STAC approves advancement of 30 prospective Centres of Excellence

This outcome marks a major step forward in ANDI's journey to build the first pan-African network of Centres of Excellence in health innovation across the value chain, from pharmaceutical research and development to manufacturing and access. Promoting excellence at each stage of the process is a key enabler in the organisation's mission to enable African researchers and manufacturers to sustainably identify, develop, register and commercialise health products designed to address Africa's unique health challenges.

The third ANDI stakeholder meeting held in Nairobi from 11-13 October 2010, discussed the status of this first call for applications for Centres of Excellence and research projects. Both calls were highly successful, generating 117 applications to become Centres of Excellence and 207 Letters of Intent for research projects. Applications were received from each region on the continent (North, South, East, West and Central Africa) .

Africa, outstanding health innovation capacity - ANDI interim head

Speaking at the two-day meeting, the interim head of ANDI, Dr. Solomon Nwaka praised the quality and quantity of applications, noting "the incredible response to these calls has demonstrated beyond doubt that Africa has outstanding health innovation capacity; what has been missing until now is a mechanism to link high performing institutions at each stage of the value chain. Through the ANDI effort, we now understand precisely where to target technical support, funding and capacity building in order to advance the critical innovation work going on at African institutions. This will help to build a sustainable pipeline of locally developed, quality health products, which will be accessible to patients".

He added, "The calls also generated an unprecendented wealth of data on the health research and development landscape across the continent."

ANDI will align selected research projects with the relevant Centres of Excellence to provide additional technical support and to ensure coherence and efficient use of available resources and to build capacity across Africa. Through this mechanism, ANDI will create a virtual network of convergent and integrated centres supporting specific projects, capacity and entrepreneurial development.

Comprehensive discussions

The chair of STAC, Dr. Charles Mgone, executive director of the EDCTP, closed the meeting remarking, "It is an honour to be part of this amazing initiative. The massive interest from research and pharmaceutical institutions across the continent is a testimony to the impact of ANDI. The STAC discussions have been extremely comprehensive and detailed and I thank STAC members for their commitment in ensuring a rigorous, transparent and fair evaluation processs."

The final list of ANDI Centres of Excellence and research projects will be announced at a high profile awards ceremony during the fourth ANDI Stakeholder Meeting and Donor Conference, to be held in Addis Ababa, 24-27 October 2011.