Biomedical Research in Developing Countries - UNICRI

investments in research”. Currently, one of the main projects implemented by AHRF
is a three-years Fellowship Programme, which aims to build capacity in health
research training people from different countries, particularly Mali, Uganda, Benin
and Zambia.
http://www.ahrf.org
African Malaria Network Trust
AMANET
The African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET) previously known as African
Malaria Vaccine Testing Network (AMVTN), was created in 1995 with the primary
goal of preparing Africa in planning and conducting malaria vaccine trials. In 2002
it was given the current denomination and an expanded role in promoting capacity
strengthening and networking of malaria research and development in Africa. From
mainly organizing training in GCP research ethics, AMANET has developed to the
extent of currently sponsoring vaccine trials and ethics training. The strategic plan
for 2007-2011 includes among the other objectives, to create global awareness of
the African malaria burden, to advance essential human capacity for research and
development of malaria intervention in Africa, to determine the needs and
characteristics of potential sites for testing malaria interventions in Africa and to
promote good governance, efficient management and networking of malaria
institutions in Africa.
Being a Trust Fund, AMANET is governed by its Board of Trustees, elected by a
General Assembly that meets every two years and also elects the members of the
Scientific Coordinating Committee and the Secretariat. Two other bodies, the Trial
Sites Development Committee (TSDC) and the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP),
appointed by the Board of Trustees, advise AMANET on specific issues relating
respectively to the development of trial sites and to research and scientific issues.
AMANET is financially supported by the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA),
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Netherlands Ministry of International
Cooperation (DGIS) and the European Commission-Directorate General Research
and EuropeAID Cooperation Office (AIDCO).
The main objective of AMANET remains that of developing self-sustainable centres
in Africa that meet international requirements for conducting malaria intervention
trials. To do this, AMANET supports the development of common standards for the
infrastructure and for the expertise required to perform and evaluate trials. To reach
these goals, AMANET has been working around three main areas: training in health
research ethics, vaccine development and malaria centres networking. We will
describe the training area.
Training is being provided through web-based courses and through short-term
trainings and workshops as well as direct financial support of the network centres.
Training subjects go from data management to GCP training to health research
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