Connecting the Chain II meeting report now available
On 9 June 2010, more than 60 representatives of European and African research organisations and Universities, policy makers, development agencies, Product Development Partnerships (PDPs), Philanthropic organisations and other stakeholders in the fight against poverty-related diseases, met at the University Foundation in Brussels, Belgium to discuss the impact of the current EDCTP programme as well as discuss its future outlook. The deliberations of this meeting focused on the health development agenda in Africa, and how to explore and bridge gaps between development cooperation and research.
The main subject matter was the question on how to bridge the gap between research, policy and practice. The highly interactive sessions were facilitated by Chairperson Prof. Sir Andrew Haines, where the participants addressed six major issues:
- How to develop effective strategies for engagement and coordination of research and development aid partners, and how to bridge the existing gaps between them
- How to coordinate and improve synergies between clinical research and sustainable capacity development for health systems
- How to strengthen governments to create good governance and good practice across research and aid
- How to bridge the gap in translational research between generation and implementation of applied research, i.e. between products and delivery of new medicinal products to patients
- Strategies for sustainable capacity building, utilisation and retention of expertise built within research and health care systems
- The needs and role of Centres or Networks of Excellence.