Project: Coast to Coast: Transcontinental Ethics Partnership

Acronym	C2C-TEP (Reference Number: EDCTP-Ethics2015-872)
Duration	01/05/2017 - 30/04/2019
Project Topic	Independent ethical review is an essential requirement for medical research involving human participants, their biological materials or personal data. Robust review systems provide public assurance that research is carried out according to the highest ethical and methodological standards, attract good quality research and drive scientific and economic development. Significant advances have been made in most sub-Saharan African countries, yet challenges remain with embedding review in a national framework with ethics committee administration and composition and expertise of committee members. The “Coast to Coast Transcontinental Ethics Partnership” aims to address these issues by enabling a “South-South” collaboration with support of internationally recognised experts of ethics review in sub-Saharan Africa. To ensure wide applicability of the results to the region, Ethiopia, The Gambia and Ghana were selected for this coast-to-coast collaboration, representing a cross-section of sub-Saharan Africa in terms of country size and ethics review structures. The project is looking to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the existing research ethics review systems in the participating countries. Following an initial assessment of existing structures and capacities, delegates from stakeholder institutions including a National Ethics Committee (NEC) and Research Ethics Committees/Institutional Review Boards (RECs/IRBs) will be invited to a first meeting during which assessment results will be presented and discussed. The meeting will be followed by a workshop to develop concrete proposals and strategies for the improvement of national and institutional review systems. Over the following year the consortium will work to implement actions and monitor progress in each country. The success of the proposed improvements will be evaluated at the end of the one year implementation phase. Outcomes and lessons learned will be discussed and translated into practical guidance that can be used as a model by other countries in the region. The “Coast to Coast Transcontinental Ethics Partnership” is expected to improve the ethics review process at national and institutional level in Ethiopia, The Gambia and Ghana, and to benefit other sub-Saharan African countries, with positive effects for clinical research programmes in this region. The consortium held three Consolidation Meetings during the second period in each of the participating countries – The Gambia, Ghana and Ethiopia. The strengths and weaknesses of the national and local ethics review system of each country was discussed. The reports and proposed implementation plans from these Consolidation Meetings will be shared at the upcoming Stakeholder Meeting to be held in October 2019 in The Gambia.  A key driver of this project has been intensive involvement of local stakeholders on all levels. This includes the relevant Ministries, national regulatory authorities, representatives from national and institutional ethics committees as well as review boards and their administrators.
Network	EDCTP2
Call	Ethics and Regulatory capacities 2015

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine	Coordinator	United Kingdom
3	Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ministry of Science and Higher Education	Partner	Ethiopia
5	Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research	Partner	Ghana
7	University of Gondar	Partner	Ethiopia