MRC/UVRI Medical Informatics Centre

African researchers are building a dedicated computing network in Uganda to handle the massive datasets that now drive medical discovery. The problem is straightforward: while genetic information and complex statistics have revolutionised how scientists understand diseases like HIV and diabetes, most African researchers lack the local computing power to analyse this data. They must either send samples abroad or rely on slow, inadequate systems. This project fills that gap by creating a physical computational resource—a medical informatics centre—on the continent. If successful, this infrastructure will let Ugandan scientists track disease prevalence in real time, spot emerging health threats, and analyse genetic data without leaving the region. The centre will also train a new generation of African computer scientists, building long-term expertise. For the people living with HIV or diabetes in Uganda, the practical impact could be faster identification of treatment-resistant strains or better understanding of how chronic diseases spread in local populations. The project is fundamentally about building the digital backbone for medical research in Africa—a quiet but essential piece of infrastructure that most people never see, but that determines whether discoveries happen at all.