Trials of Excellence in Southern Africa III (TESAIII)

Trials of Excellence in Southern Africa (TESA) is a consortium established in 2009 under the first program of the EDCTPRegional Networks of Excellence (NoEs) to develop a framework for collaboration, capacity building, and training among nine institutions from six different Southern African (SA) countries.

In this proposal, fifteen institutions from nine Southern African (SA) and three Europeans countries come together to strengthen and enhance the capacities for clinical research in SA built during TESAII and strengthen the collaborationi.e. North-South and South-South networking activities among TESA II members.

Three specific reference laboratories: Tuberculosis at Stellenbosch University (TB-SUN)-South Africa, Botswana Harvard Partnership (BHP)-HIV in Botswana, and Malaria at CISM in Mozambique were established under TESA II to optimize the use of resources.

One Reference Data Center at CISM is in the process of accreditation in collaboration with ECRIN, one of the European partner. These assets will serve as training platforms and quality control sites for less developed sites. Career development needs to be a central activity of the network. Researchers need well established training programs to acquire and develop skills while avoiding "brain drain" .

Besides training programs designed to ensure career development and retaining research talent and knowledge, African hosting institutions for senior researchers must have the capacity, the resources (human, infrastructure and equipment) and the financial viability to ensure the return of investment in research personnel.

Less Developed Sites (LDS), partnered with Moderately Developed Sites (MDS), will design and implement basic studies for the "on the site" training model. The LDS will also be trained in preparation for ISO-Accreditation of their laboratories.

This model is one of the most pragmatic ways of developing the capacity to conduct future clinical trials at the LDS, leading to the achievement of one of the objectives of establishing the NoEs by developing human and institutional capacity.

Some ongoing clinical trials have been identified within the network at MDS and will serve as additional platforms to carry out training activities.

TESA has a proven track record of productive R&D on EDCTP priority PRDs established over the past decade among African and European countries participating in the previous program.

TESA will take advantage of the existing capacity across all African and European partners, and collaborate with different networks and agencies that currently operate at regional and international levels.