The TIBA Partnership is an Africa-led, wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary research programme that aims to empower African scientists to effectively and sustainably tackle neglected tropical diseases and improve preparedness. About The Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) Partnership is an Africa-led partnership funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Its aim is to reduce the burden and threat of infectious diseases in Africa by informing and influencing health policy and strengthening health systems. TIBA aims to benefit about 50M people by improving health policy, health systems operation and health research and development environment in Africa partner countries and beyond. Project Aims Improve the diagnosis and surveillance of infectious diseases in resource-poor settings Improve the deployment of existing drug treatments and enhance local capacity to develop new ones Improve the deployment of existing vaccines and enhance local capacity to develop new ones Improve the management of endemic and epidemic infectious diseases by: Strengthening health systems, governance and ethics Improving policy development and implementation Enhancing capacity to respond to infectious disease emergencie TIBA will also fund one PhD student in each partner country based in one of TIBA’s areas of interest, fostering knowledge exchange and capacity building. Each student will have the opportunity to spend either 6 months at the University of Edinburgh, or in one of the 9 partner countries. Research TIBA will take on a diverse set of research projects in order to explore multiple aspects of the different ways in which African health systems have to deal with different infectious diseases. The research will generate new knowledge and allow researchers to conduct comparative analyses, and also identify examples of good practice and evaluate transferability. Rapid Impact Projects TIBA is first supporting 9 Rapid Impact (RI) projects, one proposed by each partner country, taking place in the first 1-2 years of the TIBA Partnership. Each RI project will address a current knowledge gap, and will inform the development of subsequent research rounds (the Making a Difference projects, years 2-3, and Tool Kit projects, years 3-4). Partner countries include: Botswana Ghana Kenya Rwanda South Africa Sudan Tanzania Uganda Zimbabwe Focus diseases include (but are not limited to) Schistosomiasis Malaria Trypanosomiasis Lymphatic Filariasis Co-morbidities Non-communicable diseases Emerging infectious diseases For More Information Official TIBA Webiste Follow TIBA on Twitter Upcoming Events There are currently no upcoming events. Please check back soon. People Directorate Mark Woolhouse, Director University of Edinburgh Francisca Mutapi, Deputy Director University of Edinburgh Moses Chimbari, Deputy Director University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Steering Committee Members Gordon Awandare University of Ghana Samson Kinyanjui KEMRI-WT Programme, Kilifi, Kenya Keith Matthews University of Edinburgh Paul Ndebele Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe James Smith University of Edinburgh Sue Welburn University of Edinburgh Africa Partners Nthabi Phaladze University of Botswana Gordon Awandare University of Ghana Samson Kinyanjui KEMRI-WT Programme, Kilifi (Kenya) Faith Osier University of Heidelberg, Germany and KEMRI Centre for Geographic Medicine Research (Kenya) Nadine Rujeni University of Rwanda Moses Chimbari University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Maowia Mukhtar University of Khartoum, Sudan Upendo Mwingira National Institute of Medical Research, Tanzania Charles Waiswa Coordinating Office for Control of Trypanosomiasis, Uganda Paul Ndebele Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe Simbarashe Rusakaniko University of Zimbabwe Elopy Sibanda Asthma, Allergy and Immunology Clinic (Zimbabwe) University of Edinburgh Partners Edinburgh Genomics Mark Blaxter Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Ross Fitzgerald Global Health Academy Liz Grant Innogen Geoffrey Banda, Joyce Tait SynthSys Liz Fletcher, Susan Rosser International Agency Partners The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) African Union (AU) New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Latest News Zimbabwean researchers, members of the TIBA Partnership at the University of Edinburgh, propose a roadmap to revitalise research and innovation in their country University of Edinburgh Researchers awarded over 13.5M by the National Institute for Health Research Parasite Immuno-epidemiology Group blog on TIBA Launch Video of TIBA Launch This article was published on 2024-09-24