Capacity building is core to our mandate and is reflected in our mission. We seek to enhance Africa’s capacity for infectious disease research by creating new opportunities across human and animal health sectors, through a One Health approach and by targeted institutional change, research apprenticeships and taught courses.
We have introduced the Community of Practice (CoP) principle for themed research, and addressed institutional gaps in research structures by introducing, for each research theme, a cluster of research apprentices comprising Postdoctoral Fellows, PhD and Research MSc/MPhil students all supervised by the same team of specialists from Africa and the Smart Partners.
Our strategy for providing equipment to participating institutions is driven primarily by enhancing capacity for molecular biology and for laboratory biosafety.
We have established two ‘One Health’ based MSc programmes in Molecular Biology and Analytical Epidemiology. These are the first of their kind in Africa. We have assisted Eduardo Mondlane University to develop the MSc in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology curriculum. We offer a series of short courses in a variety of subjects including research management, financial management, GIS, biosafety and quality management. Annually in August we offer One Health Summer School courses at SUA.
In 2011 and 2013 we have convened with others One Health Conferences in Africa during which all our trainees are encouraged to present scientific papers. Subject to funding we hope to continue this convening on a biennial basis