Global Health Academy

Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) Partnership

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

  1. Improve the diagnosis and surveillance of infectious diseases in resource-poor settings
  2. Improve the deployment of existing drug treatments and enhance local capacity to develop new ones
  3. Improve the deployment of existing vaccines and enhance local capacity to develop new ones
  4. Improve the management of endemic and epidemic infectious diseases by:
    1. Strengthening health systems, governance and ethics
    2. Improving policy development and implementation
    3. 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