30/06/2025
Better Health Through Partnerships: GloPID-R’s Role at the Twelfth EDCTP Forum
Kigali, Rwanda – The Twelfth EDCTP Forum took place in Kigali, Rwanda from 15 to 20 June. Jointly organized by Global Health EDCTP3 and the EDCTP Association, and hosted by Rwanda’s Ministry of Health and the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, the event convened global health leaders under the theme: “Better health through global research partnerships.”
This year’s theme highlighted the impact of EDCTP programmes over the past two decades and reiterated the importance of international collaboration in advancing health research and innovation. Throughout the forum, GloPID-R was prominently featured for its role in uniting funders focused on research into emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. In the opening address, Dr Michael Makanga, Executive Director of Global Health EDCTP3 and Chair of the Twelfth EDCTP Forum Programme Committee, cited GloPID-R as an example of one of EDCTP’s key partnerships to improve cost-effectiveness and research impact.
At the forum, GloPID-R convened a symposium, co-chaired by GloPID-R Board Member and Global Health EDCTP3’s Senior Scientific Officer, Dr Jean Marie Vianney Habarugira, and Val Snewin, Head of Global Health Research Partnerships in the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care – a GloPID-R Member.
During the session, titled, “Improving our preparedness capabilities for global response to infectious diseases,” Dr Duduzile Ndwandwe from the South African Medical Research Council presented the work of GloPID-R’s Africa Hub, which she leads. As a core GloPID-R initiative, the Africa Hub aims to strengthen coordination among African research funders, enhancing regional preparedness and contributing to more effective, collaborative global responses to infectious disease threats.
Emilia Antonio, Research and Policy Advisor at GloPID-R, presented on Pandemic PACT – an initiative embedded alongside the GloPID-R Research and Policy team. Emilia noted its evolution from the COVID CIRCLE collaboration and emphasized its role in tracking research funding and clinical evidence data for a wide range of diseases with outbreak potential and broader preparedness activities. Pandemic PACT has proven instrumental in supporting members coordinate research funding during outbreaks such as mpox, H5N1 and Marburg virus.
Isabel Foster, Research and Policy Advisor for GloPID-R, highlighted GloPID-R’s output to support coordination of funding of clinical trials for outbreak response. Isabel presented GloPID-R’s Clinical Trial Roadmap, a key tool to supporting funders in preparing for effective, equitable clinical trial responses, and the GloPID-R Clinical Trial Working Group’s extensive consultation process to co-develop the report with funders and leads of international clinical trial networks. This work is directly feeding into the WHO’s efforts to realise commitments made at the global level post COVID.
GloPID-R’s Coordinated Funding Mechanism
In another session titled, ‘Research Readiness for Response as a foundation for effective research in global public health emergencies’, Val Snewin highlighted the GloPID-R coordinated funding mechanism, Global Research Improving Pandemic Preparedness (GRIPP). Launched at the 2024 General Assembly, the GRIPP mechanism aims to enable funders to coordinate timely, international research responses to public health emergencies and to collaborate on annual calls on selected themes. The first call, set to launch this year with the support of a sub-set of GloPID-R funders, will focus on strengthening the clinical trial ecosystem in low- and middle-income countries. This effort aligns strongly with the forum’s emphasis on “better health through global research partnerships,” by promoting inclusive, collaborative approaches to research readiness and capacity building.
GloPID-R’s strong presence across multiple sessions at the Twelfth EDCTP Forum reaffirmed its central role in fostering global collaboration and coordination among research funders. The forum provided an important platform to highlight GloPID-R’s contributions and to reinforce the value of sustained international cooperation in tackling infectious disease threats.
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GloPID-R Launches Coordinated Funding Mechanism to Strengthen Global Pandemic Preparedness
