A day’s round table discussion involving investigators/scientist from NIHR sponsored projects based in Ghana was held at the British High Commission in Accra on 19th September 2019. Present at the discussions were representatives of NIHR, Department for International Development (DFID) and project leads and team members from 6 projects across the country.
The INPreP project at NHRC and coordinated by the University of Southampton, is one of the NIHR sponsored projects and was represented by the principal investigator, Dr. Engelbert A. Nonterah. The INPreP project aims to design a double duty nutrition intervention to tackle the double burden of malnutrition in the periods of preconception, during pregnancy and post-delivery (first 1000days) in three SSA countries of Ghana, Burkina Faso and South Africa. Other projects representatives included researchers from School of Medical Sciences KNUST, Kumasi (Asthma study); West Africa Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, WACCIP, University of Ghana, Legon (Malaria genomic studies); Department of Surgery, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, UDS, Tamale (Global surgery study team) and the Kintampo Health Research Centre (CLEAN-AIR). Discussions at the meeting were centered on experiences of the local teams in engaging with the funders and collaborators as well as progress of work thus far.
The NHIR representatives from the department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)/NIHRC, Caroline Hough (Global Health Evaluation Manager) and Alison MacEwen (Global Health Research Programme Manager) took the participants through the NHIR portfolio and list of projects funded by NHIR globally. The various groups and units then took turns to brief each other on their various projects. This centered on community engagement, working within a global team, capacity development needs and addition funding/projects that arose from the current NIHR collaborative studies. The various research units and groups further used the occasion to explore various ways of strengthening local collaborations through the NIHRC portfolio. They further explored upcoming research calls from NIHR and discussed how to position themselves to access these.
PHOTO – Standing from left to right: Alison MacEwen (NIHR, UK), Dr Engelbert A. Nonterah (NHRC, INPreP study), Dr Frank Gyamfi (Global surgery, KNUST), Dr. Lucas Amenga-Etego (WACCBIP), Dr Yaw Aniweh (WACCBIP), Prof Gordon Awandare (WACCBIP), Dr Prosper Luri (Global Surgery), Dr Forster Amponsah-Manu (Global Surgery, Eastern regional hospital), MsSikaMenka (WACCBIP) and Caroline Hough (NIHR, UK). Sitting from left to right: Dr Emmanuel Addo-Yobo (Asthma study, KNUST), Ms Theresa Tawiah (Kintampo Health Research Centre, CLEAN-AIR study), Prof Stephen Tibiri (Global Surgery, UDS Tamale) and Mr Charles Zandoh (Kintampo Health Research Centre, CLEAN-AIR study)
