TY - JOUR
T1 - Building capacity for sustainable research programmes for cancer in Africa
AU - Adewole, Isaac
AU - Martin, Damali N.
AU - Williams, Makeda J.
AU - Adebamowo, Clement
AU - Bhatia, Kishor
AU - Berling, Christine
AU - Casper, Corey
AU - Elshamy, Karima
AU - Elzawawy, Ahmed
AU - Lawlor, Rita T.
AU - Legood, Rosa
AU - Mbulaiteye, Sam M.
AU - Odedina, Folakemi T.
AU - Olopade, Olufunmilayo I.
AU - Olopade, Christopher O.
AU - Parkin, Donald M.
AU - Rebbeck, Timothy R.
AU - Ross, Hana
AU - Santini, Luiz A.
AU - Torode, Julie
AU - Trimble, Edward L.
AU - Wild, Christopher P.
AU - Young, Annie M.
AU - Kerr, David J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The ability of African scientists to carry out rigorous cancer research depends on the availability of infrastructure at both the institutional and national levels. The availability of research infrastructure—although highly variable across the continent—remains inadequate in almost all countries. The limitations surrounding the infrastructure in laboratories and in clinical, pathological and computational research are well known, but a lack of research administration is often overlooked.18–21 Research administration provides the necessary oversight and coordination of activities within an institute and sets the tone for fiscal responsibility ensuring the appropriate use of research funds. There have been several recent initiatives to address the lack of research administration. These initiatives include competitive funding from the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that allows African institutions to create research administrative infrastructure to address key areas in grant management, such as fiscal accountability, data management, research oversight, and submission of grant applications.22,23 Local institutional ownership of such structures is ensured through their commitment to sustain and integrate these activities into their overall strategic plan for research support.22 Moreover, funded institutions are encouraged to work and strengthen the capacity for research administration at other institutes that lack this component.22 The developments made in this area led to the formation of the Association of Research Administrators in Africa in 2009, which aims to establish a hub of excellence for research administrators and fill the gaps of research administration in Africa.24
Funding Information:
IARC started collaborative research in Africa in the late 1960s with some of the earliest work on Burkitt lymphoma and liver cancer. Its current active research projects in Africa focus on some of the most frequent types of cancer in the continent (such as cervical, lung, breast, Kaposi sarcoma, and cancer of the oesophagus) with the aims of understanding their aetiology and establishing effective and applicable approaches to prevention. IARC establishes Collaborative Research Agreements to support research projects and thus engendering training for African scientists through the conduct of these joint projects with IARC scientists and other international partners. Other examples include the AORTIC’s Beginning Investigator Grant for Catalytic Research Programme, an early career grant programme that has provided young African scientists with the opportunity to build their research programmes; and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) International Cancer Technology transfer (ICRETT) fellowship, which supports professional development for health workers and other stakeholders and facilitates the international transfer of research and clinical skills. In francophone African countries, long-term funding may be secured through research infrastructures that have been established in Africa in collaboration with international institutes and are co-owned with local governments, such as those developed by France’s Institute for Development Research (IRD) or the Institut Pasteur. Longer term funding programmes that support independent and innovative investigator-initiated research for both early-career scientists and senior scientists will be of great importance for the sustainability of research in Africa. The development of international co-ownership of research infrastructures, modelled in francophone Africa, and the partnership between the NIH and Wellcome Trust to support H3Africa serve as great examples for other funding institutes to emulate.39,40
Funding Information:
Investments in cancer research personnel through training should be aligned with research activities at both institutional and national levels. Regional training networks create new opportunities for efficient sharing of information and best practices. There are several examples of these training approaches. One is Operation Stop Cervical Cancer in Nigeria (OSCCN), an initiative of MD Anderson Cancer Center, Rice University Department of Bioengineering, The British Columbia Cancer Agency and the University of Ibadan funded by the ExxonMobil Foundation. The OSCCN established six Centres of Excellence for management of cervical cancer in Nigeria and trained over 100 specialists drawn from pathology, gynaecology and nursing specialities.41,42
PY - 2014/5
Y1 - 2014/5
N2 - Cancer research in Africa will have a pivotal role in cancer control planning in this continent. However, environments (such as those in academic or clinical settings) with limited research infrastructure (laboratories, biorespositories, databases) coupled with inadequate funding and other resources have hampered African scientists from carrying out rigorous research. In September 2012, over 100 scientists with expertise in cancer research in Africa met in London to discuss the challenges in performing high-quality research, and to formulate the next steps for building sustainable, comprehensive and multi-disciplinary programmes relevant to Africa. This was the first meeting among five major organizations: the African Organisation for Research and Training in Africa (AORTIC), the Africa Oxford Cancer Foundation (AfrOx), and the National Cancer Institutes (NCI) of Brazil, France and the USA. This article summarizes the discussions and recommendations of this meeting, including the next steps required to create sustainable and impactful research programmes that will enable evidenced-based cancer control approaches and planning at the local, regional and national levels.
AB - Cancer research in Africa will have a pivotal role in cancer control planning in this continent. However, environments (such as those in academic or clinical settings) with limited research infrastructure (laboratories, biorespositories, databases) coupled with inadequate funding and other resources have hampered African scientists from carrying out rigorous research. In September 2012, over 100 scientists with expertise in cancer research in Africa met in London to discuss the challenges in performing high-quality research, and to formulate the next steps for building sustainable, comprehensive and multi-disciplinary programmes relevant to Africa. This was the first meeting among five major organizations: the African Organisation for Research and Training in Africa (AORTIC), the Africa Oxford Cancer Foundation (AfrOx), and the National Cancer Institutes (NCI) of Brazil, France and the USA. This article summarizes the discussions and recommendations of this meeting, including the next steps required to create sustainable and impactful research programmes that will enable evidenced-based cancer control approaches and planning at the local, regional and national levels.
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U2 - 10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.37
DO - 10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.37
M3 - Review article
C2 - 24614139
AN - SCOPUS:84899941590
SN - 1759-4774
VL - 11
SP - 251
EP - 259
JO - Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
JF - Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
IS - 5
ER -