The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) Ninth Forum meeting hosted an ESSENCE Health Research Initiative members’ side meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on 17 September 2018. Garry Aslanyan, TDR, in charge of the first session, presented a brief review of the main outcomes of the last members meeting hosted by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada. It was an excellent opportunity for the participants (first time attendees and those who had participated in previous years) to provide updates and raise points of common interest and possible collaborations.
Credit: TDR/Aslanyan G.
The different sessions provided the background and set the tone for subsequent sessions in the agenda and for more key remarks. There was a strong expression of interest from the group in increasing engagement of LMIC, continuing cross-project activities, scaling-up the initiative, looking at issues of relevance, and perspectives for further development.
The Implementation Science Working Group, the Research Management Working Group, the Working Group on Developing a Mechanism for Reviewing Investment in Clinical Research Capacity Building provided updates, achievements and next steps for their workplans.
On coordinating mechanism on clinical research capacity building in LMIC in support of CEPI and International Vaccines Task Force coordinated by World Bank and WHO, further broad consultations with members and key stakeholders will take place
to draft background papers specifically related to Recommendation 12 from the report Money & Microbes: Strengthening clinical research capacity to prevent epidemics (International Vaccines Task Force; World Bank; Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness
Innovations, 2018, p. 5). These background papers will be circulated for discussion in the first quarter of 2019 and next steps will be coordinated with the WHO Global Coordination Mechanism, as well as other key partners.
ESSENCE Steering Committee Elections and Composition for 2018–2020
 Credit: EDCTP | Nominations for the 2018–2020 ESSENCE Steering Committee from Wellcome, Fogarty International Center – National Institutes of Health, EDCTP, the UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), IDRC, and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) were accepted. Congratulations to the newly constituted Steering Committee. |
Read the meeting minutes
pdf, 313kb
For more information, contact Dr Garry Aslanyan