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      Tracking the career development of scientists in low- and middle-income countries trained through TDR’s research capacity strengthening programmes: Learning from monitoring and impact evaluation

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          Abstract

          The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank and WHO has been supporting research capacity strengthening in low- and middle-income countries for over 40 years. In order to assess and continuously optimize its capacity strengthening approaches, an evaluation of the influence of TDR training grants on research career development was undertaken. The assessment was part of a larger evaluation conducted by the European Science Foundation. A comprehensive survey questionnaire was developed and sent to a group of 117 trainees supported by TDR who had completed their degree (masters or PhD) between 2000 and 2012; of these, seventy seven (77) responded. Most of the respondents (80%) rated TDR support as a very important factor that influenced their professional career achievements. The “brain drain” phenomenon towards high-income countries was particularly low amongst TDR grantees: the rate of return to their region of origin upon completion of their degree was 96%. A vast majority of respondents are still working in research (89%), with 81% of respondents having participated in multidisciplinary research activities; women engaged in multidisciplinary collaboration to a higher extent than men. However, only a minority of all have engaged in intersectoral collaboration, an aspect that would require further study. The post-degree career choices made by the respondents were strongly influenced by academic considerations. At the time of the survey, 92% of all respondents hold full-time positions, mainly in the public sector. Almost 25% of the respondents reported that they had influenced policy and practice changes. Some of the challenges and opportunities faced by trainees at various stages of their research career have been identified. Modalities to overcome these will require further investigation. The survey evidenced how TDR’s research capacity grant programmes made a difference on researchers’ career development and on south-south collaborations, by strengthening and localizing research capacity in lower income regions, and also showed there is more that needs to be done. The factors involved, challenges and lessons learnt may help donors and policy makers improve their future interventions with regard to designing capacity strengthening programmes and setting funding priorities.

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          The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank and WHO has been providing training grants to strengthen research capacity in low- and middle-income countries for over 40 years. In order to assess to what extent TDR’s grants made a difference on the career development of these grantees, a survey tool was developed and implemented in collaboration with the European Science Foundation. The survey was answered by 77 individual trainees who completed their degree (masters or PhD) with support from TDR between 2000 and 2012. The study provided valuable information on factors involved in the career development of the trainees and influencing the local retention of the capacity that has been built, to prevent “brain drain”. Encouraging aspects, such as a 96% of the capacity being retained locally, a 92% full-time employment rate at the time of the survey, or 89% of the respondents still working in research showed the positive influence of TDR’s capacity strengthening grants on researchers’ career development. This was in line with 80% of the respondents rating TDR’s support as “very important”. The challenges, lessons learnt and further opportunities identified may be helpful to donors and policy-makers when designing research capacity programmes, fostering south-south collaboration, and setting funding priorities.

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          Sex Differences in Institutional Support for Junior Biomedical Researchers.

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            Impact of Health Research Capacity Strengthening in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: The Case of WHO/TDR Programmes

            Introduction Health research capacity is unanimously recognized as contributing to the overall development of low-and middle-income countries and is a critical precondition for achieving the Millennium Development Goals [1], [2]. Research capacity strengthening (RCS) is defined as “the process by which individuals, organizations and societies develop ability (individually and collectively) to perform functions effectively, efficiently and in a sustainable manner to define objectives and priorities, build sustainable institutions and bring solutions to key national problems” [3]. Health research capacity strengthening programmes have been identified as a driver for the support of international development agencies [4]. Although these programmes created a large number of well-trained health researchers and institutions, and despite the remarkable progress made by some low- and middle-income countries in engaging in their own capacity building, health research capacity strengthening remains a challenge, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa [5]. This can be attributed to the limited ability of development agencies to identify, target and influence necessary factors that lead to an effective, efficient and relevant RCS programme in health, despite the availability of several frameworks for monitoring and evaluating RCS results and modalities of funding [4], [6]–[9]. Indeed, evaluating health RCS initiatives is quite complex, since achieving the objectives could take several years (often more than 10 years). However, evaluation is necessary to provide information to justify the (dis) continuation of programmes and to highlight the areas that need improvement [4], [10]. Among the organizations with extensive RCS experience is the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). Created in 1975 to support the research and capacity building in the fight against infectious diseases of the poor, TDR goal is to improve health and remove diseases as barriers to social and economic development. For more than 30 years, TDR has built health research capacities in developing countries by supporting individuals' education and training through fellowships or scholarships; implementing learning by doing programmes for specific skills; employing mentorship programmes to complement academic programmes; establishing national and international training and research centres of excellence; and developing networks and collaborative research projects. Regular reviews of its research capacity strengthening programmes have led TDR to reorient its strategy as required: shifting focus from institutional strengthening in the 80 s to human resources strengthening in the 90 s [11] and identifying the need to move beyond the idea of RCS as being primarily related to individual researchers to a more demand driven model of national health research systems [12]. TDR models of capacity building and particularly the merit of short-term trainings in social sciences have also been evaluated [13] but still, there has been no systematic and comprehensive data of the lessons learnt and benefits of the different TDR RCS approaches i.e. individual and institutional. Thus, we conducted an evaluation of TDR's contribution to career strengthening of a selected group of individuals and institutional capacity development grantees with a record of project completion between 2000–2008. The main objective was to identify factors that positively influenced and improved the research capacity and career development of grant recipients for identifying opportunities that are of broader relevance to the objectives and goals of international development and aid agencies. Methods Between 2000 and 2008, TDR supported 128 individual grants -including 88 research training grants (RTG), 40 re-entry grants (REG) and 20 institution strengthening grants (ISGs) that were completed during the same period. RTGs are awarded to individuals in developing countries to pursue studies leading to acquisition of a postgraduate degree (MSc or PhD) at institutions in their home countries, or in other developing or developed countries. REGs are intended to facilitate the career development of young scientists returning to their home institutions within 24 months following completion of a graduate degree (MSc or PhD) or a post doctoral fellowship. ISGs are designed to provide up to three years support to an institution or research group to improve infrastructure and the research environment. Activities may include improving training opportunities, advancing scientific expertise in biomedical and social sciences, establishing/improving information and communication systems, and fostering opportunities for scientific collaboration. Information on all individuals and institutions that received TDR grants between 2000 and 2008 was extracted from TDR internal database and tabulated for range and scope of research topics. A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods was applied during data collection and analysis to capitalize on the advantages and minimize the limitations of each approach. The assessment consisted of three standardized questionnaires sent by e-mail to those individuals that completed their project within the 2000–2008 period. The first questionnaire was sent to recipients of research training grants to assess their career progression, the skills acquired during their training, and the impact of the training on the research capacity of their home institution. A second questionnaire was sent to individuals who received a re-entry grant to assess the performance of their research group and the impact of their research on the development of their institutions. A third questionnaire was sent to the principal investigator of institutions that received TDR grants to assess the impact of the grants on institutional performance. Individual questionnaires were designed to obtain information on the current position of each grantee, and assess the research competencies of each individual, both before and after the TDR grant period, for comparison purposes. Additionally, the questionnaires were also designed to self evaluate the following five main indicators prior to, during, and after the grant period: scientific publications; ability to attract additional resources; participation in national and international collaborative activities; human resource development, including staff development and training and provision of research equipment by the home institution. A total of 10 RTG recipients were selected for in-depth interviews. Interviewees were selected so as to achieve gender balance and representation from a variety of research interests and countries of origin. The interviews aimed to collect information about the grantees' perspectives on the factors influencing their careers after the training grants. Opinions on how to improve TDR research capacity strengthening programmes to meet the needs of disease endemic countries and their populations were also collected. Questionnaires for institutions included a self-assessment of the following institutional performance indicators: work space; library; internet and e-mail access; laboratory facilities; purchasing and inventory systems; maintenance and repair facilities and human resources. Taking into account a balance of research topics and regional representation, four institutions were selected for site visits. A semi-structured interview was conducted with the leaders and scientists of each institution. Interviewees were asked about their views on the following issues: the strengths and weaknesses of TDR funded institutions; the contribution of these institutions to formulation of national public health policies; the extent to which these institutions satisfied stakeholders' ongoing requirements for (access to) quality goods and services. Data from both individual and institutional questionnaires was analysed using STATA (version 10), based on a prepared data dictionary. The in-depth interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and imported into a pre-coded template prepared in Microsoft Word for export to MaxQDA. The main findings are illustrated with selected short narratives. Results Analysis of TDR grantees Analysis of TDR grants by age and sex of recipient; regional and language distribution; and research area is given in Table 1. 10.1371/journal.pntd.0001351.t001 Table 1 Analysis of the TDR grants during the 2000–2008 period. Type of grants RTGs* REGs* ISGs* Number of grants 116 83 41 Number of grants completed (%) 88 (75.9) 40 (48.2) 20 (48.8) Age (mean ± sd in years) 33±4.5 36±4.2 NA % of women 28 41 NA Regional distribution (WHO regions in % of grants) AFRO 65.5 37.5 49.0 AMRO 8.5 38.5 24.5 EMRO 6.0 6.0 5.0 SEARO 23.0 15.0 9.5 WPRO 7.0 4.0 9.5 Language distribution (% of grants) English 65.5 38.5 46.5 French 15.5 20.5 24.5 Spanish 6.0 15.5 12.0 Portuguese 6.0 23.0 12.0 Chinese 3.5 2.5 - Arabic 3.5 - 5.0 Research area (% of grants) Epidemiology 42.5 15.5 32.0 Basic sciences 21.5 49.5 24.5 Social sciences 15.5 3.5 12.0 Entomology 12.0 18.0 5.0 Product development 7.5 9.0 12.0 Clinical investigation 5.0 3.5 12.0 NA not applicable. *RTG are awarded to individuals to pursue studies leading to the acquisition of a postgraduate degree (MSc, PhD). *REG are intended to facilitate the career development of young scientists returning to their home institutions within 24 months following completion of a graduate degree (MSc, PhD). *ISG are intended to provide long-term (three years) support to institution. The mean age of RTG recipients is 33±4.5 years, with women representing 28% of all grantees. Most RTG recipients are from Africa (65.5%), and mostly from Anglophone countries (65.5%). The majority funded projects were on epidemiology and disease control (42.5%), while social sciences represented 15.5% of the projects. Of the 88 questionnaires sent to recipients of TDR RTGs, 59 (67%) were returned. Of those that responded, 33 received a PhD, 23 an MSc and three participated in a short training course. The overwhelming majority (82%) of grantees moved abroad for their training with a mean period of 21 months, a minimum of two months and a maximum of 72 months. MSc candidates preferred to study at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa (26%); the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the UK (12%); or the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) (12%) in the UK. PhD trainees moved to LSHTM (8.9%), the LSTM (8.9%), and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (formerly Swiss Tropical Institute) Institute (6.6%) in Switzerland. A few (6.6%) of PhD grant recipients received their doctoral training at institutions in their country of origin. One grantee's view on moving abroad for training indicates a gender bias as expressed in the following quote: “I do not want to speak of my case as special but it is still a man's world and this is reality. When a man gets an opportunity such as a training grant and has to go abroad he will not think twice he will just get up and go. But a woman’s reality is different meaning that social responsibilities make her not as flexible as her fellow partner. If TDR capacity strengthening programmes do not have this understanding in their philosophy, then most women will have troubles to join such programs” (Female grantee). The mean age of REG recipients was 36±4.2 years with women representing 41% of all grantees. REGs were predominantly awarded to scientists from Africa (37.5%) and South America (38.5%) and English was the most common language used by the grantees (38.5%). Of the 40 questionnaires sent to recipients of TDR REGs, 25 (62.5%) were returned. Of those that responded, 60% (15/25) were based in universities, 32% (8/25) in research institutes, and 8% (2/25) in governmental agencies. Most of the ISGs were awarded to Anglophone countries (46.5%) and institutions from sub-Saharan Africa (49%). A Francophone scientist reported that, “language, in my case English language, was an important barrier preventing me and my fellow scientists from applying to competitive international grants, including those from TDR” (Male grantee). The majority of the projects funded focused on epidemiology and disease control (35%) and basic research (25%). Of the 20 questionnaires sent to ISG recipients, eight were returned; five from research institutes and three from universities. RTG recipients' research skills developed during the training Three categories of research competencies were identified for self-assessment: Developing a research project based on the ability to identify a research problem; conduct a scientific review; analytically review a scientific article; and write a research proposal. Conducting a research project based on the ability to methodologically conduct situational analysis; implement and manage a research project; manage and analyse data; and interpret scientific data. Communicating scientific findings based on the ability to communicate information to scientific communities, stakeholders, and the general public. The level of each research competency was self -assessed and graded on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being poor or no competency and 7 for very good or high competency). Most RTG recipients (74%) rated their research competencies as very good (grade of 6 or 7), and 24% considered themselves to have medium level skills (grade of 3 to 5). 58% of the grantees rated themselves very good in conducting situational analysis and 90% of grantees cited the ability to write in English as the most important skill acquired during training. Grantees also assessed the attribution of the acquired skills to TDR funding or to the home institution. Results in Figure 1 show that TDR training is perceived to have contributed to better formulation of a research proposal, but not necessarily to an improved ability to conduct a research project and communicate research results to a broad audience. The following statement reinforces this finding: “When TDR provides research training support to grantees, they assume those candidates have the necessary research skills. TDR gives you money to go collect data analyse and write report, but for me that is not enough. The skills that I would consider most important are how to manage the grant itself, how to implement the research activity, analyse data and write the report once the grant has been successfully managed” (Male grantee). 10.1371/journal.pntd.0001351.g001 Figure 1 Individual grantee skill competency attributed to TDR. An estimation of the percentage of attribution to the home institution and to TDR of the different competencies was assessed by individual. Results are presented as the percentage of attribution of each competency to TDR and to the home institution. TDR attribution was considered to be moderate or low when it was lower than the home institution attribution. The analysis also shows that the percentage of grantees that received a competitive grant after completing a TDR-funded training increased from 20% to 34%. The average number of competitive grants obtained by each individual increased from 1.61 to 2. Of those who had not received a competitive grant prior to TDR-funded training, 42% obtained research grants post training. Similarly, the number of publications increased from 3 fold, with an average of 30 citations in the post-TDR grant period, based on a Medline search of publications and citations of all grantees. The following grantee narrative highlights issues regarding scientific publications: “Before receiving research training support, it was difficult to publish as a candidate does not have what it takes to publish in a peer reviewed journal…publishing is a different world and requires advanced writing skills, confidence to write, and knowledge about the publishing process, which for many scientists in developing countries is missing” (Male grantee). Impact of REGs on research groups or institutions Analysing the responses from REG recipients allowed us to assess the level of satisfaction with the following services: work place; library; internet access; access to online journals; laboratory facilities; purchasing and inventory system; maintenance and repair of facilities and human resources. The responses also allowed for attribution of improved work place amenities and services to TDR training. Figure 2 shows that TDR grants were seen to have the highest impact on the work place, laboratory facilities, human resources and maintenance and repair of the equipment. TDR was however considered to have only a moderate impact on library services, access to internet, and access to online scientific journals. 10.1371/journal.pntd.0001351.g002 Figure 2 REG recipient attribution of institution service improvements to TDR. TDR attribution to the improvement of the institution's services was assessed. Ranking was defined as follows: 1 = none, 3 = moderate and 5 = high. As with RTGs, the analysis of REGs showed that the number of competitive grants increased: 85% of all research groups received grants after completing TDR REG grant compared to 67% previously. Similarly, an average of three grants per group was received post TDR support, compared to two grants per group before. Regarding the benefits to the home institution, 79% of grantees reported that TDR grants facilitated institutional acquisition of durable equipment, especially laboratory equipment. An average of 11 students (six undergraduate, three MSc and two PhD students), 45% of which were women, were trained through TDR grants and 70% of the research groups reported that they trained or employed at least one technician during TDR training. 78% of the respondents mentioned that they were able to retain at least one technician after TDR training. ISG impact on research institutions TDR ISGs were reported to have a positive impact on all of the services analysed, with the greatest impact being on laboratory facilities and human resources. All institutions surveyed mentioned that they were able to acquire durable laboratory equipment. The following quote from an ISG beneficiary illustrates on this finding, “TDR contribution to scientific capacity in tropical disease endemic countries is undeniably visible…TDR financed the purchase of the first PCR machine and continues to make huge investments in our lab, enabling subsequent scientific work to be carried out. Without TDR distinctive support, that work would not have taken place and the malaria treatment policy would have been changed based on politics rather than scientific evidence” (Male grantee). An average of 53 scientists were trained during the three year support of the ISG. Of those 53, 37% (20 positions: nine undergraduate, six MSc and five PhD students) were directly trained with TDR support. Each institution trained an average of nine technicians and retained at least one after TDR training completion. The four institutions selected for site visits were the Centre d'Etudes sur les Ressources Végétales (CERVE) in Brazzaville, Congo; the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Sana'a, Yemen; the Centre for Research in Medical Entomology (CRME) in Madurai, India; and the Department of Immunology and Biochemistry, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The site visits confirmed that ISG had a substantial impact on human resources development and infrastructure improvements at these institutions. However, appreciation of the ISG's impact varied among countries. Institutions in the least developed countries (Congo and Yemen), saw the ISG as essential to maintaining basic infrastructure and activities, since local authorities do not invest much financial resources in research. Advanced developing countries (India and Brazil), perceived ISGs as complementary to resources received from local authorities, and of particular value to young researchers who were not yet in a position to successfully compete for major international grants. Discussion Some conclusions resulting from the present analysis of individual and institutional TDR capacity building programmes between 2000 and 2008 are relevant for improving and further developing the RCS activities of international development and aid agencies. First, RCS funding agencies should develop specific strategy to address some health research inequities such as gender imbalance and bias towards Anglophone countries' support. Indeed, in the present study, a pronounced disequilibrium in gender balance was made evident by the fact that only 28% of RTGs and 41% of REGs were allocated to women. In addition, the mean age of the grantees is more than 30 years, indicating that TDR training support coincides with women's prime years for tending to children and related family responsibilities, especially in low-income countries. The data confirms that family responsibilities, particularly child bearing and rearing together with structural and cultural barriers, impinge on women's access to good scientific training. This finding is consistent with other research that asserts that many women with doctorate degree do not work as scientists due to societal biases and structural factors [14], [15]. Thus, to address the under-representation of women in RCS programmes and to promote equity, RCS organizations should develop strategies that are sensitive to the specific situations and needs of women and consequently address overrepresentation of men in the distribution of resources and improve overall research capacity in disease endemic countries. Most of the TDR grantees came from Africa (65.5%) and most of the grant recipients were Anglophones: 57% of TDR grantees came from English speaking countries, while 20% from French, 10.5% from Portuguese, 8.5% from Spanish, 2% from Chinese, and 1.5% from Arabic speaking countries. Indeed, English is the dominant language in health research and overshadows other languages as a means of communication thereby inadvertently limiting other linguistic communities' access to essential technical information. Poor English language skills hinder wide dissemination of research results by health researchers from disadvantaged populations. As a result, the work of many health researchers in disease endemic countries does not have tangible impact on national, regional or international health research. To overcome the language barriers, health RCS organizations should develop specific strategies, including making appropriate provisions in their grantee selection criteria, to increase the chances of non-Anglophone countries benefitting from their programmes and promoting collaboration between scientists and institutions in more advanced Anglophone countries and their counterparts in less advanced countries. An example is the case of two intergovernmental health organizations, the Francophone Organisation de Coordination et de Coopération pour la Lutte contre les Grandes Endémies (OCCGE) and the Anglophone West African Health Community (AWAC) that merged in 1998, creating the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), an organization committed to transcending linguistic borders to serve all fifteen ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). (http://www.wahooas.org/). Secondly, RCS funding agencies should build and maintain a supportive research environment in DECs in which researchers can develop their scientific career and pursue their research. This strategy includes strong grant management unit in institutions, good communication facilities, career structures and demand from policy markers. For many institutions in low- and middle-income countries, maintaining a high quality research environment remains a challenge due to limited resources. The present study shows that TDR grants had a great impact on strengthening institutional infrastructure, particularly through acquisition of laboratory equipment (Figure 2) but access to internet/e-mail and online journals remains limited in most institutions. Investment in the necessary infrastructure for high speed/high quality internet access is beyond of TDR RCS's support capacity. Consequently, easy sharing of research information among researchers, media, policy makers, and other public and private stakeholders remains difficult and, at times, costly. Thus, support for capacity building should extend beyond the individual to the institution, through support for equipment acquisition and refurbishment of essential infrastructure. One objective of the present survey on TDR capacity building was to identify factors that positively influenced research capacity and career development. Developing skills for advocacy, resource generation and allocation, negotiation and consensus building, and financial management were clearly identified as important factors and should be targeted by RCS organizations. Project management skills that are often omitted from academic curricula, have also been identified as critical to develop health research leadership in developing countries. To address this gap, TDR developed a training course on “Effective Project Planning and Evaluation” (EPPE) to help scientists plan, implement, monitor, report and evaluate the progress of research projects in a systematic way. To ensure quality and access to a wider audience, TDR selected and supported a number of institutions to administer the EPPE course locally. These institutions are encouraged to develop national and regional support networks for individual researchers and institutions that serve as mechanisms for sharing ideas and resources. The Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Médicas (CIDEIM) in Cali, Colombia is a good example of how a centre of excellence formed a regional network that supports the TDR developed planning, monitoring and evaluation activities in universities and research institutions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean [16]. Communication to the scientific community through peer reviewed scientific journals is equally important to the career development of a researcher. A scientist's eligibility for grants and funding, and general career advancement is closely related to the number of publications he or she produces. As such, many RCS programmes support activities to enhance writing skills and encourage publications. However, it is clear that representation of researchers from low- and middle-income countries in scientific publications remains low. This may be a reflection of poor representation of these countries on the boards of international journals in tropical medicine [17]. Thus, research-funding agencies should consider providing resources to promote the expertise of authors, reviewers and editors from low- and middle-income countries to promote health research publications from underrepresented populations. Publishing in peer-reviewed journals is not an end in itself, but rather a means of communicating research-generated knowledge which can be translated into health policies, operational guidelines or health products. Translating research results into policy recommendations, concrete interventions or new tools was identified as a major weakness of RCS organizations [18], [19]. The result obtained in the present assessment of TDR programmes confirms this issue. One reason could be that most of TDR RCS grants are for basic medical sciences and epidemiology. These subjects are upstream in the research and development pipeline and the immediate translation of the research into a product is often not possible. The knowledge generated, however, contributes to a better understanding of epidemiology, systems or biology of vectors. Although some RCS organizations recognize the need to bridge the gap between research and policy, more can be done to promote research uptake i.e. synthesizing research results to show new knowledge production and promoting the use of evidence in decision-making. Decision makers at various levels should also be trained on for evidence-based decision-making [20]. In conclusion, health RCS programmes should maintain and expand their investment in training activities to 1) address inequities in health research by taking into account the social and cultural situation of the grantee, 2) introduce criteria that encourage and support the development of research careers within DECs and establish networks and 3) develop country-specific programmes in collaboration with national authorities to address the specific needs of each country, and identify how best to strengthen national health research systems.
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              Building capacity for public and population health research in Africa: the consortium for advanced research training in Africa (CARTA) model

              Background Globally, sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of disease. Strengthened research capacity to understand the social determinants of health among different African populations is key to addressing the drivers of poor health and developing interventions to improve health outcomes and health systems in the region. Yet, the continent clearly lacks centers of research excellence that can generate a strong evidence base to address the region's socio-economic and health problems. Objective and program overview We describe the recently launched Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), which brings together a network of nine academic and four research institutions from West, East, Central, and Southern Africa, and select northern universities and training institutes. CARTA's program of activities comprises two primary, interrelated, and mutually reinforcing objectives: to strengthen research infrastructure and capacity at African universities; and to support doctoral training through the creation of a collaborative doctoral training program in population and public health. The ultimate goal of CARTA is to build local research capacity to understand the determinants of population health and effectively intervene to improve health outcomes and health systems. Conclusions CARTA's focus on the local production of networked and high-skilled researchers committed to working in sub-Saharan Africa, and on the concomitant increase in local research and training capacity of African universities and research institutes addresses the inability of existing programs to create a critical mass of well-trained and networked researchers across the continent. The initiative's goal of strengthening human resources and university-wide systems critical to the success and sustainability of research productivity in public and population health will rejuvenate institutional teaching, research, and administrative systems.
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                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Formal analysisRole: Project administrationRole: Writing – original draft
                Role: Formal analysisRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Formal analysisRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Formal analysisRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Formal analysis
                Role: Formal analysisRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Formal analysisRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Formal analysisRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS Negl Trop Dis
                PLoS Negl Trop Dis
                plos
                plosntds
                PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1935-2727
                1935-2735
                7 December 2017
                December 2017
                : 11
                : 12
                : e0006112
                Affiliations
                [1 ] UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
                [2 ] Consultant, TDR, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
                [3 ] Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Reims, Pôle Recherche et Santé publique, Unité d'aide méthodologique, Reims, France
                London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UNITED KINGDOM
                Author notes

                The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. BH, MV, MM, CM, and PL are staff of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). EC is a former staff member. TA is a consultant and CSM was an intern at TDR.

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                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8403-021X
                Article
                PNTD-D-17-00563
                10.1371/journal.pntd.0006112
                5736233
                29216192
                b44be1c0-2e56-40df-8d4b-cdc8f5978f1c
                © 2017 Halpaap et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 13 April 2017
                : 13 November 2017
                Page count
                Figures: 1, Tables: 2, Pages: 15
                Funding
                The initial evaluation was funded by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), World Health Organization. The funders have no role in study design, data collection or data analysis. The authors received no specific funding for preparation of the manuscript.
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