CARTA seeks to create CARTA research hubs at our partner institutions as we progress through the third phase of the CARTA strategy (2021-2025) dubbed CARTA2025.

CARTA2025 aims to strengthen our proven CARTA approach to research capacity strengthening by establishing research hubs aimed at providing research knowledge, training and expertise in specific thematic areas. From the existing network of CARTA scientists, we seek to identify areas of expertise that will lay the foundation for research in areas of strategic interest for CARTA partners and the countries where they sit in line with regional and continental development agendas. The research hubs will build on and consolidate the research expertise existing in the CARTA network and will bring in new collaborators as needed to strengthen a research hub.

CARTA will provide small-scale support for the initial conceptualization and to facilitate the establishment of the research hubs. A core objective of the hubs is to attain their own long-term sustainability Selection process The selection will take place in two steps: 1) Expression of Interest, and 2) submission of Extended Concept for the establishment of a research hub. Submission of the Expression of Interest is open to all CARTA African partner institutions while submission of the Extended Concept is by invitation only after positive evaluation of the EoI. For more details on the evaluation process see the document “How the CARTA Research Hubs will be evaluated”.

This is the Call for Expressions of Interest (EoI).

Eligibility

• The lead applicant must be academic research staff of a CARTA African partner university.
• The team must include at least one other CARTA African partner institution and one CARTA non-African partner institution.
• The teams can include external collaborators to bring in expertise and skills not available within the Consortium.
• The team must include and build on the expertise of CARTA graduates.
• The work must include elements of the CARTA interventions to strengthen research, research training and research management capacities.

How to apply
Submissions will be submitted via e-mail to carta@aphrc.org with CC to mvicente-crespo@aphrc.org with subject SUBMISSION OF EoI FOR CARTA RESEARCH HUB before February 28, 2023 at 5pm EAT.

Important downloads

• Detailed Call for Expression of Interest
• Guidelines on Request for Proposals
• How the CARTA Research Hubs Will Be Selected

The CARTA Evidence Website is an interactive platform that aims to demonstrate the impact of the CARTA network by timeously tracking, collating, analyzing, displaying, and enabling the uptake of empirical and theoretical evidence produced. The development of the website commenced in 2021, driven by PhD candidates producing research findings that could have an impact on society thus the need to make their findings available and accessible to various audiences.

On December 2, 2022, the platform was officially launched after months of rigorous and critical work in a webinar titled, ‘Increasing visibility of African research and researchers’. The webinar featured a live demonstration and site tour by the CARTA Evidence Project Lead, Prof. Jude Igumbor, and presentations by Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi – Executive Director of the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and CARTA Co-Director, and Dr. Marta Vicente-Crespo – CARTA Program Manager.

CARTA Evidence seeks to identify and showcase human capacity and synergies within and outside the network to drive opportunities and research operational efficiencies. It will create a collaborative environment for African scientists and evidence users working in communities of practice and across boundaries and disciplines. Building on available information technology, the end goal is increased access to data and speed of discovery and scientific advancement. 

The platform will offer a comprehensive list of research evidence and publicly funded published data to promote accurate monitoring of population health and inform the precision of healthcare policy, innovations, and the betterment of population health.

The mission and vision of the evidence website will be achieved by fostering – human capital development; visibility of evidence; knowledge translation; open science; responsive policies; knowledge management and impact optimization; tracking and curating the structure of evidence; and cross-border and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The website is envisioned to:

• Enable data findability and possible analysis
• Enable human capital development
• Contribute to policy and planning
• Evidence management

CARTA Evidence is a collaborative effort between the University of the Witwatersrand and the African Population and Health Research Center led by Prof. Jude Igumbor – Associate Professor and CARTA focal person at the University of the Witwatersrand. CARTA has funded the innovative platform thanks to the generosity and flexibility of funding that the Carnegie Corporation NY and the Swedish International Cooperation Agency (Sida) provide to the program. 

Watch the full webinar recording: 

In Kenya, the Oral Health Policy 2022-2030 developed by the Oral Health Department within the Ministry of Health identifies the promotion of the eco-friendly practice of dentistry as one of its objectives. A priority action area is to develop a national plan to phase down usage of dental amalgam while promoting mercury-free alternatives. To achieve this objective within the specified timeframe, the first five strategies have been adopted. 

With support from CARTA through its post-doctoral awards (re-entry grant), Dr. Olivia Osiro (cohort 6 graduate, University of Nairobi) is implementing a research project that aligns with the fourth dental amalgam phase down strategy – to promote research on affordable mercury-free alternative dental filling materials. Her project is titled ‘Development of low-cost glass ionomer cements for dental restorations’. 

With support to the tune of USD 50,000, Olivia intends to complete pending work from her PhD project ‘Development of a prototype for a restorative dental cement in Kenya’. Between August and November 2022, Olivia attended a short research visit as an Honorary Lecturer at the Dental Physical Sciences Unit and Barts and the London School of Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London, where she refined the proof of concept and conducted the required experiments that included synthesis and material tests according to ISO standards for dental cements. 

She is currently investigating the use of highly reactive aluminosilicate glasses mixed with soda-lime-silicate glass (bottle glass) to produce low-cost ionomer glasses. By reducing the ratio of the aluminosilicate glasses, and replacing it with bottle glass, the cost of production can be lowered by up to 60 – 80%. 

The rationale behind this is that only up to 20% of the ionomer glass is involved in the setting reaction on mixing with poly (acrylic acid). Bottle glass is thought to act as a cheap filler and is readily available in all aspects of day-to-day life. The present research has so far produced working formulations of mixtures of two types of highly reactive ionomer glasses and bottle glass with reasonable working and setting times for dental applications. She is optimistic about her research project and its potential to promote the eco-friendly practice of dentistry in Kenya.

On the research project, Olivia is working with Prof David Kariuki, Department of Chemistry, University of Nairobi, Kenya as the internal collaborator, and external collaborators – Prof Robert Hill, Dr. Saroash Shahid, Dr. Natalia Karpukhina of the Dental Physical Sciences Unit, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK. The research visit enabled close interaction with the external mentors as well as an opportunity to lead a research project as a postdoc, with potential to generate a couple of master’s projects.

The CARTA re-entry grants seek to support CARTA graduates returning to, or remaining at their institutions, to undertake a research project, receive strong mentoring and learn the demands of community and public engagement. Within 2022, CARTA awarded nine re-entry grants to its graduates from a total of fifteen post-doctoral opportunities. The other six were awarded as post-doctoral fellowships.

Dubbed LEMIC, the ‘Lived Experiences of Migrating Informal Caregivers in a Tertiary Health Facility: Understanding and action for health systems improvement in Nigeria’ project is a research study that is funded by CARTA through the program’s re-entry grants. The funding, awarded to CARTA graduate, Dr. Kudus Oluwatoyin Adebayo is to the tune of $50,000 and is among 15 postdoctoral fellowships that were awarded to CARTA graduates in mid-2022.

On October 17, 2022, the LEMIC project was officially flagged off with an inception and familiarisation meeting. The meeting was held at the Oladele Ajose Building, Faculty of Public Health, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. During the meeting, the project team engaged the university and hospital stakeholders on the overall aim of the project and garnered feedback on the research which seeks to explore how internally migrating caregivers experience hospital facilities while providing support to hospitalized patients.

Some of the attendees included Dr. Funke Fayehun (Chair of the CARTA Board, co-Focal Person of CARTA at the University of Ibadan, and current Head of the Department of Sociology); Dr. Molatokunbo Olutayo (Director of the Institute of African Studies); Prof Adesola Olumide (Researcher and Consultant Community Physician, Institute of Child Health and Director of the College of Medicine, Research and Innovation Management – CRIM); Dr. Oludayo Tade (Department of Sociology); Dr. Obaro Michael (Deputy Chairman – Research, Medical Advisory Committee – CMAC, University College Hospital), and Dr. Isaiah Ojo from the Office of the Director of Administration, University College Hospital.

In her remarks during the meeting, Dr. Fayehun discussed the work of CARTA at Ibadan, particularly the contributions of the Consortium towards building advanced research capacity of doctoral researchers, staff training, institutionalization of innovations, collaborations, research, infrastructural supports, and many others. She explained that being a highly competitive grant, CARTA’s re-entry grant supports innovative ideas with potential to impact public and population health and quality health systems functioning and effectiveness.

Other participants praised the team for sharing their proposal but offered critical comments and recommendations, largely on methodological plans and ethical considerations. The project team promised to reflect on and integrate as much of the input as possible.

The implementation of the LEMIC project will be led by Kudus as the PI. He will have support from the co-PI, Dr. Mofeyisara Omobowale of the Institute of Child Health, Prof Ayodele Samuel Jegede of the Department of Sociology – the internal mentor and Prof Sharon Fonn (CARTA Co-Director) of the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa – the external mentor. Rukayat Usman, a graduate student at the Institute of African Studies, is the Project Assistant.