World NTD Day: EDCTP contributions to ending neglected tropical diseases

In line with the theme of World NTD Day 2025, “Unite. Act. Eliminate,” EDCTP reaffirms its commitment to ending neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Since their inclusion in the scope of the EDCTP2 in 2014, our research funding has achieved significant milestones in controlling and eliminating these diseases.



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Global Health EDCTP3: call for proposals open for submissions and Info Day 2025

The Global Health EDCTP3 calls for proposals are now open for applications. As part of the Work Programme 2025, four calls for proposals have been published, encompassing seven topics with a total budget of €214 million.

Global Health EDCTP3 is also hosting an online Info Day on 11 February 2025, from 09:00-13:00 (CET). This event aims to inform potential applicants about the Global Health EDCTP3 calls for proposals under the Work Programme 2025, including eligibility criteria and other financial and legal aspects.

EDCTP Prizes 2025: submissions and timelines

The contest for EDCTP Prizes 2025 will open for submission on 11 March 2025. Unlike previous editions, applications for EDCTP Prizes 2025 are to be submitted by the individuals/teams applying for the Prizes, with supporting letter(s) of recommendation from at least one reputable scientist. The contest submission period will run from 11 March to 1 April 2025, with outcomes expected to be communicated in April 2025. The Prizes will be awarded at the Twelfth EDCTP Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.

Visit the Global Health EDCTP3 website for more information, including the Rules of Contest.

Twelfth EDCTP Forum: deadline for abstract and scientific symposia submissions on 23 February 2025

The Twelfth EDCTP Forum will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 15 to 20 June 2025.

The EDCTP Forum Programme Committee invites submissions for abstracts for oral and poster presentations, as well as applications for scientific symposia. The deadline for all submissions is 23 February 2025.

The Twelfth EDCTP Forum offers sponsorship opportunities designed to enhance the visibility of organisations working in the field of Global Health EDCTP3. We invite you to explore the various sponsorship items and packages available on our Forum website.

For more information, please visit the Twelfth EDCTP Forum website.

EDCTP Association members support mpox research

Global Health EDCTP3 is supporting four new research projects in response to the ongoing mpox outbreak thanks to contributions from the EDCTP Association, particularly from the UK (Department of Health and Social Care) and France (ANRS Maladies Infectieuses Émergentes), bringing the total EDCTP3 investment in mpox research to f €12.1 million.

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Read the EDCTP eMagazine

We invite you to explore the eighth issue of the EDCTP eMagazine. Featured articles include:

• Advancing equity in health research: This article shows how the EDCTP Association promotes equity in health research by addressing gender disparities in sub-Saharan Africa through the Networks of Excellence, with contributions from the UK Department of Health and Social Care.
• Fostering networking among EDCTP Fellows: This piece outlines EDCTP's efforts to foster networking and support the next generation of African scientific leaders through comprehensive fellowship programmes.
• Investing in strategies to better detect TB: This article focuses on EDCTP's portfolio of TB research and how EDCTP invests in innovative new diagnostic tools to detect TB faster and more affordably in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The EDCTP Association: This article highlights the EDCTP Association’s model of European-African collaboration and its contributions to the EDCTP2 and Global Health EDCTP3 programmes.

The ALIVE trial, led by the EDCTP-funded STOP Consortium, showed that a tablet combining albendazole and ivermectin is safe and more effective than albendazole alone in treating soil-transmitted helminths. The results, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases on 10 January 2025, offer opportunities to improve the control of these neglected tropical infections, which affect around 1.5 billion people worldwide.



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The PREPARED Project, of which EDCTP is a partner, is developing ethics guidance for research during crisis, with a focus on research in fragile settings. To ensure that the ethics guidance is informed as closely as possible by real-life experiences, the project is currently running an anonymous survey, which is based on a literature review. If you have undertaken research in a fragile setting, please consider taking part. The types of fragile settings we refer to include environments such as conflict or post-conflict zones, regions that recently experienced natural disasters, refugee camps under serious resource constraints, or high-crime settings such as high-crime informal settlements. We are not referring to pandemic settings. The primary objective of this survey is to inform the development of a new research ethics and integrity code that is applicable across a range of fragile settings. The survey closes at midnight (UK time) on 7 February 2025.

Access the survey »

Community engagement (CE) is crucial for ethical biomedical research and enhancing clinical trial outcomes, but understanding its effectiveness remains limited. The PREVAC-UP Ebola vaccine trial, conducted in Guinea, Liberia, Mali, and Sierra Leone since 2015, has highlighted the importance of engaging communities in outbreak research.

The project developed a training manual that provides practical guidance on implementing CE in vaccine trials. The manual details the most effective timing and methods for various stakeholders and is a valuable resource for future research.

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The Optimised Dose of Rifampicin and Moxifloxacin for the Treatment of Drug-Susceptible Pulmonary Tuberculosis (OptiRiMoxTB) is a phase III clinical trial that aims to simplify tuberculosis treatment. The trial has officially completed participant recruitment across multiple sites in Gabon, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Funded by EDCTP and part of the SimpliciTB consortium, this study seeks to explore innovative treatment strategies that could transform the management of TB.

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The Stool4TB study is testing a stool-based qPCR diagnostic platform as a point-of-care tool for identifying TB infections in patients with HIV/AIDS in Eswatini, Mozambique, and Uganda.

By early 2024, recruitment for the adult cohort was completed, and by 15 January 2025, the final participant in the pediatric cohort was recruited, totalling 677 adults and 1,290 infants.

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The Capacity Development of Applied Epidemiologists (CDAE) project, part of the EDCTP-Africa CDC Epi-Biostat Fellowships, has graduated 15 Fellows from Malawi, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Zambia. The CDAE project aims to develop epidemiologists who will enhance health transformation in Africa.

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Dr Kolapo Oyebola, an EDCTP Career Development Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, has created a malaria detection app - Plasmo3Net. This web application uses a cutting-edge neural network algorithm to identify falciparum malaria in images of thin blood smears. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, Plasmo3Net contributes to the global effort to combat malaria, offering a promising solution for real-time malaria diagnosis to support control and elimination initiatives. The app was created by Dr Oyebola and his team, including PhD student Afolabi Owoloye, who is supported by the EDCTP Career Development Fellowship.

In Uganda, non-malarial febrile illnesses (NMFI) present serious health risks, especially for children living with HIV. A study led by EDCTP Career Development Fellow Dr Gerald Mboowa (Uganda), used shotgun metagenomic sequencing on stool samples to enhance diagnostic accuracy for NMFI.

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EDCTP extends its congratulations to Professor Keertan Dheda (South Africa), former EDCTP Senior Fellow, who has been honoured with the prestigious Alan Pifer Award at UCT’s 2024 Staff Awards.



This award recognises socially responsive research that addresses critical challenges in South Africa and highlights Professor Dheda's significant contributions to tuberculosis research. His work has advanced diagnostics, treatment, and healthcare policy, impacting millions globally, particularly in the communities most affected by tuberculosis.

Check out the video showcasing Professor Dheda’s work

EDCTP joins the research community in mourning the passing of Dr Karim Traoré. Dr Traoré was a distinguished medical doctor who held a PhD in biology. In 2020, he was awarded a Senior Fellowship grant from the EDCTP association. During this fellowship, he led the project “Research Capacity Building by DHA-PQ SMC Clinical Trial in School-Aged Children in Mali” (TMA2018SF-2471). It focused on comparing the safety and efficacy of two malaria chemoprevention treatments: dihydroartemisinin plus piperaquine versus sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in children in Mali. Under his guidance, three Masters candidates and one PhD candidate were trained. To date, the project has produced one publication in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family of Dr Traoré during this difficult time.