Two new calls under Horizon 2020 help tackling the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. The EU and the African Union work also on a closer partnership in general.
On 10 April, the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), a partnership under Horizon 2020, launched two new calls for expression of interest to support research and innovation capacities in sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on infectious diseases, including COVID-19. EUR 18 million are foreseen for coordination and support actions to strengthen the EDCTP Regional Networks’ clinical research capacity to conduct multi-country clinical trials. The funding aims to consolidate European-African collaboration and stronger cooperation between researchers in the region itself. The goal is to encourage collaboration in order to maximise the impact of clinical research in Africa.
Another call with a budget of EUR 5 million is focusing on developing capacity for disease outbreak and epidemic response in sub-Saharan Africa, in collaboration with the different Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). This includes training of epidemiologists in institutions in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
The two new calls in the amount of EUR 23 million bring the total of EDCTP funding in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak to almost EUR 28 million, after a first call in early April that included EUR 2.25 million in EU funding, was topped up by Sweden (EUR 1.5 million) and France (EUR 1 million). The EU’s contribution to EDCTP is financed through Horizon 2020. The EDCTP includes the EU, 16 African and 14 EU and Horizon 2020 associated countries. The public-public partnership was established in 2003 and supports clinical research to accelerate the development of new or better drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics against infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, in sub-Saharan Africa.
While the EDCTP is already an established partnership for some time, there is currently also a lot of movement towards intensifying collaboration between Europe and Africa in general. In March, the EU published a broad EU-Africa partnership proposal. It includes a closer collaboration in five areas of mutual interest: Green transition, digital transformation, sustainable growth and jobs, peace and governance, and migration and mobility. The proposal forms the basis for discussions with African partners in preparation for a new joint strategy that shall be endorsed during the European Union – African Union Summit in autumn 2020. Given the collaboration areas, education, research and innovation will play an important role in the new joint strategy. This brings the potential for a further intensification of the EU-Africa high-level policy dialogue (HLPD) that the African Union and the EU created in 2010 for regular exchanges on science, technology and innovation, including on the EDCTP.