The African Research Institutions are all INDEPTH Network Centres and have been members of CARTA. They are all well-managed, productive and research-active centres, with multidisciplinary research teams operating within strong research environments. Their expertise covers: infectious diseases and rising NCDs; policy and delivery challenges; observational and trial/evaluation research; research platforms that couple clinical and molecular expertise with population sciences and policy studies; and new generation agendas ranging from enhanced data sharing to genomic determinants and related ethical questions.

Their roles in CARTA include:

Being role models for research leadership

Offering specialised training in areas of expertise

Offering research infrastructure and systems including Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) and access to data for secondary analyses

Providing access to their own and their inter-linked networks

Mentoring young researchers

Offering supervisors for PhD fellows through joint appointments at CARTA universities

Hosting post-doctoral fellows and faculty visits.

These research centers will allow CARTA to realize its aim of developing researchers and supporting Exceptional fellows to become research leaders and to increase university-research center research and training linkages. Some of the institutions include: African Population & Health Research Center (APHRC)Agincourt Population and Health Unit, South Africa, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), Tanzania, KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Program, Kenya.

APHRC

APHRC is a leading pan-African research institution headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, that conducts high quality policy-relevant research on population, health, education, urbanization and related development issues across Africa. APHRC actively engages policymakers and other key stakeholders to achieve measurable policy impacts and ensure decision making across the continent is informed by rigorous evidence-based research.

Ifakara Health Institute

Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) is one of Africa’s most eminent health research organisations. With a history of more than 50 years, IHI is an independent, non-profit organisation, registered in Tanzania and led by Tanzanians.
IHI conducts a wide range of health-related research, including biomedical and environmental studies, trials of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics, health-systems research, and monitoring and evaluation.

Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance system(HDSS)

The Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS), located in rural northeast South Africa close to the Mozambique border, provides the foundation for the Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit of the Medical Research Council (MRC) and University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (the MRC/Wits-Agincourt Unit). Its origins lie in the university’s ‘Health Systems Development Unit’ that in the early 1990s focused on district health systems development, sub-district health centre networks and referral systems and training of clinically oriented primary health care nurses.

The KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP)

The KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) is based within the KEMRI Centre for Geographic Medical Research – (Coast). Our core activities are funded by the Wellcome Trust. We conduct integrated epidemiological, social, laboratory and clinical research in parallel, with results feeding into local and international health policy. Our research platforms include state-of-the-art laboratories, a demographic surveillance system covering a quarter of a million residents, partnership with Kilifi County Hospital in health care and hospital surveillance, a clinical trials facility, a vibrant community engagement programme and a dedicated training facility.