Completed Infection & Immunity Public Health & Healthcare

Core Support for the East African Major Overseas Programme

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Recipient organisation University of Oxford
Funding £26.6M
Period Oct 2016 — Sept 2021

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A network of research centres in Kenya and Uganda will link hospital records, genetic data, and long-term population surveillance to tackle infectious diseases from multiple angles at once. This matters because infectious diseases like malaria, pneumonia, and neonatal sepsis remain major killers in East Africa, yet most research looks at single problems in isolation. The programme combines epidemiology, genomics, clinical trials, and health systems research under one roof, allowing scientists to track how diseases spread, test new vaccines, and understand why some children become critically ill while others do not. The Kilifi site holds 25 years of continuous health data and stored biological samples—a rare resource for spotting long-term trends. If successful, the programme could accelerate vaccine development, improve treatment for severe infections in newborns and mothers, and give health ministries better maps of where diseases are emerging. The Nairobi arm focuses specifically on translating disease mapping into practical decisions about where to deploy resources. Training is built into the model: 50 PhD students and 18 postdoctoral scientists will work across the sites over five years, building local research capacity that outlasts any single grant.

View original technical description
Our application provides the platform for a uniquely inter-disciplinary scientific programme linking biomedical, social and health systems research to deliver scientific insights of global importance to human health. We will work based from Kenya (Kilifi and Nairobi) and Eastern Uganda (Mbale). The Kilifi Programme will tighten its focus on our integrated platform (i.e. linked hospital/demographic/molecular surveillance) and legacy of continuous epidemiological data and stored samples over 25 years. Work in Mbale will consolidate a leading centre of clinical investigation in an area of hyper-endemic malaria transmission, and the Nairobi Programme will increase its independence with a focus on international disease mapping and health systems. Our major scientific themes include vaccines (including pre and post-licensing studies with exploratory immunology and epidemiological components), genomics and infectious disease transmission, clinical research (focusing on multi-centre clinical trials and the pathophysiology of critical illness with a developing programme on neonatal and maternal health), public health (with an emphasis on spatio-temporal analyses) and health systems research. The Programme is delivered by 29 PIs (i.e. scientists with independent funding). Training is central to our vision, and additional awards support 18 post-doctoral scientists and a projected 50 PhD students during the next 5 years.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Philip Bejon (EPMC Awardee)

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Original classification

Africa and Asia Programmes

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.