The Yakubu Gowon University, formerly known as the University of Abuja, alongside several international institutions, has secured over £5 million to advance sickle cell research across sub-Saharan Africa.
The Director of the Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Research and Training at the institution, Prof. Obiageli Nnodu, made this known during the Patient-centred Sickle Cell Disease Management in Sub-Saharan Africa workshop held at the institution on Tuesday.
The workshop, which was organised by CESTRA in collaboration with PACTS Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, has the theme as ‘Strengthening Institutional Research Capacity and Safeguarding.’
Prof. Nnodu, who also heads the Centre for Sponsored Projects at the university, said the initiative is aimed at enhancing the ability of African institutions to undertake world-class sickle cell research through capacity development.
“Research is a very important vehicle for national development and it is good for African institutions to have the capacity to do research strengthening through training and then through putting the right infrastructure in place, not only to win grants, but to monitor, manage and carry out the research projects and to be able to report and implement findings from research projects into the society, into policy.
“So, this capacity strengthening workshop is a very important one in our university because over the past four years, we have had significant increases in the number of research grants that we are getting, but we also have what I would tend to say is a population, a faculty that needs to have their capacity built to participate in funded research,” she explained.
“It’s research that we are carrying out with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Health and Allied Science and Technology, and the University of Zambia Teaching Hospital. So, it’s over 5 million pounds (grant),” she noted.
Declaring the workshop open, Acting Vice Chancellor of UniAbuja, Prof. Patricia Lar, said the programme reflects the institution’s commitment to tackling the burden of sickle cell disease.
“This workshop represents a key moment in our shared commitment to advancing research excellence.
“Particularly in the fight against sickle cell disease, which is a public health challenge, not only in Nigeria, but in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa,” the Acting VC, represented by her Senior Special Assistant on Academic Matters, Prof. Rhoda Mundi, stated.
She emphasised that building research capacity is both a strategic necessity and a responsibility for institutions seeking to create lasting solutions.
“So, I hope that this is an opportunity to share knowledge, to learn from one another, and to form a collective result to improve health outcomes, not just in Nigeria, but throughout, and to improve the quality of the research we have,” she added.
Prof. Imelda Bates, Principal Investigator for PACTS, described the approach as transformative because it places patients at the centre of the research.
