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
- 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
Upcoming Events
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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
University of Edinburgh Researchers awarded over 13.5M by the National Institute for Health Research
Parasite Immuno-epidemiology Group blog on TIBA Launch