), qualitative (e.g., anthropology) and economic methods will support excellent interdisciplinary courses. Our EU and African partners have many successful previous collaborations, e.g., web based training modules; joint PhD degree with Uganda. Health systems strengthening is research intensive, incremental improvement to service delivery, implementation and evaluation. Therefore SSA countries need to grow their own health services and systems research (HSSR) capacity: interdisciplinary, rigorous and relevant. ARCADE-HSSR will support evidence informed service delivery by producing a stream of well trained young HSSR scientists, the next generation of health system leaders and researchers in SSA. Activities will be aimed at individuals, institutions and at the network. Makerere University(MU) and Stellenbosch University (SU) are two strong SSA universities with HSSR focus. They will act as hubs in a South-South network including MU, SU, and initially, Muhimbili (MUH) and Malawi (MA). Working with strong northern HSSR institutions (Karolinska Institute KI, Sussex University Institute for development Studies, IDS, and Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Health Services KS) this region-wide approach will draw skills, resources and students to a new south-south HSSR capacity development network. We will expand our unique north-south joint PhD degree programme (KI-MU: 20 Ugandan graduates), to south-south joint PhD degrees (MU-SU).
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	EXPANDED QUALITY MANAGEMENT USING INFORMATION POWER FOR MATERNAL AND NEWBORN HEALTH IN AFRICA	WAISWA, PETER	KAMPALA	UGANDA	View
Maternal and new-born MDGs 4 and 5 will likely not be met in Africa despite the availability of evidence-based, affordable and appropriate technical interventions. Obstacles persist on both the demand side (low utilization) and supply side (low quality and lack of services), across the continuum of care from pregnancy to postnatal care. Priority must now be given to finding the mechanisms to bridge the “know-do gap”. Potential solutions include quality management and community involvement, where both approaches benefit from continuous, locally available, high-quality health information. We propose an innovative intervention in Tanzania and Uganda to improve maternal and new-born health with an expanded health system quality management approach that links communities and facilities using locally generated data. We will use Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles at community, health facility and district level powered by information from continuous multipurpose community and health facility surveys, with results presented in audience-specific report cards. In each country, we will use a plausibility design to evaluate health and quality outcomes in intervention and control districts, each covering 20–30 health facilities and their catchment populations in Tanzania and Uganda. Cost and community effectiveness of this intervention will be estimated with population and facility level indicators. Changes in contextual factors will be carefully documented to enhance our understanding of how health improvements were achieved. The impact on mortality will be modelled using the Lives Saved Tool. Policymakers will be involved throughout the project. Results will contribute to reaching the MDGs 4&5 in Africa. Furthermore, the intervention could serve as a more general model for scaling-up quality management of other health interventions in low-resource settings.
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	MALARIA TRANSMISSION BLOCKING BY VACCINES, DRUGS AND IMMUNE MOSQUITOES: EFFICACY ASSESSMENT AND TARGETS	KIRONDE, FRED	KAMPALA	UGANDA	View
Malaria is a complex disease, dependent on multiple host/parasite/vector interactions. This tripartite system offers numerous opportunities for disease-preventing interventions, but also creates robustness that undercuts ‘magic bullet’ expectations. Our interdisciplinary TransMalariaBloc will approach the challenge of malaria control in the field from this perspective. It utilizes the enormous recent advances in our molecular understanding of the three implicated organisms without prejudicing which targets or process will prove most suitable to transmission blocking (TB). In a feedback loop of experimentation and modeling, we will address the potential and actual impact of TB drugs and remedies which supplied to human hosts, can block transmission from an infected bloodmeal; TB vaccines which elicit human antibodies to antigens essential for transmission; and immune mosquitoes, genetically modified (GM) to achieve natural or synthetic refractoriness. Recent studies suggest that vector/parasite genotypic interactions determine the success or failure of Plasmodium falciparum to infect mosquitoes. In this perspective, we will assay genome-wide polymorphisms in both parasites and vectors to dissect important genotype*genotype interactions, thus guiding the development of effective TB vaccines, drugs and remedies, and GM mosquitoes. Effectiveness of TB interventions, especially via use of GM mosquitoes, depends on the balance of infection and resistance costs. Components of this balance will be explored, to foresee the dynamics of vectorial competence in mosquito populations and assess the efficacy of TB strategies, as well as guide the development of new targets. Again, interaction between modeling and experimentation will be a powerful combination. This proposal represents an ambitious, but feasible approach, spanning from molecular to population and environmental levels, to optimizing TB interventions for malaria control in endemic areas.
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	MULTI-DISCIPLINARY UNIVERSITY TRADITIONAL HEALTH INITIATIVE (MUTHI): BUILDING SUSTAINABLE RESEARCH CAPACITY ON PLANTS FOR BETTER PUBLIC HEALTH IN AFRICA	KARAMAGI, JOSHUA	KAMPALA	UGANDA
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	POVERTY RELATED DISEASES COLLEGE(INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME ON BIOMEDICINE AND DEVELOPMENT)	KIRONDE, FRED	KAMPALA	UGANDA	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	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	PROMOTING SEXUAL- AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN SOUTHERN AND EASTERN AFRICA ? MOBILISING PARENTS, SCHOOLS, AND COMMUNITIES	KATAHOIRE, ANNE R.	KAMPALA	UGANDA
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	SUPPORTING DECENTRALISED MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE HEALTH WORKFORCE PERFORMANCE IN GHANA, UGANDA AND TANZANIA	AIKINS, MOSES	KAMPALA	UGANDA	View
The proposal addresses the workforce deficit in sub-Saharan countries in Africa by improving the overall performance of the workforce. Management strengthening activities will be tested to identify what improvements can be made within available resources in decentralised management structures. The management strengthening activities will develop integrated approaches to improving workforce performance based on a situation analysis and monitor the impact on workforce performance and on unintended systems effects. New knowledge will be developed on the effectiveness of an action-based approach to management strengthening and what strategies improve health workforce performance in different contexts.
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	SUPPORTING DECENTRALISED MANAGEMENT TO IMPROVE HEALTH WORKFORCE PERFORMANCE IN GHANA, UGANDA AND TANZANIA	BAINE, SEBASTIAN	KAMPALA	UGANDA	View
The proposal addresses the workforce deficit in sub-Saharan countries in Africa by improving the overall performance of the workforce. Management strengthening activities will be tested to identify what improvements can be made within available resources in decentralised management structures. The management strengthening activities will develop integrated approaches to improving workforce performance based on a situation analysis and monitor the impact on workforce performance and on unintended systems effects. New knowledge will be developed on the effectiveness of an action-based approach to management strengthening and what strategies improve health workforce performance in different contexts.
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	SUPPORTING THE USE OF RESEARCH EVIDENCE (SURE) FOR POLICY IN AFRICAN HEALTH SYSTEMS	SEWANKAMBO, NELSON K	KAMPALA	UGANDA	View
Inadequate access to and use of research evidence to inform health policy limits the achievement of universal and equitable access to healthcare, hinders quality improvement and makes it difficult to use healthcare resources wisely. Poorly informed decision-making about health policies and systems is one of the reasons why services fail to reach those most in need, health indicators are off track, and it appears unlikely that many countries in Africa will meet the health MDGs. SURE will support improvements in health policies and systems in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) by improving access to and use of policy-relevant syntheses of research evidence that are contextualized and tailored to meet the needs of decision makers. SURE will develop, pilot and evaluate five strategies designed to strengthen access to and use of reliable and timely research syntheses in policymaking: user friendly formats for research syntheses, clearing houses for syntheses and policy relevant research, mechanisms for responding rapidly to policymakers’ needs for research evidence, methods for organizing and managing deliberative forums involving policymakers, researchers and others, and methods for involving civil society and the public in policy development. SURE will develop capacity for evidence-informed healthcare policy and undertake a comparative evaluation of initiatives between policymakers and researchers using these and other strategies. SURE will collaborate with the Evidence-Informed Health Policy Network (EVIPNet) and the Regional East African Community Health (REACH) Policy Initiative–two international efforts to improve the use of research evidence in policy and health systems decisions via partnerships between policymakers, researchers and civil society. SURE will use a range of dissemination strategies. Global dissemination will be coordinated by and capitalise on WHO, with the aim of maximising the project’s impact on health policy in Africa and othe
	EC	MAKERERE UNIVERSITY	TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PERMANENT EUROPEAN VIRTUAL INSTITUTE DEDICATED TO MALARIA RESEARCH (EVIMALAR).	KIRONDE, FRED	KAMPALA	UGANDA	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.