Enhancing Postgraduate Excellence in Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences through Intra-African Mobility

forthcoming

Challenges in accessing pharmaceutical agents for infectious and non-infectious diseases across Africa have far-reaching implications, including high mortality and morbidity, reduced life expectancy and productivity, and perpetuating cycles of poverty and underdevelopment. The lack of adequate health and pharmaceutical preparedness has hindered effective responses to these health crises. The proposed project “Enhancing Postgraduate Excellence in Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences through Intra-African Mobility (EXCEL-PHARM)” seeks to enhance human capacity, promote innovation, and foster collaboration among African universities in line with the EU's vision of sustainable, inclusive development in health for Africa. The project will provide capacity-building programmes for postgraduate students and researchers. The University of Cape Coast Ghana will offer training in microbiology, immunology, and drug discovery. Makerere University, Uganda, brings public health, health sciences and pharmacology programmes, the University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal, will give the opportunity for capacity building in pharmaceutical sciences, the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, will bring to the consortium training in One Health, leadership in healthcare and pharmaceutical and Medicinal chemistry. Stellenbosch University, South Africa, offers the consortium partners access to advanced laboratories to train students and faculty on medical microbiology, cytopathology and molecular and human genetics. Over the 4-years of the programme, students will be recruited in 2 cohorts. In the first year, the first cohort of students will prioritise all PhD (5) students and 40% (8) of masters students and remaining masters students in the second year. Traineeships will be offered between the second and the 3 years. This ensures that the students will graduate within the duration of the project. Staff mobilities will be 40% (2) in the second year and 60% (3) in the third year. A minimum of 2