A partnership in progress: Africa and the EU strive for global health and equitable access

EDCTP has been featured in a paper that reviews progress in the AU-EU health partnership and analyses its current direction, identifying converging interests and areas requiring further dialogue and alignment. The paper highlights Global Health EDCTP3 as “the main programme of cooperation with sub-Saharan African countries that focuses on R&I for health. It is a key activity of the AU-EU Innovation Agenda, which, as part of the Global Gateway, supports technological transfer and innovation”. The paper was commissioned by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU and also outlines new actions to advance the EU-AU partnership for global health.

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Global Health EDCTP3 commits to supporting the completion of EDCTP2-funded clinical trials affected by COVID-19 pandemic

Global Health EDCTP3 is supporting eight projects with clinical studies initially funded by the EDCTP2 programme and affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, the activities of several EDCTP2-funded studies slowed down significantly. The funding, which comes from a dedicated call for proposals as part of the 2023 Work Programme, will allow these projects to successfully complete the activities related to ongoing clinical trials. These Global Health EDCTP3 grants will complement earlier contributions of € 3 million from Germany and € 7.7 million from the United Kingdom made available through the EDCTP Association as supplementary funding for 13 EDCTP2 projects affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The public presentation session of the Lusophone Platform for Clinical Research & Biomedical Innovation (PLICIB) took place on 26 June 2024 at the Portuguese Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of NOVA de Lisboa. As an In-Kind contribution to Additional Activities (IKAA) of the Global Health EDCTP3 programme, PLICIB aims to encourage the competitiveness of the Portuguese scientific community in these areas and review its national strategic positioning in the Global Health EDCTP3 programme, reinforcing its links to Africa (especially the PALOP countries). Ms Lara Pandya, Strategic Partnerships (North) and Communications Manager, EDCTP Association, gave opening remarks and presented on the evolution of the EDCTP programmes.

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In 2023, Kigali, Rwanda was selected to host the Twelfth EDCTP Forum in 2025. From 10-12 June 2024, staff members of the Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking (Sandra Ramos, Communications Officer and Alice Nsabimana, HR Manager) and the EDCTP Association (Daniela Pereira, Communications Officer) visited Kigali to assess the capacities and facilities for hosting the event. The team also met with representatives from the Rwanda Biomedial Centre, which will co-host the Forum with the Ministry of Health-Rwanda, and the EU Delegation in Rwanda. The Twelfth EDCTP Forum will bring together European and African initiatives, researchers, policymakers and strategic stakeholders to discuss the benefits, challenges, and opportunities to advance health research in sub-Saharan Africa through effective South-South, South-North, North-South partnerships.

The 24^th edition of the annual Advanced Course of Vaccinology (ADVAC) took place at Les Pensières, Annecy, France on 6-17 May 2024 and was attended by 75 participants from 40 countries. ADVAC is a two-week training programme for decision-makers in vaccinology, including academia, industry, governmental and non-governmental agencies. Following the courses, former ADVAC participants become part of the ADVAC alumni network, and ADVAC alumni meetings are regularly organised in the context of major vaccine-related meetings. Between 2021-2024, EDCTP has supported 32 ADVAC fellows from various African countries. This year EDCTP supported nine Fellows to participate in the course, as part of the UK’s contribution to the programme. Congratulations to all who completed this year’s course! 

The 25^th edition of ADVAC will take place on 5-16 May 2025. Registrations for applications will be open from 1 July 2024 to 15 November 2024.

A new, comprehensive framework has been launched to guide health authorities, policy makers and other stakeholders towards elimination of visceral leishmaniasis as a public health problem in Eastern Africa. Representatives from Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda, together with partners, academia, researchers, donors, and officials of the three levels of WHO (Africa Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, and headquarters) assembled and launched the Strategic Framework for the elimination of visceral leishmaniasis in Eastern Africa, 2023-2030, during a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 11-13 June 2024.

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The PREV_PKDL project held its 6th Annual Meeting for all partners on 3 June 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya.  For the first time in five years, around 25 leading European and African experts met in person to present and discuss project advancements and upcoming activities.

This project aims to advance the clinical development of ChAd63-KH vaccine for the prevention of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) / post kala azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) and to better understand the disease as well as drug and vaccine responses.



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The multidimensional, multiparameter phenotyping study (ImmStat@Cure) within the PREV_PKDL project aims to understand the pathogenesis of post kala azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) - and the underlying immune mechanism - in patients treated for visceral leishmaniasis (VL). As part of the project’s efforts to strengthen immunology research capacity in East Africa, in June 2024, flow cytometry experts from the University of York travelled to partner sites at the Kenyan Medicine and Research Institute (KEMRI) and Makerere University (MU), Uganda to conduct advanced training and to perform mass processing and analysis of clinical samples.

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The 5th Annual Meeting of the EMPIRICAL project was held on 9-10 April 2024 in Madrid, Spain. This significant event followed the DSMB (Data Safety Monitoring Board) meeting that took place a day earlier, where the safety team presented the latest data from the ongoing study. The DSMB members concluded that there are no safety concerns, allowing the trial to continue as planned. The Annual Meeting was a joint event with the 4th TSC (Trial Steering Committee) meeting, featuring presentations and discussions over the course of two days. The TSC members provided updates on the trial’s achievements, challenges, and future plans, highlighting the critical importance of early diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia in infants living with HIV.



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The PEOPLE project received the prestigious Anne-Maurer-Cecchini Award on 29 May 2024 at the Geneva Health Forum. The award was received by Dr Younoussa Assoumani, head of Damien Foundation in Comoros and researcher on the PEOPLE study. Dr Younoussa was recognised for his exceptional work in combating leprosy in Comoros. The results of the PEOPLE project, which was the largest study on leprosy prevention in Comoros and Madagascar, was recently published in the Lancet Global Health.

The 2nd annual meeting of the MTBVACN3 project took place on 27-28 May 2024 in Pilanesberg, near Johannesburg in South Africa. Consortium partners from the nine organisations participating in the study had the opportunity to share experiences and review the progress of the study after one year of the start of recruitment. To date, the team has recruited 2,300 infants who have been vaccinated across the 6 recruiting centers. The MTBVACN3 phase 3 efficacy trial aims to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and immunogenicity of the vaccine administered in Healthy HIV Unexposed and HIV-Exposed Uninfected Newborns in tuberculosis (TB)-endemic regions of sub-Saharan Africa such as South Africa, Senegal and Madagascar. MTBVAC is one of the promising TB vaccine candidates for newborns. The target is to vaccinate 7,120 newborns against tuberculosis during their first week of life.

Biofabri and TBVI have signed a contract with the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) under the EU4Health Programme to accelerate the final stages of the clinical development of MTBVAC by supporting a phase 3 clinical trial in neonates, which is currently well underway in various African countries. MTBVAC is a highly promising vaccine candidate that has the potential to be used as an alternative to BCG vaccination in infants and for prevention of TB disease in adolescents and adults. The EDCTP-funded MTBVAC-Newborns project has evaluated the MTBVAC vaccine in a phase IIa trial in South African newborns. Additionally, EDCTP is currently investing €19.4 million to support a phase III trial of the same vaccine in newborns under the MTBVACN3 project.

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The 9th INTENSE-TBM General Assembly Meeting has been hosted by the University of Geneva (co-Principal Investigator: Prof. Alexandra Calmy) on 6-8 June 2024. At a time that 535 participants out of 768 were being randomized in the clinical trial, the General Assembly brought together 25 face-to-face attendees, including 2 external experts, over 3 days. The INTENSE-TBM study is evaluating a revised, more intensive treatment of patients with tuberculous meningitis, including those with HIV infections. 

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An op-ed has been published in Nikkei Asia highlighting the work of the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium. The op-ed follows a meeting that took place in Tokyo on 14 May 2024, organised by Uniting Efforts for Innovation, Access, and Delivery – a joint initiative of the UNDP-led Access and Delivery Partnership, the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund, and the Government of Japan.

The op-ed features insights from Osamu Kunii, CEO of the GHIT Fund, and Mandeep Dhaliwal, Director of UNDP’s HIV & Health Group, emphasising the importance of innovation and collaboration in improving access to treatments for neglected tropical diseases like schistosomiasis.



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Capacity strengthening is an important part of many research consortia. This may include individual-focused career development support, through a mentoring programme, or career development planning. The TriageTB Consortium shared what they have learnt from the mentoring activities within the study and offered some recommendations for establishing successful mentoring programmes.



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From 20-21 June 2024, the project Training epidemiologists and biostatisticians for enhanced response to disease outbreaks and epidemics in West Africa (TEBWA), held its closing in Agoue, Benin. Ms Nuraan Fakier, Project Officer, EDCTP Association, joined the workshop online.

The TEBWA project is coordinated by the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM, UK) and the National Agency for Primary Health Care of the Ministry of Health (ANSSP/MoH, Benin). It aimed to train 15 Master’s-level specialists in Epidemiology and Biostatistics for West Africa. The project is part of the collaboration between EDCTP and Africa CDC to support institutions in sub-Saharan Africa and Europe to provide Master’s degree training in epidemiology and biostatistics.

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Former EDCTP Senior Fellow Professor Nicaise Ndembi (Uganda) participated in a podcast to talk about the pressing challenges of infectious diseases, explore the promising new era of public health, and much more. Prof. Ndembi is the Editor-in-Chief of the open-access 'Journal of Public Health in Africa' (JPHIA) and also discussed about the new editorial in the journal, ‘The pandemic agreement: Achieving an African win for health security inequity’, and the journal’s role in shaping the future of health research on the continent.



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Dr Lilishia Gounder, a PhD student mentored by EDCTP Career Development Fellow Dr Benjamin Chimukangara (South Africa), has published a paper with the findings on a study using spatiotemporal analysis of detectable HIV VLs amid DTG-transition in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa.

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