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Project Topic
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RECAP-SL is a €250,000 two-year funded project under the 2nd European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) programme. This project started in August 2016 and was led by the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), University of Sierra Leone in partnership with the Health Systems and Workforce Strengthening Team and the Capacity Research Unit in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). The 2014-16 Ebola disease outbreak highlighted the need for responsive and resilient health systems within and beyond Sierra Leone. Development and/rebuidling of health systems should be informed by policies based on evidence. In the immediate post Ebola phase, health research capacity in Sierra Leone to inform policy and practice was limited to a number of research projects at COMAHS. With COMAHS taking the lead in the generation of evidence, there is a need for sustainable approaches to building capacity for national multi-disciplinary health research in country. The overall aim of the RECAP-SL project was to establish a research centre within COMAHS that will serve as a research coordinating centre, and lead on health systems research and capacity strengthening within Sierra Leone and deliver credible, relevant research for effective policy making and practice. The specific objectives of RECAP-SL included: 1. To apply the 5-step approach to strengthen the institutional research capacity of COMAHS capacity for multi-disciplinary research; 2. To develop the research centre at COMAHS to ensure coordination between researchers, health practitioners and policy makers; 3. To attract, support, mentor and retain four multidisciplinary health research fellows to undertake their own research; 4. To support the MPH course offered at COMAHS and help develop modules in health systems research and clinical research tailored to the local context and focusing on Ebola, emergency response and responsive health systems; and 5. To support the capacity of the existing National Ethics Committee to respond swiftly and appropriately to the increased demand for ethical review of multi-disciplinary research. We established a health systems research centre at COMAHS with the aim of producing relevant, timely and robust research responsive to country needs. To date, this platform has enabled the development of a four-year research strategy, a short and longer-term action plan to support sustainable institutional capacity development, a website that includes a repository of research projects and publications and the provision of robust research methodology training to final year medical students and the fostering of student interest and knowledge in health research through the student engagement programme, which is open to students from all years who have an interest in research. The project has also supported student and young professional led research activities (e.g. journal clubs, general assembly for young medical doctors). We also focused on developing four research fellows to be health systems research leaders in Sierra Leone. Supported by mentors, they collaborated with local and international researchers, donors, policy makers and key stakeholders to identify research priorities, develop research protocols, secure funding, implement the research, and ensure effective uptake of the research findings. They have also worked with other research programmes, developing their skills in data collection, analysis and publication. These research fellows support other researchers at COMAHS, thus developing the next generation of health systems researchers and promoting sustainability of the research centre. Two of the four fellows have secured PhD scholarships which commence in September 2018 and a third has been accepted into the very competitive 3-week Health Systems Global ‘Emerging Voices’ networking and professional development programme to commence in October 2018. This ensures a continuing upward trajectory in both individual and institutional research capacity. The coordination of the RECAP-SL project with other capacity strengthening programmes, the attainment of new capacity strengthening programmes and the intention to maintain the COMAHS-LSTM partnership strongly suggest the capacity gains achieved will be extended upon. The continued involvement and leadership of a core group of COMAHS investigators across all of these initiatives further suggests continued, complementary and strategically driven institutional capacity strengthening can be sustained. The website for RECAP-SL: http://recap.sl/
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Project Results
(after finalisation)
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•Capacity development (Human Resources): Provision of research methodology training to final year medical students and mentorship of four research fellows in health systems research, implementation research, proposal writing, and teaching
•Capacity development (Systems and Infrastructure): Development of a four-year research strategy and action plan to support long-term institutional capacity development of COMAHS, development of a repository of research projects and publications.
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