French Research Institute Meets Their African Counterparts For Collaboration

The French National Research Institute and a number of African Centres of Excellence are meeting to discuss embarking on researches for development.

A statement issued by the French Embassy in Ghana and copied to the Ghana News Agency said the meeting was held in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the International Joint Laboratory for the Control of Helminth Infections (LMI-CONSHELM).

It said participants deliberated on the issues related to research for development in the West African Sub-region, the sustainability of African Centres of Excellence, their role on regional preparedness for global health risks, threats and emergency.

It said they also addressed the initiative for an African Research Council (ARC), which was a support mechanism being considered for promoting scientific research of excellence in Africa, carried out by African institutions.

The statement said it aims to overcome challenges that African Research faces (shortage of researchers, funding shortfall and scarcity of institutional collaboration).

The Ambassador of France to Ghana, Mr François Pujolas said 'Partnerships like this would play a major role in promoting useful and applicable research in Africa, driven by African researchers and institutions for sustainable development of the continent.'

'I commend the efforts off all partners in the promising research being conducted to develop a vaccine against pregnancy-associated malaria and the partnership put in place to achieve this ambitious goal' the Ambassador added.

This tool could be used to allocate endowments to strengthen capacity building.

This initiative will be further discussed during the next African Union / European Union Summit, in Abidjan, from November 27-30.

Participating research institutions include Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), represented by its Director, Professor Kwabena Bosompem; and the West Africa Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), represented by its Director, Prof Gordon Awandare.

The rest are the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), represented by its Director, Prof Eric Danquah; the Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies (IESS), represented by its Director, Prof Christopher Gordon and the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin, represented by Prof Moudachirou Ibikounle and Prof Aurore Hounto.

The statement said this discussion was held under the patronage of the French Ambassador to Ghana.

It said the meeting also involved the Cooperation Service of the French Embassy in Ghana and the French Development Agency.

It noted that the main research interest of IRD and its partners (the Noguchi Institute and the University d'Abomey-Calavi, Benin) is to move from a fundamental research to specify and build optimal innovative prevention and therapeutic strategies against tropical infections.

It said this includes development activities around the promising vaccine to prevent placental malaria and the investigation of the negative effects that co-infection with helminths could have on the vaccine response.