Infectious Diseases Institute at Makerere University College of Health Sciences: a case study of a sustainable capacity building model for health care, research and training

Abstract

The Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), established in 2001, was the first autonomous institution of Makerere University set up as an example of what self-governing institutes can do in transforming the academic environment to become a rapidly progressive University addressing the needs of society. This paper describes the success factors and lessons learned in development of sustainable centers of excellence to prepare academic institutions to respond appropriately to current and future challenges to global health.
 Key success factors included a) strong collaboration by local and international experts to combat the HIV pandemic, along with b) seed funding from Pfizer Inc., c) longstanding collaboration with Accordia Global Health Foundation to create and sustain institutional strengthening programs, d) development of a critical mass of multi-disciplinary research leaders and managers of the center, and e) a series of strong directors who built strong governance structures to execute the vision of the institute, with subsequent transition to local leadership.
 Conclusion: Twenty years of sustained investment in infrastructure, human capital, leadership, and collaborations present Makerere University and the sub-Saharan Africa region with an agile center of excellence with preparedness to meet the current and future challenges to global health.
 Keywords: Capacity building; public-private partnership; global epidemic response.

A century of Makerere and 22 years of academic publishing: African Health Sciences into a new gear

“…In this special issue, we bring you papers reflecting on capacity building for health care, research, and training, 1 , 2 and research to policy initiatives in child health 3 , as well as infectious disease prevention. 4 Collaboration in population based research 4 – 6 , as well as health service delivery 7 completes this treatise on the core roles of a university such as Makerere.…”

Experiences and lessons learned from a global research administration capacity building project to support and expand HIV/AIDS research in southwestern Uganda

“…Although the need to conduct research on HIV remains steady, the administrative infrastructure to support these critical HIV studies continues to be inadequately developed in many countries with high incidence and burden of HIV disease in sub Saharan Africa (Nakanjako et al, 2022). Many institutions do not have su cient capacity and support for pre-award activities such as awareness of grant opportunities, plans for grant writing and submission, budget development, or infrastructure to support collaborative teams that generate new research grants for an institution.…”