NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA)

TIBA is an Africa-led, wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary research programme that explores and draws lessons from the ways that different African health systems tackle infectious diseases. The TIBA partners are: University of Botswana, Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI), University of Ghana, KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya, University of Rwanda, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, University of Khartoum, Sudan, Neglected Tropical Disease Control, Tanzania, Coordinating Office for Control of Trypanosomiasis, Uganda, University of Zimbabwe and University of Edinburgh (UoE). UoE is a world class university with strengths in, and a strategic commitment to, infectious diseases and global health, as well as strong links with Africa. TIBA is a unique initiative across Colleges, research centres and disciplines within UoE, with 8 named applicants representing over 200 PIs in our infectious diseases and global health communities (Edinburgh Infectious Diseases, Global Health Academy, Centre for Global Health Research). Within Edinburgh, TIBA combines research groups with impressive track records in delivering health improvements in Africa with major initiatives offering world class facilities and technical expertise (Edinburgh Genomics, Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Innogen Institute). UoE has over £100M of active grants for infectious disease and global health research, linked to substantial infrastructure investment. These resources offer considerable added value to the work of TIBA and point to the long term sustainability of this initiative. Coupled with the tremendous strengths of our African partners, we believe we are uniquely placed to realise TIBA’s ambitions. TIBA’s aims will be delivered by collaborative and coordinated activities organised as six work packages (WPs): WP1 Rapid Impact projects; WP2 Making a Difference projects; WP3 Toolkit projects; WP4 Technology transfer and training; WP5 Dissemination for action; WP6 Responding to health emergencies. WP1 (Years 1-2) TIBA is supporting nine Rapid Impact (RI) projects, one proposed by each African partner. These are designed to capture the diverse challenges of health care systems in Africa and will both inform the development of our Making a Difference projects and provide data for our Toolkit projects. Each RI project will address a current knowledge gap which is resulting in either non-deployment of diagnostics or interventions or a lack of operational knowledge to improve the health of affected populations. The projects are: • Botswana – A situational analysis of schistosomiasis among communities in the Okavango Delta • Ghana – The effects of Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) on the dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum, P. malariae and P. ovale infection in Ghana • Kenya – Validation of novel merozoite targets for new vaccines against Plasmodium falciparum malaria • Rwanda – Evaluate the impact of e-health in the management of severe malaria cases in Rwanda • South Africa – Preparing for an effective Mass Drug Administration Programme for South Africa: Elucidating burden, coverage, efficacy issues • Sudan – Preparation for Malaria elimination from Khartoum State: Improvement of the health system and detection of persistent transmission foci of Plasmodium species • Tanzania – Monitoring of Lymphatic filariasis in persistent hotspot transmission zones • Uganda – Stability of T. b. rhodesiense in domestic cattle in Eastern Central Uganda and implications for rHAT and AAT control • Zimbabwe – Adapting international criteria for the diagnosis of drug/immunization-related auto-immunity and allergies for specificity to African populations (Zimbabwe) WP2 (Years 2-3) We have commissioned four Making a Difference projects using the following criteria: – demonstrate relevance to national health needs; – clear pathway to impact, i.e. policy change, uptake by end users; – propose indicators for measuring impact on poorest people; – involve 2 or more Africa partner countries; – fit with TIBA aims and objectives. – provide opportunities to progress the WP3 Toolkit agenda (see below). The projects are: 1. Novel candidates for anti-malaria vaccines identified using functional monoclonal antibodies in naturally-exposed individuals – Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania; 2. Understanding schistosomiasis among children under-five years – South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zimbabwe; 3. Contribution of maternal transmission and silent carriers in the epidemiology and persistence of African trypanosomiasis in human and animal populations – Uganda, Sudan; 4. Developing and evaluating a comprehensive multiplex peptide array serological diagnostic for use in Africa – Zimbabwe, Ghana, Sudan. WP3 (Years 3-4) TIBA Toolkit projects are a unifying framework for extracting lessons learned from all TIBA activities for collation and dissemination, covering: 1) Strengthening health systems. TIBA will emphasize a systematic, evidence-based approach designed to bring about significant improvements in: i) health delivery systems in African countries; ii) patient and population health uptake and outcomes, particularly among the poor; iii) efficiency and effectiveness of systems and processes of care. It will develop context-specific strategies for health communication and changing end-user behaviour. 2) Innovation-to-application value chains. We will use the WHO’s six health systems building blocks (leadership, financing, workforce, technologies, information and delivery) as an analytical lens to better understand how a responsive, context-specific innovation-to-application pipeline can be constructed. 3) Information exchange and data sharing. Unprecedented efforts are underway in Africa to electronically capture and exchange health information to improve health care and population health, and reduce costs. TIBA will work on both technical and governance issues around eHealth. 4) Best practice for capacity building and training. TIBA will share experiences and formally review capacity building initiatives within the partnership. We are supporting training and training-the-trainers workshops to raise capacity in key areas: – Strategic Use of Innovation and Intellectual Property to Move Africa towards a Knowledge-Based Economy, South Africa, 11-15 May, 2019. Delivery partners included the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO), Africa Union, AUDA-NEPAD, Africa Academy of Sciences, and University of Edinburgh; – Vaccine Roadmap for Africa, South Africa, 22-26 July, 2019. Delivery partners include African Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative (AVMI), Africa Union, AUDA-NEPAD, Africa Academy of Sciences, and the University of Edinburgh. WP4 (Years 1-4) Capacity building through technology transfer, study visits and workshops, together with Masters, doctoral and postdoctoral training will be embedded in all of TIBA’s activities (see Research Capacity). Individual projects will complement the work taking place in WP1-3. TIBA is supporting 17 Doctoral and 7 Masters students being trained in African institutions. We are also supporting 13 post-doctoral fellowships to allow researchers from Africa to work with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh. TIBA is organising a series of training workshops in Africa for our partners and associates: – Advanced Health Research Ethics Workshop for Investigators, Zimbabwe, 8-9 February 2018; – Advancing Innovative, Evidence-Informed, Demand-Driven And Policy-Relevant Research In Africa Through Capacity Building In Evidence synthesis, Ghana, 20-24 May 2019; – Research Data Management Workshop, Kenya, 17-21 June 2019. WP5 (Years 1-4) Communication with end users is embedded in all of TIBA’s activities from the outset. We engage closely with the African Academy of Sciences, AUDA-NEPAD, WHO-AFRO and with national Ministries of Health and Public Health Agencies, and with the communities where we work. WP6 (Years 1-4) Our responsive research capability concentrates on areas in which UoE and partners have particular strengths: field diagnostics, data sharing, and real-time genomic analysis. We have provided training in Real-Time Viral Genome Sequencing Using MinIon Technology, Ghana, 11-15 December 2018. Delivery partners included the ARTIC Network, University of Ghana, University of Edinburgh. We are supporting research projects on: Botswana – The use of the MinION real time genomic sequencer for the Epidemiological and investigation of Rotavirus outbreaks – post vaccine introduction: Botswana case study; Kenya – Characterising the Endemicity and Disease Burden of Chikungunya Virus Infection in Kenya; Rwanda – The epidemiology of Measles Virus genotypes associated with outbreaks in Rwanda, 2019.

Project details

Capacity Strengthening
Combination of Interventions
Health Systems

Jun 2017 — Jan 2022

$8.87M

Botswana
Ghana
Kenya
Rwanda
South Africa
Sudan
Tanzania
Uganda
United Kingdom
Zimbabwe