Find new ways to source funds for research

Saturday, January 29, 2011 (The Mirror Pg 12)

By Rebecca Kwei
THE Director of the Research Division of the Ghana Health Service, Professor John Gyapong, has called on scientists in developing countries to find innovative ways of sourcing for funds for research.
He said most development partners were inundated with appeals and it was important that scientists begin to diversify their sources of funding.
Prof. Gyapong made the call at the last Annual General Meeting of the Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance (MCTA) in Accra. The MCTA is a project of the INDEPTH Network of demographic surveillance centres to help conduct clinical trials of new drugs and vaccines to fight malaria and to provide training and technical assistance to research centres across Africa among others. There are 16 centres comprising the MCTA network in 10 African countries including Ghana.
The project, which was launched in 2006 with a $17 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will wind up in February this year.
Prof. Gyapong said over the last decade, several declarations had been made to support all forms of research.
However, he noted that mechanisms had not been put in place to ensure that those goals were achieved.
“If half of these declarations to support research have been implemented then probably, we would not need donor organisations to source for funds,” he said.
He commended the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for supporting the MCTA since it was good to invest in the infrastructure and human capacity for research to achieve the desired results.
Prof. Gyapong said it was important for research to be prioritised and the GHS in its own way had ensured that was done by moving research from a small unit to a divisional level.
He encouraged scientists to engage policy makers to ensure that research findings flowed easily into policy making so that the gap between research and policy making was bridged.
The Project Manager of the MCTA, Prof. Fred Binka, said the project had developed the human capacity of most African scientists to conduct quality research.
He said they had leadership that was 100 per cent African, unlike the past when they were led by foreigners.
He said the project had also increased the number of sites in Africa which were properly equipped and managed and ready to conduct quality clinical trials on vaccines and drug interventions.
Prof. Binka said the MCTA was conducting clinical trials of the new malaria vaccine for its safety and also monitoring the effectiveness of malarial drugs being deployed in African countries under the INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies of Anti-malarial drugs in Africa (INESS).
He pointed out that although the MCTA project was coming to an end, the trial sites were functional and was continuing the INESS project and trials for the malaria vaccine.
He said strengthening clinical trial facilities in Africa was key to saving millions of lives and that was what the MCTA sought to do.
The Programme Officer, Infectious Diseases, Global Health Programme of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Jessica Milman, said the foundation was very happy about the work the MCTA had carried out over the past five years and that was why it again supported the INESS project.
The Executive Director of the INDEPTH Network, Dr Osman Sankoh, said the work of the MCTA had helped to strengthen global research and development activities targeting malaria.