UniAbuja: Over £5 Million Foreign Grants Available for Research into Sickle Cell Disease

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Disease Research and Training (CESRTA) at the University of Abuja said there was over £5 million in grant available to strengthen the capacity of researchers to find sustainable solutions to the sickle cell disease.

The Co-PI Patient-Centred Sickle Cell Disease Management in Sub-Saharan Africa (PACTS) and Director CESRTA, Professor Obiageli Nnodu, made the disclosure at a workshop organised in partnership with NCESRTA and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), themed, “Strengthening Institutional Research Capacity and Safeguarding,” on Tuesday in Abuja.

Nnodu said, “It’s a research that we are carrying out with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Health and Allied Science and Technology and University of Zambia Teaching Hospital. It’s over 5 million pounds.”

Nnodu emphasised the importance of research to national development, adding that it is good for African institutions to have capacity to undergo research training, and ensure they put the right infrastructure in place, not only to win grants, but also to monitor, manage and carry out research projects as well as report and implement findings from research projects into the society into policy.

She said, “This capacity strengthening workshop is a very important one in our university because over the past four years we’ve had significant increases in the number of research grants that we’re 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.”

Nnodu disclosed that the centre had benefited from both internal and external institutional research grants over the years. She said even though there was enough research funding for every facility to assess annually, only few lecturers were exploring the opportunity to assess the funds and carry out research.

Principal Investigator, PACTS, Imelda Bates, who highlighted cuts in external research funding to Africa, maintained that it was critical for institutions across sub-Saharan Africa to have strong research systems so they could decide what research they wanted to undertake by themselves.

Bates said, “They have their own researchers who can solve the problems of the country rather than having the topics decided by external people. And I think the money is going to be less now so it’s got to be more efficiently used to do the research that the country needs.”

Bates, who was excited with the implementation research which allowed for direct engagement with sickle cell patients, added that health insurance companies had promised to support sickle cell patients get their drugs.

Earlier, Acting Vice-Chancellor, University of Abuja, Professor Patricia Lar, expressed confidence that the workshop will provide participants with knowledge, actionable strategies, and strengthen networks in tackling the disease.

Represented by her Senior Special Assistant on Academic Matters, Professor Rhoda Mundi, Lar stressed the importance of embracing precautionary measures in the fight against Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), calling for greater awareness and action to mitigate its impact on affected populations.