BUILDING LINKS BETWEEN EUROPE AND AFRICA IN PERSONALISED MEDICINE

Project Information

EU-Africa PerMed

Grant agreement ID: 964333

DOI

10.3030/964333

Project closed

EC signature date 29 January 2021

Start date 1 February 2021

End date 31 July 2025

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Health, demographic change and well-being

Total cost

€ 1 999 637,50

EU contribution

€ 1 999 637,50

Coordinated by

SOCIEDAD PARA EL FOMENTO DE LA INNOVACION TECNOLOGICA S.L. - INNOVATEC
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EU-Africa PerMed (BUILDING LINKS BETWEEN EUROPE AND AFRICA IN PERSONALISED MEDICINE)

Reporting period: 2024-02-01 to 2025-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The EU-Africa PerMed project had the overall aim of integrating African countries in ICPerMed, and by this contributing to a successful implementation of Personalised Medicine (PM) in the global context.
Addressing global health challenges is only possible by building and strengthening international, inter-continental and national scientific cooperation between scientists, decision/policy makers, private practitioners, industries and health professional and civil society. EU-Africa PerMed has worked towards fostering a stronger global collaboration in PM through the umbrella of ICPerMed, and by this, to better tackle global health challenges such as infectious diseases and future pandemics as well as the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
The project objectives were:
To understand the scientific and policy PM landscape in Africa
To explore and analyse with relevant stakeholder, the potential for and advantages of collaboration in PM between Africa and Europe
To foster and facilitate the integration of health research funding and policy organisations from African Union (AU) countries in the ICPerMed consortium
To seek synergies and align with activities of ongoing EU-Africa research programmes and other by-regional policy actions
To carry out capacity building and training activities addressing relevant PM issues for Africa
To contribute to raising awareness of PM and the benefits of a closer inter and intra-regional collaboration, in order to advance in the implementation of PM approaches
The project has successfully achieved all the objectives set forth in the proposal. With the incorporation of 4 African organizations in ICPerMed and the preparation of the Action plan, together with the relevant stakeholder engagement activity, the project has created favourable contexts and opportunities for networking and discussion, to share concepts and ideas and for all major stakeholders to be convinced of the gains that this collaboration has for both parts, Africa and Europe.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Main worked carried out during the project (M1-M56) and most relevant results is summarized below:
The mapping carried out have provided a better understanding of the Policy and scientific context for PM in Africa and the identification and engagement of relevant stakeholders.
Several stakeholder workshops have been organized, providing opportunities for close interaction with African and European stakeholders for the discussion about opportunities for collaborations, identification areas of mutual interest, gap an needs assessment of PM in Africa as well as validation of the Action Plan.
four African Organizations are now full members of ICPerMed: a) South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) joined in July 2022 and participated as funding agency in the Joint Transnational Call 2022 of ERA PerMed. b) The Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) from Egypt joined in 2023. Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) of Tunisia joined in 2024 and finally, the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) joined in 2025.
The EU-Africa PerMed Action Plan was developed through extensive input from Consortium members and the Advisory Board and validated with external stakeholders. The Action Plan is one of the major deliverables of the EU-Africa PerMed project. The document presents 26 concrete PM research activities and supporting activities formulated as recommendations to be implemented at different levels and by different actors to support both Europe-Africa and Africa-Africa collaboration in PM research.
Related to capacity building and training activities (WP5), the 1st summer school was organized in South Africa (Feb23), focused on “Adoption and integration of standards in PM research”. The 2nd. Summer school focused on “Implementation of Personalised Medicine” was organised in Kenya (May24). A total of 11 webinars were organized with more than 1400 people registered. Training activities have been important to build capacity, strengthen local expertise, and foster international partnerships in the area of Personalised Medicine.
The project has contributed to increase the knowledge and understanding among African Ministries of health, Ministries of education and science, Research funders, academia, clinicians and the general public on the opportunities that PM offers to optimise prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases and advancing the uptake of PM in healthcare. It has also supported the creation of AU-EU scientific networks interested in PM collaborative projects and of regional/national PM focus groups in Africa, very important when it comes to move the PM Agenda in African countries.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

EU-Africa PerMed has contributed to a successful implementation of PM in the global context by the integration of 4 new African organisations in ICPerMed. It has created the Action Plan to help and support the designs and implementation of joint PM projects and programmes between Europe and Africa, as well as strengthening bilateral EU-AU science, technology and innovation (STI) relations in the area of health.
The mapping work has shown that the African continent cannot be seen as whole when it comes to discuss about health/biomedical research and opportunities for collaboration with Europe. Many cultural, political, social and economic differences exist between regions and countries in Africa, that influence the opportunities and options for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and health research collaboration within Africa and internationally and determine the models and programmes to support and strengthen this collaboration.
EU-Africa PerMed has contributed towards
• Integrating four African organisations in ICPerMed, so the African perspective is well represented in the international consortium and the global PM agenda.
• Increasing the knowledge and understanding among African Ministries of health, Ministries of Education and science, Research funders, academia, clinicians and the general public on the opportunities that PM offers to optimise prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases and advancing the uptake of PM in healthcare.
• Supporting the creation of AU-EU scientific networks interested in PM collaborative projects
• Advancing the creation of regional/national PM focus groups in Africa.
• Contributing to raise awareness and knowledge among Africa policy makers of the benefits of PM and why it is important that Africa does not lose the possibility of benefiting of incorporating genomic testing and technologies in important areas such as: Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs), Rare and Genetic disease, Sickle-Cell Disease, Cancer, Disease outbreak and response surveillance.
• Building capacity, strengthening local expertise, and fostering international research partnerships.
• Raising awareness also among European Policy makers, funders and researchers of the importance and value of incorporating African organizations in PM research consortiums.

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Four African organisations join ICPerMed

Family picture of participants of the East Africa Workshop July22

Diagram of Project workplan