By Kemo Cham
The Medical Research Council unit in Gambia has announced
new set of plans it intends to focus on in the next five years, according to a statement published on the Council’s website. It listed three thematic areas – child survival; disease control and elimination; and Vaccines- which it said it will dedicate its attention on between 2010 and 2015.
“These themes have been selected to build upon our existing strengths, to target national health needs and to reinforce sub-regional and international collaboration,’’ Professor Tumani Corrah, Director of MRC Gambia unit, said. ‘‘They will also address some of the current priorities in the Millennium Global Health Development Goals.”
According to the report, recruitment of scientists to lead these three themed research areas is expected to be completed in February. It added that the plan had been put together within the broader context of the Council’s global health strategy which recognizes that research across the world is changing due to large investments in science and innovation in developing economies.
‘‘Implementation of the plan will change how and where the MRC spreads its investments and activities across the West Africa sub region in the coming years. It is expected that the same level of investment in global health research will be retained, but future organization of MRC The Gambia will be along the lines of an MRC centre,’’ the statement said. And it added, ‘‘it will have a research platform (a core set of well funded strategic resources, capabilities and infrastructure) and a set of independently-led science programs which will largely be externally funded.
