The Canadian Global Health Research Initiative awarded a 1.8 million Canadian Dollar capacity building grant to partners in the West African Research Network (MRC, Cheikh Anta Diop University and Bissau) in July 2010. The four-year consortium award is enhancing MRC The Gambia’s plans to build a robust network of sub-regional partners.
The grant is for the development of capacity in HIV clinical trials in Africa. Working with partners from Dakar, Bissau, Denmark, Oxford, Toronto and Montreal, the Network is amalgamating regional cohorts and resources, with Dakar as the centre.
The partners bring a lot of expertise to the table: MRC has long been a hub for laboratory and other training in the sub-region; the Bacteriology and Virology groups at Cheikh Anta Diop University (Dakar) manage the large sex workers cohort and HIV laboratory platform; and Professor Pap Salif Sowe’s research and training centre of tropical infectious diseases in Dakar has extensive experience on clinical management of an ambulatory cohort.
With the addition of the Caio cohort biobank resources and the Bissau cohort, WAPHIR is creating an HIV network, by pooling resources and preparing the ground for vaccine trials and other research.
The award includes capacity building components in laboratory management, clinical trials management, biobank, biomedical engineering management and training.
