Project Management & Monitoring

Keeps the whole project on track: planning, timelines and responsibilities across all work packages, consortium communication, risk management, and compliance with Horizon Europe rules and the Grant Agreement, including reporting to the Global Health EDCTP3.

Scientific Project Leadership

Contributions from MUHAS, SNU and UCAD

Provides scientific governance for the whole project — strategic decision-making, quality assurance of deliverables, the data-management and access plans, dissemination and exploitation planning, monitoring and evaluation, sustainability, and the project website.

Comprehensive Needs & Capacities Assessment

Co-led with UGHE and MakSPH

Systematically maps gaps, strengths and opportunities in clinical research and trials during public health emergencies — covering policy, ethics and regulatory readiness and resources — drawing on lessons from EDCTP1 & 2 to target capacity-building and equitable-access strategies.

Surveillance, Diagnostics & Policy Foundations

Co-led with UGHE

Advances Africa-led innovation and sustainable local financing for outbreak-triggered research, institutionalises a real-time digital platform for surveillance and early warning, and scales epidemic preparedness and response with One Health and community engagement at its core.

Digital Acceleration, Training & Community Engagement

Builds and scales epidemic-response capacity through One Health training short courses, an M&E framework, operationalising the 7-1-7 approach, digital toolkits for rapid deployment, AI-supported routine data, a database and network of EPR and clinical-trial researchers, and field-drill exercises.

Clinical Research Capacity Building

Consolidates and expands clinical-trial capacity built under EDCTP1 & 2: scalable hybrid training, MOOCs and embedded fellowships across cadres and career stages; a training curriculum for clinical-trial monitors (CROs); community engagement; at least one ICH-compliant site; and a continent-wide outbreak research network.

Recruitment of PhDs & Postdoctoral Researchers

Co-led with MakSPH; contributions from KI, UCAD and SNU

Provides competitive PhD scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships in epidemic-related disciplines, embedding fellows within ongoing clinical trials with structured mentorship to build a sustainable, networked pipeline of research leaders.

Leadership, Mentorship & Networking

Develops mid-career and senior researchers through mentorship, research-administration and management training, supervision structures, and support to completion — producing peer-reviewed manuscripts and conference presentations from fellows' research.

Strengthening Ethics, Regulatory & Pharmacovigilance Expertise

Builds a robust, sustainable and regionally harmonised ecosystem for ethically sound, safe clinical research: assessment of ethics, regulatory and pharmacovigilance systems; outbreak-specific frameworks; digital tools for review bodies; learning exchanges and benchmarking visits; and trained professionals.

Laboratory Infrastructure & Systems Strengthening

Co-led with BNITM

Upgrades laboratory and surveillance infrastructure for high-consequence pathogens at strategic cross-border and epidemic-hotspot sites, implements quality-management systems, strengthens data management and workforce competency, and builds collaborative clinical-research frameworks. At least five laboratories upgraded.

Dissemination, Outreach, Community Engagement & Knowledge Translation

Co-led with Africa CDC and MakSPH

Fosters equitable partnerships and cross-sectoral collaboration, builds community trust in clinical trials, and turns research into policy and practice — via annual research showcases, a knowledge-translation strategy, research-to-policy newsletters, regional policy-dialogue events, and a repository of co-created decision tools.

Grant Writing, National Health Research Systems & Technical Site Visits

Strengthens the wider research system: an NHRS "Barometer" assessment, grant-writing workshops (Maputo and Dakar), standardised technical site-visit audit and reporting templates, site-visit reports, and networking meetings with the other EDCTP3 regional networks.