We take this very seriously, as part of our mandate to accelerate the development of medical interventions, and clinical development and making sure that these products reach the people who need them most against infectious diseases in southern Africa. We take pasture development very seriously. I can’t emphasis enough the lessons that we have learnt from the covid 19 experience where capacity that has been viewed in this country has played a fundamental role in the response to the covid 19 crisis.  

1. In looking at skills development, it is important to think long-term and sustainability. Meaning that the training that is planned should be part and parcel of the medium and long-term strategic planning of institutions and the plans for the institutions to move forward. I am speaking from the experience we have as we are working with 305 institutions in Africa and 303 institutions in Europe that are involved in collaborative projects. It is really important that the training that is done thinks long-term and sustainability of these individuals. This is the only way that you can optimally use the skills that are developed and also prepare an enabling environment for these people that are trained to operate. Additionally, this also takes into account, individuals that come on entering grants, maybe training outside and coming back to work in the host countries or individuals that are taken out on attachments to get specialised training and come back on reintegration plans. In that case, it has to be part of the medium and long-term strategic plans of the institution.  

2. Flexibility and adaptability. It is important to think about cross-disease and interdisciplinary approaches to increase the impact of the training. We have seen this in the covid-19. As part of our response to Covid-19, we have 28 consultants working on covid-19 in Africa, Majority of these have been part of networks involved in research and development for other diseases but they have verified the expertise to work on covid-19 and in fact, the lead people that are working on the covid-19 response are the people who work on HATV, and other infectious diseases. So thinking flexibility and adaptability in the training of individuals is key.  

3. Learning by doing. 86% of our investment is in research and development. 16% is on transformative capacity development. But we don’t do training in isolation. The training is integral in research and development. This way people get hands-on practical training as they execute in the implementation of the project themselves. In another scenario, we have a collaborative activity with Africa CBC, in the training of ecologists and biologists. What is key in this collaboration is that Africa CBC has a network of schools of public health as a backbone. In this case collaboration between European institutions and African institutions provides for the transfer of skills, but the people trained are really working from the ground in the context of public health in Africa, to be able to apply what they learn. Another example is our regional network of excellence is developing skills for clinical trials by really incorporating this in different studies that the institutions are involved in a collaborative manner. So people learn by doing.  

4. Excellence, competitiveness and leadership. It is important that when you are training individuals or fostering skills transfer you promote excellence in the local environment. Having people that understand the local setting, to be able to address research needs locally. But at the same time ensuring that these people are globally connected. This now facilitates the skills transfer. It facilitates the re-training that goes on and the exchange of information from other settings and also fosters international collaboration in the research. The other dimension to add is promoting leadership. So that people start off by being dependent as they learn, then they become independent, then they become interdependent, but take on a leadership role in the research collaboration. We are seeing this happen, and in this case, it really positions the people that are trained in the global arena.  

5. Addressing diversity. Addressing the inequalities that may relate to gender, language and geographical locations. You’ll find that there is a discordance, countries that may have the highest number of the disease may have the lowest capacity to deal with them. In that case, you have to address the inequalities, ensuring you train the people in those countries to get the expertise. This may require, pairing them up with established institutions, either in the country or out of the country. Part of the example that we have done is to establish regional networks of excellence that have complementary expertise in the regional settings to develop the capacity for clinical trials. Another thing involves reinforcing some funding to facilitate training for female scientists. For example, within the context of regional networks of excellence, we have provisions for extra funding for female researchers. Language is another aspect that we are trying to address. Collaboration is key. In fact, you will be surprised that now institutions in Mozambique, are in the top 10 for competitiveness in our research work. This is part and parcel of north-south collaboration that goes beyond the historical alliances so that these collaborations, that is mutually beneficial beyond the language barrier. 

6. Return on investment. It is important to track the investments. We have established an alumni platform where we network all our former and current people to be able to exchange ideas, develop ideas corporately, do new research, and see what they are doing in the execution of their work and beyond the completion of their grants. This in itself requires defining measures of success. How do you define a successful skills transfer? We’ve looked at different ways of doing this. For example, additional grants are able to attract during and after the skills transfer, the work that they are able to do, and the role they have in the projects, they are involved in beyond their trading. For example, recent data has shown that over 60% of our people, post-training are taking on the principle data role meaning that they are leading the research groups and grants that they are taking on.