Page 180 - SAMRC Annual Report 2024-2025

Attendees at the 4th AHRIFF meeting held in Cape Town in September 2024.

Immunization Foundation as co-funding towards coordinate mechanisms to support projects and
the clinical trial. Additional funding is being finalized initiatives to address major health challenges
to support the full study. The GIPD team will be in the region. The first meeting was held in
responsible for grant management and sub awards May 2022, bringing together delegates from over
to the 5 sites that will participate in the IVI Biovac 30 organisations to exchange insights on focus areas
OCV-S 001 study. Between January and March 2025, and funding strategies for the Southern African
the SAMRC team worked with IVI and BIOVAC to Development Community (SADC). The initiative,
draft and finalize the protocol, informed consents now called the African Health Research and
and other study material required for the clinical trial Innovation Funders Forum (AHRIFF), transitioned to
application and submission to the national regulator. encompassing the entire African continent with the
If this trial is successful, it will enable the Biovac second and third meetings held in November 2022
Institute to manufacture the oral cholera vaccine for and August 2023, with over 50 funding organisations
cholera outbreaks and prevention on the continent. represented. The overarching goal of these meetings
is to place African health priorities at the centre
Aligning Research and of funding strategies, minimize duplication and
provide funders with a mechanism for collaboration
Innovation Funding in Africa
and maximizing impact.
The SAMRC is involved in a number of forums aimed
at bringing together funders to better coordinate These broader meetings covered critical thematic
and align their investments in research and areas such as Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health;
innovation projects and programmes on the African Precision Medicine; Vaccines and Medical Device
continent and beyond. They include the African Manufacturing; Climate Change and Health,
Health Research and Innovation Funders Forum and Infectious Diseases. A notable outcome of
(AHRIFF), described below, the CEPI Medicines these meetings was the introduction of satellite
Counter Measures (MCM) Forum, GLOPID-R and meetings which enable smaller groups of funders to
ESSENCE. In May 2024, GIPD co-hosted the CEPI conduct deep dives on specific topics such as Drug
MCM Forum in Cape Town alongside a satellite Manufacturing in Africa; Climate Change and Health;
meeting of the AHRIFF and in December 2024 the and Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health; leading
SAMRC’s CROO and current Chair of GLOPID-R to the development of coordinated initiatives to
attended the MCM meeting in Geneva. In February collectively respond to these priorities. The Climate
2025, GIPD attended the annual ESSENCE meeting Change and Health satellite meeting was held from
in Washington DC. 7-8 May 2024 in Cape Town and featured a joint
session with the CEPI Medical Counter Measures
African Health Research and Innovation Funders’ Forum. The Maternal, Neonatal and Child
Health meeting was organized and hosted by the
Funders Forum (AHRIFF)
In early 2022, the SAMRC received a grant from SAMRC and the Science for Africa Foundation on
2 September 2024 in Cape Town.
the New Venture Fund to support the coordination
of health research and innovation funders in sub- The fourth AHRIFF was held from 3 – 5 September
Saharan Africa by hosting meetings to develop 2024, attended by over 70 delegates representing
a mutual understanding of health priorities and more than 40 global funding organizations, including

178 SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2024-25