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European and developing countries clinical trials partnership

Organisme

The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) involves 14 EU countries, Switzerland, Norway, and a number of African countries. Its aim is to help fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries, with the overall goal of reducing poverty by improving the health of populations.

Objecte

The EDCTP programme objective is to accelerate the development of new or improved drugs and vaccines against these diseases, with a focus on phase II and III clinical trials and on Sub-Saharan Africa.

EDCTP funding is awarded on a competitive basis through:

Clinical Trial grants
Networking grants
Capacity Building grants
Training Awards

All calls for proposals are handled by the EDCTP secretariat

For information on current calls for proposals, visit the EDCTP website.
 

Descripció

Types of Grants

EDCTP offers grants to support clinical trials, as well as networking and capacity building activities, in order to create a sustainable environment for conducting high-quality medical research in sub-Saharan Africa. The main EDCTP grant schemes are Integrated Projects, Senior Fellowships, Ethics, Member States Initiated projects and Networks of Excellence.

Integrated Projects on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria

Integrated Projects are by far the largest of all EDCTP grant schemes in terms of budget and complexity. A clinical trial, which is usually multicentre and multi-national, is the core activity. Linked to the clinical trial is a series of work packages, such as project management, networking and capacity development that are designed to ensure successful outcomes and sustainability. Consequently, an integrated project will usually consist of the following work packages:

• Clinical trials
•Networking and coordination of European national research and development programmes
•Networking and coordination of African national programmes
•Capacity strengthening. This is achieved through conducting baseline epidemiological studies; site infrastructure upgrades; short-term training, Masters and PhD studentships, and Postdoctoral fellowships.

For more details, please visit ‘Applying for Grants’ on our website

Senior Fellowships

Recognising that a lack of suitably qualified researchers is a barrier to capacity development, EDCTP’s strategy is to support researchers at different stages of their career. The Senior Fellowships Call aims to identify and support senior researchers capable of building and leading research groups at sub-Saharan African institutions. It is expected that the research groups will become internationally competitive and capable of winning grants from international funding bodies. The objectives of the Senior Fellowship scheme are to:

• Develop capacity for research in sub-Saharan African institutions
•Promote the career development of sub-Saharan African researchers by encouraging them to upgrade their profile and/or return or continue to work Africa
•Strengthen the capacity to undertake clinical trials of interventions on any of the three major poverty related diseases (PRDs) in Africa (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria).

For details on how to apply for this type of grant, please visit 'Applying for Grants' on our website.

Strategic Primer Grants

The purpose of the Strategic Primer grants is to provide pump-priming for researchers to explore novel and innovative lines of research that may lead to the development and testing of new or improved clinical interventions against HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis.

The grants provide funding for research groups in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe to conduct ambitious studies that will:
•Generate results to inform future clinical trials
•Sustain and strengthen the capacity built up under EDCTP I
•Increase the networking of African and European Member States’ research programmes.

Funding is available to support clinical research studies (including laboratory-based analysis of field or clinical samples) of up to two years duration to address high priority research issues and barriers to progress. Studies must involve researchers based at public institutions in two or more EDCTP-EEIG Member States and researchers at institutions in one or more sub-Saharan African countries.

For details on current open calls and how to apply for grants, please visit 'Applying for Grants' on our website.

Ethics and Regulatory Projects

EDCTP wishes to strike a balance between the public health interest, the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, and ethical values. Currently, many African countries lack ethical guidelines, and some may even lack regulatory bodies.

In order to strengthen local capacity in both Ethical Review and the National Regulatory framework in Africa, EDCTP provides support in the following areas:
•Establishment and strengthening of institutional and national ethics committees
•Ethics training in Africa through courses and seminars
•An African coordinating office that oversees activities in clinical trials and related research ethics
•Strengthening of the national regulatory frame work in Africa through collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO).

For details on how to apply for this type of grant, please visit 'Applying for Grants' on our website.

Networks of Excellence

EDCTP is committed to developing capacity for the conduct of clinical trials in Africa to expedite development of new interventions or tools against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. EDCTP therefore has provided support institutions in sub-Saharan Africa to set up regional networks to carry out the following activities:
•Organise mentorship programmes and training of staff members working at African institutions where clinical trials will be conducted
•Conduct epidemiological and demographic studies that facilitate the planning of trials
•Support less established institutions to gain additional expertise that will enable them to participate in multicentre clinical trials. Such expertise shall include design of trials, data management, financial management, administration, quality assurance and required laboratory techniques.

The networks are organised on regional basis namely Eastern, Western, Southern and Central regions of sub-Saharan Africa. This will allow institutions to work together in accordance to African regional economic communities or sub-regions. Similarly, all the regional networks are encouraged to network at a Pan-African network level.

For details on how to apply for this type of grant, please visit 'Applying for Grants' on our website.

Member States Initiated (MSI) projects

European Member States through their national programmes fund projects that fall within the remit of EDCTP. The purpose of this grant is for EDCTP to provide funding and added value to these initiatives by supporting the integration of various projects and programmes that have been independently initiated and/or funded by member states.

This scheme provides a platform for strengthening of north-north and north-south partnership, coordinating and networking of African researchers and establishing sustainable capacity building in Africa. To fulfil the requirements of this call, participants must be drawn from two or more publicly funded institutions in two or more EDCTP-EEIG Member States and at least one publicly funded institution from participating African countries.

For details on how to apply for this type of grant, please visit 'Applying for Grants' on our website.
 

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