BUILDING LINKS BETWEEN EUROPE AND AFRICA IN PERSONALISED MEDICINE

The EU-Africa PerMed project has the final objective of integrating African countries into ICPerMed activities as a means to contribute to the implementation of Personalised Medicine (PM) in the the global context, fostering joint PM projects and programmes between Europe and Africa, and strengthening bilateral EU-AU science, technology and innovation (STI) in health.

On the long run, incorporating African countries in the global PM research agenda can contribute to shorten existing health disparities between developed and developing countries, as well as facilitating access of African countries to new tools and technologies that have the potential make health care more efficient and equitable.The specific objectives set for the project are 1)To identify, contact and engage with relevant health-related organizations in Africa to interact and work with throughout the project; 2)To explore and analyse with relevant stakeholder, the potential for and advantages of collaboration in PM between Africa and Europe, identifying areas of mutual interest; 3)To foster and facilitate the integration of health research funding and policy organisations from AU countries in the ICPerMed consortium and participate in the ERA PerMed funding scheme; 4) To seek synergies and align with activities of ongoing EU-Africa research programmes and other by-regional policy actions (such as EDCTP); 4)To carry out capacity building and training activities addressing relevant PM issues for Africa and 5)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.

As COVID19 is showing, addressing global health challenges is only possible by building and strengthening international scientific cooperation.

EU-Africa PerMed will work towards fostering a stronger global collaboration in PM, and by this, better addressing global health challenges such as infectious diseases and future pandemics.