London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Seven leading African researchers are the recipients of major funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Department for International Development (DFID) to establish cutting-edge research and training programmes across the continent.

The DELTAS Africa programmes establish world-class research environments at African universities with a strong focus on creating training opportunities for the next generation of researchers. Many of the awards allow research to be carried out where the health challenges are greatest, for example genetic analysis of drug-resistant malaria across East and West Africa, developing mental health programmes in countries where there is little or no investment, and locally relevant research into zoonotic infectious diseases. This new, long-term strategy for funding African science, which has its centre of gravity and decision making process based firmly in the continent, is aimed at supporting the next generation of researchers to conduct relevant research and, as a result, more effectively improve human health.

In total, the DELTAS Africa scheme will award over £46 million (approximately $70 million US dollars) over an initial period of five years. The programmes are led from universities and research institutes in Ghana, Kenya, Mali, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. All the programmes involve collaboration across the continent, including between French-speaking and English-speaking countries, and with international research centres. The DELTAS Africa awards give African institutions greater ownership of training scientists and researchers, often in countries where becoming a scientist is not a recognised career path. In addition, outstanding students who routinely leave the continent for their training will now have the opportunity to develop their careers within Africa.

The vision for DELTAS Africa is that early next year the awards will be managed by a new research initiative in Africa, AESA (Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa), which has been created by the African Academy of Sciences and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). AESA has been working in partnership with the Wellcome Trust, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and DFID. The awards build on other Wellcome Trust activities to bring excellent research to Africa, for example the genomics programme H3 Africa, the African Institutions Initiative and the Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programmes in Kenya, Malawi and South Africa.

Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust said: “The Wellcome Trust has a long-established track record in investing in health research in sub-Saharan Africa. DELTAS Africa is a new approach and a long-term commitment, which has its centre of gravity and decision making firmly based in Africa. We welcome DFID's announcement today that it will provide additional funding to DELTAS.

“The vision is to support the new generation of African research leaders. Individuals and teams from across the continent will play a leading role in shaping and driving world class, locally driven and relevant research that improves human health.”

Dr Thomas Kariuki, Director of AESA, said: “Africa is home to some of the most dynamic innovators and institutions, poised to advance the continent’s research agenda. Working in collaboration with key African and international partners, AESA will help provide researchers with the funding, training and resources they need to succeed and drive forward Africa’s development.”

Dr Dixon Chibanda, a DELTAS Africa awardee from the University of Zimbabwe, who is tackling the gap in provision for mental health disorders, said: “There is now overwhelming evidence showing the comorbidity of mental disorders with both communicable and non-communicable disorders. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, a large proportion of people living with HIV suffer from common mental disorders but there is nothing designed to address this challenge. To be able to design, implement and scale-up such complex interventions aimed at tackling the treatment gap, we need highly skilled researchers training and working here in sub-Saharan Africa.”

Professor Thumbi Ndung’u, a DELTAS Africa awardee from the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH), a research institute of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said: “Only by working in affected communities can we truly find solutions to public health challenges. We are exceptionally well placed in sub-Saharan Africa to make a significant contribution because of our access to large numbers of patients and samples of those directly affected by both diseases. Our research is also necessary as we get to study the actual bugs and strains that are present in Africa and we can then apply the interventions and fine-tune them.”

The first awardees are:

Dr Gordon A Awandare for the WACCBIP-Wellcome Trust DELTAS Programme Institution: University of Ghana, Ghana. Award: £5.1 million

Dr Dickson Chibanda for AMARI: African Mental Health Research Initiative Institution: University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe. Award: £4.1 million

Professor Tobias F Chirwa for the Sub-Saharan Africa Advanced Training Programme for Leadership and Excellence in Biostatistics Institution: University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Award: £3.5 million

Professor Abdoulaye Djimde for Developing Excellence in Leadership and Genetic Training for Malaria Elimination in Sub-Saharan Africa (DELGEME) Institution: University of Science Techniques and Technologies of Bamako, Mali. Award: £5.2 million

Professor Alison Elliott for the Makerere University UVRI Centre of Excellence for Infection & Immunity Research and Training (MUII-plus) Institution: Uganda Virus Research Institute, Uganda. Award: £4.6 million

Dr Samson M Kinyanjui for the Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL) Institution: KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya. Award: £8 million

Professor Thumbi Ndung'u for the Sub-Saharan African Network for TB/HIV research Excellence Institution: K RITH, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Award: £7.3 million

Contact Clare Ryan Senior media officer Wellcome Trust e: c.ryan@wellcome.ac.uk m: +44 (0)7534 143 849

Notes for editors

More details about all the awardees are available on request from Clare Ryan. All awardees will be in Nairobi, Kenya on 10 September 2015.

About the Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. We provide more than £700 million a year to support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine. Our £18 billion investment portfolio gives us the independence to support such transformative work as the sequencing and understanding of the human genome, research that established front-line drugs for malaria, and Wellcome Collection, our free venue for the incurably curious that explores medicine, life and art.

https://wellcome.org/

About DFID

The Department for International Development (DFID) is leading the UK Government in fighting poverty through job creation, women and girls empowerment and helping save lives in humanitarian emergencies. DFID’s Research and Evidence Division (RED) objective is to make DFID more systematic in using evidence as a basis for how best to reduce global poverty, and provide high quality relevant evidence to others. It aims to achieve this through commissioning research on key questions in development, robust evaluations of UKaid’s funded programmes, high quality statistics and active engagement with policy makers. For more information on research funding offered by the Department for International Development and its programme partners please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-development/about/research