When the STAR-IDAZ IRC was launched in early 2016, it had 18 members from 11 countries with representatives from each member organisation forming the Executive Committee. The membership of the IRC had increased to 29 partners from 19 countries by the end of the SIRCAH project, including one international research organisation (ILRI), the European Commission, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and three industry bodies with a combined five-year budget of over $2.5billion for research in the area of the IRC. The more partners in the IRC, the more research funding can be coordinated and focused, and the more information on research activities can be accessed. This will mean the IRC can have a larger, more focused and so more effective impact.
In order to focus funding and efforts to the identified research priorities, research roadmaps are being developed for each priority disease or issue. Starting with the desired outcome, which is often a target product profile (TPP), these roadmaps lay out the research questions that need to be addressed working back from translational research gaps to the more basic science knowledge gaps. The roadmaps are based on ‘Leads’ which consider the i) Research Questions (“What is the problem we are trying to solve?”), ii) Challenges (“What are the scientific and technological challenges or knowledge gaps that need to be address?”), iii) Solution Routes (“What approaches could and should be taken to address the Research Questions?”), iv) Dependencies (“What needs to be done before we can solve this?”) and v) State of the Art, which includes the existing knowledge including the successes and failures. These roadmaps are made available on a publicly accessible IT platform, where ongoing and planned research projects are linked to the Challenges associated with each Lead. This allows SIRCAH to assess the extent to which the Challenges are being addressed so focus can be placed on those areas that still require attention. Working collaboratively with the Scientific Committee and the WGs, SIRCAH have developed and published roadmaps for priority topics including bovine tuberculosis, Brucellosis, African Swine Fever, Foot and Mouth Disease, alternatives to antimicrobials, and helminths parasite infections. Roadmaps for influenza, vector transmission control and One Health are under development.
