Sokoine University of Agriculture - IUCEA

Sokoine University of Agriculture

Project Proposal Number 38

Southern African Center for Infectious Disease Surveillance -

African Center of Excellence for Infectious Diseases of Humans and Animals

in East and Southern Africa

20th

MAY 2016

Table of Contents

Summary of the ACE Proposal ........................................................................................... 1

Section 1: Basic Institutional and Proposal information .................................................... 2

Section 2: SWOT Analysis of the Institution/Proposed ACE ............................................ 4

Section 3: Development Challenge and Objectives of the Proposed ACE ......................... 6

Section 4: Expected Results of the Proposed ACE ........................................................... 11

Section 5: ACE Action Plans ............................................................................................ 12

Section 6: Use of Existing Physical Resources ................................................................ 29

Section 7: Academic Staff Resources, Capacity Building and Visiting Academic Staff . 31

/Industry Experts Plan ....................................................................................................... 31

Section 8: Implementation Capacity, Arrangements and Plans ........................................ 33

Section 9: Implementation Plan of each ACE Action plan .............................................. 36

Section 10: Main Cost Items of the Proposal ................................................................... 39

Section 11: Implementation Risks .................................................................................... 41

Section 12: Additional Information Relevant to the Evaluation of this Proposal............. 41

Section 13: Agreement of Key Members of the Proposal Implementation Team ............ 42

1

Summary of the ACE Proposal

In 2008, concerned by the burden of infectious diseases in Africa, academic and research institutions in

epidemiologically linked southern and East African countries (Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo

(DRC), Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa) embarked on a pathway towards developing Africa’s

capacity for research and training in infectious diseases. We formed a One Health partnership of medical and

veterinary institutions (i.e. Southern African Center for Infectious Disease Surveillance - SACIDS) with an

ambition for an African-led Center with progressive relevance to the wider Sub-Saharan region. We have

worked closely with UK institutions, namely the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

(LSHTM), the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), the London International Development Center (LIDC) and

The Pirbright Institute (TPI), with wider international collaboration on a project-by-project basis.

We have strengthened training and student-based research, developing competence in molecular biology and

analytical epidemiology, testing innovative approaches, and working across sectors, institutions and borders,

in partnership with internationally renowned centers of training and research excellence. SACIDS is led by

Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), with core collaboration by the Muhimbili University of Health and

Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) to consolidate the inter-

sectoral partnership. Our proposal seeks to build on this platform to provide regional leadership for

excellence in postgraduate training and research on infectious diseases. We will train 40 MSc, 8 MPhil/Res-

MSc and 15 PhD students, 30% of who will be from outside Tanzania and 40% female. We will also offer 3

Postdoctoral Fellowships. We will make special provision to attract female students. We will introduce a

rigorous selection and performance appraisal system for students and supervisors. We will run skills

enhancement short courses (40 trainees) and One Health Summer School (30 trainees) for students and in-

service practitioners. We will collaborate with our established regional and UK partners to develop skills,

research capacity and contact networks. We will introduce a novel Research Leadership and Management

Training program tailored to different levels ranging from PhD students right through to senior academic

staff (60 trainees). We will build on existing videoconference and server capacity to expand the role of ICT

in learning.

Our facilities, students and scientists will serve as a source of authoritative expertise for infectious diseases in

diagnosis, surveillance, pathogen characterization, epidemiological modeling, and the definition of cost-

effective disease risk management measures.

During the implementation of this Center, we will collaborate synergistically with the University of Zambia

based ACE. This collaboration will build on our common origin and will be on a wide range of infectious

disease issues to accelerate the regional capacity for infectious disease expertise through collaborative

postgraduate training and research.

2

Section 1: Basic Institutional and Proposal information

Originating Institution (s): Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Morogoro, Tanzania, in partnership with Muhimbili University of Health and Allied

Sciences (MUHAS), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Tanzania

Center of Excellence Name (and acronym): Southern African Center for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS) – ACE for Infectious Diseases of Humans

and Animals in East and Southern Africa

Total Amount Requested (US$): 6,000,000

Co-Financing from other sources both cash and in-kind contributions (including core funding) (US$): 1,456,200

Main Departments/Units involved in the Center;

Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology, SUA (VMP-SUA)

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, MUHAS (MI-MUHAS)

National Institute for Medical Research, Tanzania (NIMR)

Contact Details

Position Name Address Office Phone Mobile Email

Head of Institution Professor Gerald

Monela, Vice-Chancellor

Office of the Vice Chancellor, Sokoine

University of Agriculture (SUA)

+ 255 23 2604651

+ 255 23 2604523

+255 754294670 [email protected]

Proposed Center Leader Prof Gerald Misinzo Head, VMP-SUA +255 23 2604647 +255 767 058805 [email protected]

[email protected]

Deputy Center Leader/

Principal investigator

Prof Mark Rweyemamu Executive Director, SACIDS, VMP-SUA +255-732931717 +255-7885099150

+44-7889317687

[email protected]

[email protected]

Second Deputy Center

Leader and Coordinator for

MUHAS

Prof Mecky Matee Dept Microbiology and Immunology,

MUHAS

+255-22-2151680 +255-713 081 162 [email protected]

Basic Institutional Information (this institutional data should include data from the last 5 years):

Main Departments participating in the proposed ACE: Academic Staff and Students Academic

year

Name of

Department/ Units

No. of

Academic

Staff (full-

time

equivalent)

Non-

National

Academic Staff Qualifications No. of Students

PhD

(% of

total)

Master

(% of

total)

Bachelor

(% of

total)

Others

( Specify)

Total Female (% of total)

Segregated at BSc, MSc and PhD

level

Non-national

(% of total)

2014/15 VMP-SUA 22 0 45 55 0 0 86 BSc 40; MSc 40; PhD 42 10

MI- MUHAS 10 0 60 30 10 0 29 BSc50; MSc 40; 60 0


MI-MUHAS 9 0 56 44 0 0 30 BSc 60; MSc 33; PhD 53 0






mailto:[email protected]






3

MI-MUHAS 8 0 63 37 0 0 13 BSc =0; MSc=0; PhD =50 0

Academic Programs offered for 2014/15 relevant to the proposed ACE:

S/N. Title of Program

Level

(Bachelor,

Master or

PhD)

Duration

(Years)

Enrolment

2014/15

(all classes)

No. of

Graduates

2013/14

Program Accreditation

(Yes/No)

Last Year of

Accreditation

1. Microbiology - SUA PhD 4 4 0 Yes Not Applicable

2. Microbiology - SUA MPhil 2 2 1 Yes Not Applicable

3. Applied Microbiology - SUA MSc 2 2 4 Yes Not Applicable

4. Molecular Biology and Biotechnology - SUA MSc 2 5 6 Yes Not Applicable

5. One Health Molecular Biology - SUA MSc 2 3 8 Yes Not Applicable

6. Biotechnology and Laboratory Sciences - SUA BSc 3 70 58 Yes Not Applicable

7 Microbiology - MUHAS PhD 4 0 1 Yes Not Applicable

8 Microbiology -MUHAS MSc 2 4 2 Yes Not Applicable

9. Microbiology - MUHAS MMED 3 3 4 Yes Not Applicable

Note: According to IUCEA, in East Africa, there is only accreditation of the universities/institutions at the moment. They are still working on

accreditation of the individual programs

Institutional budget [in national and international (where applicable) currency] for the last two fiscal years: in Tanzania Shilling

FY 2013/14

Total budget

Government subvention

Tuition and other student fees

Revenue from

consultancies

Other revenue (if large include source;

include international funding for both

education and research

projects/programs with from

international partners)

National 48,461,533,439

(22,349,989.97) 38,710,599,601 (17,852,972.19) 9,750,933,838 (4,497,040.93)

2,900,172,426 (1,337,532.83)

University internally generated income

International 24,915,673,317

(11,490,879.18)

24,915,673,317(11,490,879.18)

Funding of research projects/programs

FY 2014/15 Total budget

Government subvention

Tuition and other student fees

Revenue from

consultancies

National 42,518,894,910

(19,553,589.39)

32,612,072,752

(15,040,387.75)

8,027,002,158

(3,701,979.504)

1,879,820,000 (866,955.6796)

University internally generated income

International 23,318,940,780

(10,754,486.83)

23,318,940,780(10,754,486.83)

Funding of research projects/programs

4

Section 2: SWOT Analysis of the Institution/Proposed ACE

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities i. We formed SACIDS in 2008 as a regional Virtual Center for infectious diseases of humans and animals,

linking academic and research institutions in the DRC, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia

and in collaborative agreements with four UK institutions (LSHTM, RVC,TPI and LIDC)1, with SUA as the

Lead Institution. It has proved to be an effective platform for scientists addressing infectious diseases issues

in both East and Southern Africa. ACE-II provides an opportunity to advance from proof of concept to a

medium-term program.

ii. Thanks to financial support from Wellcome Trust, Gates Foundation and USAID, the Department of

Microbiology at SUA has a well-equipped modern molecular biology platform with DNA sequencing

capacity, due to be enhanced with a Next Generation Sequencer, a newly set up conventional virology

laboratory with cell culture capability, a biosafety level-3 unit and a video-conference facility. This will

provide the core of the training and research program of our Center.

iii. SUA exercises its leadership of this Center in close partnership with Muhimbili University of Health and

Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and the Tanzania National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR). The facilities

of the three institutions will be utilized seamlessly by the Center students and fellows.

iv. Under SACIDS, we set up the first One Health based MSc programs in Africa, at SUA specializing in

Molecular Biology (OHMB) and the second one in Analytical Epidemiology at the University of Zambia.

The benchmark curricula for these programs was developed in collaboration with the LSHTM and RVC.

Furthermore, we initiated training at MPhil/Res-MSc. These programs, which already attract students from a

number of African countries in the region, will be the core of our Center’s MSc training. They will also

provide a pool of qualified candidates for our PhD program.

v. We introduced the Postdoctoral program at MUHAS and SUA in 2010. ACE-II provides an opportunity to

embed this valuable cadre for research excellence and academic duties plus funding opportunity into the

mainstream of our universities.

vi. We already have a SACIDS Strategic Plan to 2020 for improving Africa’s capacity to DETECT, IDENTIFY

and MONITOR infectious diseases with a view to their risk management. This plan embraces core values

that are relevant to our ACE-II application and which are: (a) Virtual Center jointly owned by medical and

veterinary academic and research institutions, sharing resources and expertise; (b) One Health collaboration

across human and animal health sectors; (c) Research Excellence through theme-based Programs; (d)

Community of Practice2 (CoP) approach to enhance within theme interaction and learning, the quality of

supervision, mentorship and research collaboration across institutions, sectors, borders, projects and themes;

(e) African-led Smart Partnership with centers of research and training excellence in industrialized countries;

(f) Pro-active engagement with Communities, National and Regional Policy.

vii. SACIDS provides links to the South African Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases of the National

Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), giving access to the large Biosafety Level 4 laboratory and

i. Our research operations have depended largely

on extra-budgetary, grant funding. This could

create some instability and sustainability

uncertainty. ACE-II offers an opportunity for

our scientists to develop an entrepreneurial

culture for performance related research

funding as the driver for high quality research,

as happens in universities that are already

driven by research excellence.

ii. The traditional “silo” mentality in academia

and research means that there tend to be few

trans-disciplinary programs between

individual specializations, departments,

faculties, academic and research institutions.

There are also weak linkages between research

and industry and between research and policy.

Our One Health approach enhances

collaboration across traditional silos. Our

partnership with national research institutions

enhances our interaction with policy and our

linkage with government ministries

(Health/Livestock/Local Government

Authority), facilitates uptake of research

outputs for planning and policy formulation.

iii. Generally, MSc courses are not offered in

modular format. This tends to result in the

teaching responsibilities being spread

throughout the year, and thereby limiting time

for research supervision. We are taking steps

to modularize the OHMB MSc with

expectation to extend to others and to

introduce block teaching. During Year 1 of the

ACE project, we will be reviewing our MSc

program and structure with the support of

1 LSHTM = London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; RVC = Royal Veterinary College; TPI = The Pirbright Institute; LIDC = London International Development Centre

2 The concept of Community of Practice was originally advocated by Wenger and it refers to: “a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better

as they interact regularly”. – see Wenger E, McDermott R, and Synder W (2002) Cultivating Communities of Practice: a guide to managing knowledge. Harvard Business School Press, Boston

5

expertise for safe handling of dangerous pathogens. ACE-II will help us consolidate this relationship and

develop our capacity for emerging and vector-borne diseases to include collaboration with the Uganda Virus

Research Institute and the Institute Biomedical Research, Kinshasa, DRC.

viii. Thanks to its membership of CORDS3 and funding from Rockefeller Foundation and Skoll Global Threat,

SACIDS operates programs across the southern and East African regions and has developed collaborations

with institutions/organizations in Southeast Asia, Southeast Europe and the Middle East as well as with

WHO, FAO and OIE. A recent grant from the African Development Bank will further strengthen our

Center’s South-South capacity development partnership with South Africa and Brazil.

RVC and LSHTM

Threats i. Externally funded and directed programs could stifle the concept of African-led programs for excellence

before they mature. The ACE-II offers an opportunity for sustained funding that will enable our Center

to be competitive in terms of local influence, of government funding and of external resource

mobilization. It also offers a stable platform for regional and international collaboration for developing

African young scientists that can undertake fit-for-purpose, hypothesis driven research within Africa.

ii. The rapid increase in the number of public and private universities in Tanzania could threaten the quality

of training and research. SUA and MUHAS are the prime and leading medical and veterinary

universities in Tanzania. NIMR is the prime and multi-center national health research institution in the

country. With support from ACE-II, our Virtual Center and Community of Practice concepts and

approaches offer a platform to these institutions to accelerate the development of a critical mass of

highly trained African young scientists, which will enhance the reputation and competitiveness of SUA

and MUHAS as training and research centers of excellence and provide a cushion against any staff

movement to new universities

iii. Africa has endemic settings of infectious diseases. This is becoming complicated by the emergence of

unknown and highly pathogenic infectious diseases, many of a zoonotic nature with poorly understood

ecology. The detection and specific diagnosis of these diseases is relatively poor and there is a lack of

specific vaccines, medicines and defined control strategies. Our Center being a partnership between the

medical and veterinary institutions is well placed to address this threat, which is to human and animal

health. Our collaboration with external centers that have established reputation in addressing these

diseases also places us favorably for a focused research on the development of improved systems for

detection, surveillance, diagnostics and control options, including candidate vaccines.

i. Competition from world class institutions

with established systems and funds for high

quality teaching and discovery type research

contributes to brain drain from Africa. Our

Center being already reasonably well

equipped and our smart partnership with

centers of research and training excellence in

South Africa and UK will create a favorable

environment, on the one hand, to encourage

academic staff to undertake hypothesis

driven research that feeds into the quality of

teaching and, on the other, to attract

Tanzanians in the diaspora to value high

quality research and training in endemic

settings of Africa.

ii. For the 2015 university rankings, no

Tanzanian university has been ranked among

the top 30 in Africa and SUA - MUHAS are

between 70 and 80. Our proposed Center will

contribute to enhancing the quality of

training and research, thereby increasing the

credibility and reputation of these

Universities, as will be reflected in improved

ranking.

3 CORDS = Coordinating Organisations for Regional Disease Surveillance

6

Section 3: Development Challenge and Objectives of the Proposed ACE

1. Briefly state the development challenge that the proposal is designed to address in your

institution.

According to studies by the World Bank, WHO, FAO, OIE and others, infectious diseases account for ~40-

50% of morbidity and mortality in humans, while for animals they constitute a major constraint to livestock

dependent livelihoods and the single most important barrier to export of African livestock commodities to

the lucrative markets of the OECD and G20 countries. Our focus on infectious diseases is driven by the

realization that Africa probably has the highest burden of infectious diseases in the world and yet the least

capacity for its risk management4. The 2006 Foresight Report on future risks of infectious diseases

5,

emphasized that Africa needed innovative, Africa-led approaches to enable it to make the necessary quantum

leap to accelerate the development of its scientific capacity for infectious diseases. One such innovative

approach was the concept of a Virtual Center that links several institutions into a single entity to accelerate

the training and generation of the necessary critical mass of expertise.

We recognize that the risk from infectious disease arises from (i) new pathogens or new strains of existing

pathogens through genetic change; (ii) new human diseases from animal reservoirs (~75% of emerging

diseases of humans have an animal origin); (iii) drug-resistant organisms; (iv) increasing international

movement of people and commodities, including animal commodities, thanks to globalization; (v) climate

change; and (vi) human economic activities (e.g. settlements that encroach on forest ecosystems) and

cultural/social behavior. Yet, for Africa, there are additional risks associated with endemicity of high risk

pathogens that are either peculiar to Africa or have been largely eliminated elsewhere; including the so-called

Neglected Tropical Diseases, and with Africa’s inadequate capacity for risk management of epidemics. The

recent Ebola Virus Disease epidemic in West Africa has illustrated both the risk and the inadequacy of

response in Africa. It should be noted also that epidemics of Ebola since 1976 have been characterized by a

period of “undiagnosed/unrecognized” disease for 2 to 4 months.

The risk management of epidemics relies on four basic tenets: (a) scientific expertise based on in situ

research, diagnostic, epidemiological and socio-economic analytical competences; (b) availability of a

critical mass of clinical, public health and animal health expertise; (c) availability of a critical mass of a

diverse expertise and competences in a variety of operational disciplines including administrative and logistic

expertise; and (d) an enabling health system infrastructure and governance. We believe that African

universities are well suited to contribute to the first two of these tenets.

These considerations are what propelled medical and veterinary academic and research institutions in the

SADC region to set up SACIDS in 2008 at SUA. The SACIDS Vision and Mission are for enhancing

Africa’s capacity for the science evidence based risk management of infectious diseases through the One

Health approach. The SACIDS ‘One Health’ capacity development focus is to address infectious diseases in

the endemic settings of sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular attention to southern, central and east Africa

through a collaborative effort between natural and social sciences to advance the understanding of

interactions between humans, animals and the environment to improve public and animal health.

2. Describe how this proposal if funded would contribute to addressing the development

challenge

Since its formation, SACIDS has enhanced collaboration between medical and veterinary member

institutions. We have established a track record for innovative approaches to developing Africa’s research

capacity for epidemic infectious diseases of humans and animals. Our mission is driven primarily by our

4 Bhutta et al. (2014). Global burden, distribución, and interventions for infectious diseases of poverty. Infectious Diseases of Poverty 2014, 3:21

http://www.idpjournal.com/content/3/1/2

5 Rweyemamu, M., Otim-Nape, W., Serwadda, D. (2006). Infectious Diseases: Preparing for the Future – Africa.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/294810/06-1768-infectious-diseases-africa.pdf

http://www.idpjournal.com/content/3/1/2

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/294810/06-1768-infectious-diseases-africa.pdf

7

strategic objective for an African-led development of world-class researchers and research leaders in

Africa. Table 1, below, summarizes the number and source of students and fellows from East and southern

Africa, trained under the SACIDS programs at participating universities between 2009 and 2015.

Table 1: Number and source countries of students and fellow trained under SACIDS programs Category of Training Tanzania Zam

bia

Mozamb

ique

DRC South

Africa

Other

SADC and

EAC

Other

African

Countries

Total

Postdocs 4 – 5 yrs 3 2 1 1 8

Postdocs 1- 3 yrs 7 3 1 1 11

PhD 4 2 2 2 1 11

MPhil/Res-MSc 7 3 2 12

MSc – OHMB 20 4 7 4 1 36

MSc – OHAE 4 18 2 1 1 26

Short-courses, in

Tanzania, Zambia,

South Africa, UK

153 32 13 23 1 16 1 239

TOTAL 198 64 17 38 1 22 3 343

NB: Other SADC and EAC Countries involved were: Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya,

Our students and fellows have 102 peer-reviewed papers published/in press so far (June 2015), with an

average impact factor of 2.32 and one of our Postdocs has been awarded a Wellcome Trust Intermediate

Fellowship in Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Accordingly, they are beginning to make significant

scientific strides as summarized in Table 2. This places us favorably to target higher quality Outcomes in

training and student research excellence (Section 5) under the ACE-II initiative.

Table 2: Research Outputs by and Future plans for our students and fellows Key students achievements during

our formative phase 2009 - 2015

Additional targets for

ACE-II

Target Outcomes/Impact from the Center

student/fellow research

Discovery of a novel topotype of

Mycobacterium bovis in Serengeti

ecosystem

Molecular ecology of

mycobacteria in southern

and East Africa

Develop diagnostics for differentiating tuberculosis

agents

Identify the role of Mycobacteria from animals and

environment in tuberculosis disease in humans

Discovery of an increasing

prevalence of antimicrobial resistance

in southern and East Africa

Genomics surveillance of

resistome flow across the

human, animal and

environment compartments

This work will make us part of the international scientific

community that is defining the nature of the problem and

collaborating in discovery of new antimicrobial use

policies and/or new antibiotics.

Discovery of novel Foot-and-Mouth

Disease (FMD) virus genotypes

/topotypes

Further genomics driven

research to understand the

generation and emergence

of new virus variants

within African endemic

settings

Early diagnosis and identification of pathogens and

their variants, leading to timely and specific response

and disease control interventions

Develop diagnostics for viral

Selection of effective vaccines and trials

Discovery of Two lineages of Peste

des Petits Ruminants (PPR)Virus and

of African swine fever co-circulating

nationally

Molecular epidemiological

patterns of pathogens in a

socio-economic

environment

Enhanced identification of infection spread patterns that

are necessary for timely and cost-effective disease control

strategies

NICD experience of providing

diagnostic services to Sierra Leone

Ebola by the South National Institute

for Communicable Disease (NICD)

Mobile Laboratory Unit and training

Sierra Leone technicians.

Focus on genomics driven

diagnostics for resource

compromised African

settings

Our collaboration with the NICD, UNZA and LSHTM will

have a focus on developing diagnostics

Risk modeling Rift Valley fever and

of FMD outbreaks in Tanzania and

Zambia

Linking risk modeling

with ecological and socio-

economic modeling to

study drivers of infectious

disease spread and control

options

Define targeted and cost-effective disease control

strategies, especially of those diseases that affect poor

communities.

Vaccine trials in people and livestock in partnership with

others e.g. Jenner Institute, GALVmed, El Paso

University, Texas, USA.

8

EpiHack convening (the first in

Africa) of human and animal health

experts plus mobile technology

software developers from southern

and East Africa as well as from USA,

South America, South-East Asia to

develop disease detection systems

Developing and

widespread application of

mobile and digital

technologies to enhance

early detection and disease

surveillance

Improve early detection of disease events at the

community level, especially in remote and cross-border

areas, in collaboration with EAIDSNet and ECSA. A

unique ICT programming capability for disease

surveillance and other health delivery programs

established by SUA-NIMR within the Regional Hospital in

Morogoro.

Employing EcoHealth integrative

research approaches with a strong

socio-anthropology component

Health interventions that

are sensitive to community

socio-economic welfare

The approach targets, particularly, poor rural communities,

such as pastoral communities in remote areas.

This collaboration has also strengthened institutional capacity in both Tanzania and Zambia in training and

research. Accordingly, Tanzanian institutions that form this Center have relative strength in molecular

biology training and research in viral diseases of food security, vector-borne viral diseases and Mycobacterial

diseases, EcoHealth integrative approaches and application of digital solutions to disease surveillance and

data collection. The University of Zambia has developed relative strength in epidemiology training and

research on filovirus and Arenavirus emerging diseases and rare bacterial diseases. Together, institutions in

the two countries have strength in anti-microbial resistance research. We will build on this established

collaboration to work synergistically with the UNZA based ACE to address these areas and new areas like

Neglected Tropical infectious Diseases covering a wide region of southern, East and Central Africa and

progressively enhance our capability to address national and regional developmental challenges effectively.

3. Describe the role of partner institutions in successfully addressing the development challenge,

jointly with and under the guidance of your own institution.

The three institutions (SUA, MUHAS and NIMR) that constitute our Center already collaborate closely in

research and training under the SACIDS umbrella. They command national scientific respect for the training

and research on infectious diseases of humans and animals and are supported by sector Ministries. This

facilitates ready access to the tertiary hospitals at Muhimbili National Hospital (Dar es Salaam) and Bugando

Medical Center (Mwanza), Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital (Mbeya) and to the Tanzania Veterinary

Laboratory Agency (TVLA) network of diagnostic laboratories and other sources of human and animal

samples. Key national partner institutions for student placement and co-supervision are the Catholic

University of Health and Allied Sciences (CUHAS), the Tanzania Veterinary Laboratory Agency (TVLA),

the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) and Ifakara Health Institute (IHI). At the regional level,

the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) of South Africa, especially its Emerging and

Zoonoses Center, headed by Professor Janusz Paweska, will be a key partner in view of its unique high

containment facilities and expertise for emerging and vector-borne viral diseases. This will underpin our

coordinated research and training in these diseases with the participation of the Biomedical Research

Institute with the University of Kinshasa (Professors Jean-Jacques Muyembe, Justin Masumu and Jean-Marie

Kayembe), UNZA (Professor Aaron Mweene), the Uganda Virus Research Institute (Dr Julius Lutwama) and

the Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique (Professor Dacia Correia and Dr José Fafetine), the Kenya

Medical Research Institute (Dr RoseMary Sang). Others South African partners who co-supervise Center

students are Stellenbosch University Medical School, the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of

Pretoria and the ARC-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute. SACIDS has collaborative projects with the East

African Community, through the East African Integrated Disease Surveillance Network (EAIDSNet).

Thanks to already established collaboration with the LSHTM, RVC, TPI and LIDC in UK, our Center will

count on high quality benchmarking for training in infectious disease and for co-supervision of Center

students. SACIDS membership of CORDS facilitated its participation in global dialogues on emerging

diseases, including policy level interaction at national, regional and international levels.

9

4. Describe existing similar centers of excellence in your country or in neighboring countries with

the same objective (if any)

Collaborating institutions in South Africa, such as the Stellenbosch University, Medical School, which hosts

two Centers of Excellence funded by the South African Medical Research Council and the National Research

Fund, or the University of Pretoria Faculty of Veterinary Science which hosts the OIE Collaborating Center

or the NICD, which is the WHO Collaborating Center for Viral Hemorrhagic fevers or the Onderstepoort

Veterinary Institute, which host OIE Collaborating Centers for transboundary animal diseases, provide

bench marking for ACE research and training excellence. SUA, MUHAS and NIMR are members of several

Public Health related networks in the region, although these are not designated Centers of Excellence. The

relevant programs/networks are: EAIDSNet; AfriqueOne (a Wellcome Trust funded one health research

capacity development project with a focus on zoonotic diseases; One Health in Central and Eastern Africa

(OHCEA), which is a USAID funded regional network of 14 Schools/Faculties of public health and

veterinary medicine.

5. Describe how your Center’s proposal fits into (i) your Institution’s overall

Strategic Plan, (ii) your overarching/parent institution’s/line ministries Strategic Plan and (iii)

your country’s or regional organization’s Strategic Plan (attach Strategic Plans if and when

appropriate).

The SACIDS strategic objective for an African-led development of world-class researchers and research

leaders as well as its Strategic Plan 2020 is in line with the SUA Corporate Plan 2011-2020. Some of the

SACIDS initiatives contributed to the SUA senior management conclusion that SUA needed to focus

progressively more on basic and demand driven research. This thinking has now been enshrined into the

SUA Corporate Plan by which the university is committed to “Engage in basic research and strengthen

applied research to contribute to the generation of new knowledge and technologies”. In addition, this

initiative is in line with the SUA Research Policy, Focus Areas, Guidelines and Regulations (2010) as

described in its Research Focus Area No. 3.71. “The Epidemiology and Control of Endemic and

Emerging Diseases” (http://www.suanet.ac.tz/phocadownload/).

The SACIDS-ACE proposal reflects the current Tanzania Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy Paper

(PRSP) and the strategy for enhanced economic growth through the Big Results Now (BRN) initiative. The

current Tanzania Health Sector Strategic Plan IV (2015-2020) clearly highlights in Section 5.6 issues

pertaining to Emergency Preparedness and Response. The Strategic Direction states that: The Ministry of

Health, Community Development, Gender, Seniors and Children will put systems and structures in place to

be able to respond immediately to health related epidemics and crises, using modern means of

communication to ensure global health security. In addition, the Tanzania One Health Strategic Plan (2015-

2020) emphasizes the need for prevention and control of zoonoses. Among the goals include: (a) improve the

health, animal and environment through evidence-based research; (b) provide functional and quality

integrated human and animal health systems, at all levels, to reduce the burden of zoonotic diseases, and (c)

strengthen institutional frameworks to support One Health implementation

In line with our Theory of Change for Community Level One Health Security, our program of activities will

work with local and national level government officials to help transform the broad agendas into actionable

initiatives. Our work will contribute to enhancing national disease surveillance, reporting, transparency and

accountability to all users of health data, including those affected by epidemics at the community level.

The SACIDS-ACE initiative complies with the East Africa Community Treaty (EAC) article 112 on

management of the environment, Article 105 agriculture and food security, Article 108 plant and animal

disease control; the East African Community protocol on peace and security Article 9 - Disaster Risk

Reduction, Management and Crisis Response; the Protocol on EAC Regional Cooperation in Health and

Decision Instrument for assessment and notification of events; the 4th

EAC Development Strategy 2011-

2016, East African Community Regional Cooperation on Health and East African Disaster Risk Reduction

and Management Strategy 2012-2016. The SACIDS-ACE is also aligned to the Africa Health Strategy 2007-

10

2015 of the African Union, specifically Sections 4.16 and the African Union Science and Technology

Framework for the Detection, Identification and Monitoring Of Infectious Diseases of Humans, Animals and

Plants in Africa.

11

Section 4: Expected Results of the Proposed ACE

Objective Indicator Baseline

(2014)

Baseline

(2015)

Annual

Targets

(2016)

Annual

Targets

(2017)

Annual

Targets

(2018)

Annual

Targets

(2019)

1. Strengthen Education Capacity

excellence – quality and productivity

Number of new students in ACE courses (30% must be regional

students*):

New PhD students (% female)

(% regional)

New Master students (% female)

(% regional)

New short term courses (min. 40 hours) (% female) (% regional)

5 (20%)

(80%)

31 (29%)

(33%)

37 (27%)

(54%)

2 (100%)

(50%)

11 (36%)

(57%)

0

10 (40%)

(30% )

8 (40%)

(30%)

20 (40%)

(30%)

5 (40%)

(40%)

13 (40%)

(30%)

50 (40%)

(30%)

0

14 (40%)

(30% )

40 (40%)

(30% )

0

13 (40%)

(30%)

20 (40%)

(30%)

2. Strengthen Education Capacity &

Development Impact

No. of academic staff with at least 1 month internship in a private

sector company or a local institution relevant to their field/ sector (%

female)

0 0 (40%) 5 (40%) 5 (40%) 5 (40%)

No. of Students with at least 1 month internship in a private sector

company or a local institution relevant to their field/ sector (%

female)

12

(40%)

12

(40%)

8 (40%)

No. of internationally accredited education programs including sub-

regional accreditation

0 0 0 2 3 3

No. of students employed by industry

No. of students who create/ start businesses

No. of students employed by universities as faculty members

0

0

2

0

0

2

3

3

0

3

3

1

4

4

1

4

4

1

3.Strengthen Research Capacity

excellence – quality and productivity

Number of internationally peer reviewed research publications in

disciplines supported by the ACE Program

No. of new research collaboration in region

No. of students employed by research organizations

No. of patents, invention disclosures, trademarks and copyrights

34

11

0

0

19

11

0

0

10

3

0

0

15

2

5

1

20

1

5

1

20

1

5

1

4.Strengthen education and research

capacity (through increased financial

sustainability) and demonstration of

value to students and partners

Amount of externally generated revenue by the ACEs USD

1,531,415

USD

3,444,221

USD

2,000,000

USD

2,000,000

USD

2,000,000

USD

2,000,000

*This refers to students from outside the ACE hosting country

12

Section 5: ACE Action Plans

5.1 ACE Action Plan to achieve Learning Excellence

Describe briefly to which Objectives and Results each action plan will contribute:

Our training strategy, which will relate to Objectives 1 and 3, will focus on developing a dynamic

community of African researchers in the application of molecular biology and analytical epidemiology to

the understanding and management of infectious diseases, through a tiered postgraduate training program.

Describe in detail what this action plan entails:

The Center will provide challenging programs and innovative learning experiences through interdisciplinary

teaching and research, and a dynamic community of multicultural learning. Our philosophy will resonate

around problem-based learning that develops knowledge, abilities and skills through participation,

collaborative investigation and the resolution of authentic problems. Our strategy for improving content or

curriculum delivery will emphasize course modularization to allow for block teaching and e-learning, which

will comprise: electronic archiving of teaching materials and application of ICT-in-learning, building on the

already dedicated video-conference and server facilities and ICT programming expertise at SACIDS and

within the Department of Microbiology at SUA. The development of this strategy will be part of the e-

Learning Platform managed by the SUA Centre for Information and Communication Technology

developed/ adapted by Professor Lazaro Busagala, Associate Professor of Information Systems Engineering

at SUA. Course work will require self-driven learning and thought aiming at developing critical thinking

skills and retain knowledge that leads to self-actualization. The following course delivery modes will be

employed; fully face to face, web enhanced, flipped, blended/hybrid and fully online (e-books, e-resources,

e-journals). Laboratory training will provide knowledge of both the strengths and limitations of each method

to empower them to interpret experimental data. Accordingly, the learning tools will be: i. Lectures; ii.

Research seminars; iii. Tool talks; iv. Laboratory practical sessions; v. Proposal and grant writing sessions;

vi. Bioinformatics sessions; vii. Tutorials; viii. iBioseminars; ix. Career development seminars; x. MSc/PhD

Student presentations (proposals research work and dissertation).

In conducting training, we will build on our collaboration with ILRI-BecA in Kenya plus LSHTM and RVC,

in the UK, to upgrade our Molecular Biology postgraduate courses. Thanks to improved bandwidth in

Tanzania, we will exploit the technologies of web casting and live streaming to use these conferencing tools

to link the Center with international partners. Existing pilots have demonstrated that it is possible to run an

effective seminar or lecture between multiple locations. Our ACE project will build on this experience by

developing and trialing new technical and pedagogical models of delivering postgraduate teaching at a

distance, through close collaboration with the RVC Electronic media unit.

Training will be in seven strands, i.e. (i) Taught Master’s Program involving 1 year course work plus 1 year

guided research; (ii) MPhil/Res-MSc based on 2 years research; (iii) PhD development; (iv) Postdoctoral

development; (v) Skills enhancement short courses (CPD) for students and practicing professionals; (vi)

One Health driven 2 week summer school; and (vii) A novel program for research leadership and

management.

i. Enhanced MSc training

Between 2010 and 2012, we established two regional One Health-based MSc programs at SUA on

Molecular Biology (OHMB) and at the University of Zambia (UNZA) on Analytical Epidemiology (OHAE)

to develop basic competences for infectious diseases of humans and animals. These were the first One

Health-based MSc courses in Africa. The course work is in 3 parts (i) a common set of modules on basic

courses such as research methodology and those that address one health and drivers of infectious diseases,

(ii) specialization modules in either molecular biology at SUA or analytical epidemiology at UNZA, (iii)

elective courses. Much of the guided research, during the second year, is undertaken in students' home

countries. During Year 1, we will review the curricula of the OHMB MSc and that of the MSc in Applied

Microbiology and Biotechnology at SUA, with the objective of regional accreditation. This will be in terms

of scientific and technical content, of enabling skills, including, writing proposals and entrepreneurship for

13

self employment and of course delivery teaching, including the role of ICT. The review team will include

regional and international academic partners plus a representative of industry. We will train 30 students in

the upgraded OHMB MSc.

The training program of the Center will be complemented by related MSc programs (i) four at SUA in

Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, in Applied Microbiology, in Veterinary Epidemiology, and in

Veterinary Public Health, and (ii) two at MUHAS (Public Health, Field Epidemiology and Laboratory

Training). We will tactically place 10 MSc students at MUHAS/SUA in some of these complementary

programs as part of the Center activities.

ii. Research Training through MPhil/MSc Research

Both MUHAS and SUA will offer 2-year MPhil/Res-MSc programs as Center activity. We will expand the

role of MPhil/Res-MSc in coordinated student research to address the regional and global contemporary

priorities for infectious disease as well as to address the shortcomings in generating informed evidence

through social sciences approaches to determining vulnerability and impact on regional global development

challenges (Section3). We will place a total of 8 MPhil/Res-MSc with supervisors from the Center

partnership in the region, who are research active in the Center’s relevant programs. So, while the taught

MSc courses will focus developing regional competence in molecular biology and in the allied disciplines of

epidemiology, the MPhil/Res-MSc will be the primary instrument for developing research skills. Training in

scientific paper writing, based on student own data will be offered in collaboration with CDC-Tanzania,

through the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, seniors and Children training programs.

iii. PhD Development:

We will produce researchers with the capacity to conduct ethically-sound, high-quality research to impact

health, policy and practice in Africa. This 4-year PhD program will build on our Communities of Practice

for team supervision and collegial enhancement of learning and supervisory expertise (Figure 1).

PhD students

Support group: African

and UK supervisors,

SRFs and Postdocs

Rigorous selection of MSc holders

Training programmes for

soft and hard skills

Community of practice and

cross institutional

links

Mentorship/Supervision

Research

Enabling skills

Selection

Figure 1: Strategy for developing PhD capacity

iv. Postdoctoral development:

We introduced this to SUA, MUHAS, UNZA, Eduardo Mondlane University (EMU/UEM) and University

of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) between 2009 and 2013 and trained 15 Postdocs, who will form the core of our

research program and leadership The Center will engage 3 Postdoctoral Positions of 24 months each. One

will assist in developing the research on anti-microbial resistance and bioinformatics for complex and large

data generated by DNA sequencing. The second one (with a possibility of renewal after the review at 24

months) will act as a Research and Training Fellow to assist with quality control, biosafety and quality

management activities of the Center, in addition to developing own research package on virus-cell

14

interaction. He/she will be part of the Center Leader research team. In addition, we will endeavor to increase

our cohorts of Postdocs by encouraging our brightest PhD graduates to apply for individual awards and

including Postdoctoral fellowships in the Center applications for leverage funding.

v. Skills enhancement short courses (CPD) for students and practicing professionals

We will conduct 2 week courses in enabling soft and hard skills for in-service professionals aimed at

expanding national diagnostic capability e.g. biosafety, PCR in diagnostic laboratories, disease recognition,

surveillance and control, research ethics, teaching and research methodology, advanced bioinformatics,

laboratory management and equipment operation, scientific research paper writing, policy briefs

development, biosafety and statistics.

We will target 40 trainees over five years.

vi. One Health driven short course in the form of a Summer School:

By tapping into the expertise of the international faculty from partner and collaborating institutions and wide

application of ICT in learning, our Center will offer One Health interdisciplinary one health training courses

to students and professionals in the humans, animal and environmental sectors. They will cover diverse

subjects, such as biosafety, ecology of infectious disease, conflict resolution, communication, medical

anthropology and social science for one health. We will target 30 trainees over five years.

vii. Developing Research Leadership and Management Skills

During 2015, we carried out 3 workshops on innovation in research leadership and management, targeting

our current Postdocs, supervisors, CoP Leaders and Heads of Department. We did this, tapping into the

expertise and reputation of Ranmore Consulting (Dr Tom Kennie, the Director) and Policy

Institute@King’s, part of King’s College London (Professor Jonathan Grant, the Director), assisted by the

SUA Development Studies Institute (Dr Kenneth Bengesi). Our Center will build on this experience to

develop a specially structured training package in research leadership and management targeting different

levels from PhD students for whom the emphasis will be on transferable skills to Postdocs and PhD

supervisors to CoP theme program leaders and Departmental Heads and ultimately to more senior

academicians and research scientists in appropriate combinations. This strategy will be based on the people

centered model developed by Manville et al, 2015 Characteristics of high performing research Units.

Report to the Higher Education Funding Council of England by RAND (Europe) and The Policy Institute at

King’s6. It will be offered in 5 capability clusters, i.e. covering (i) Technical Research Skills; (ii) Research

Management; (iii) Research Leadership; (iv) External/Globally Engaged Leadership; and (v) Other.

The course content will be designed to cover the needs of 4 levels of trainees: (a) PhD and MPhil/Res-MSc

Students; (b) Postdoctoral Fellows and Junior Faculty; (c) Principal Investigator/ Research Supervisor; (d)

Head of Department/ CoP Leader.

5.2 ACE Action Plan for Research Excellence (Maximum 2 pages for this section)

Describe briefly to which Objectives and Results each action plan will contribute:

Our strategy for research excellence (Objective 3) is to develop world-class students, addressing capacity

gaps and the convergent needs in science and technology that make linking medical and veterinary research

efficient and effective in the resource poor setting of southern and East Africa. We will develop researchers

with skills in new technologies to interrogate the natural history of disease at source and within endemic

African settings.


Our overall strategy is centered on adoption of themed research by which students and fellows in the same

theme together with their supervisors and mentors operate as a Community of Practice (CoP). Our Center

6 http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/publications/Characteristics-of-high-performing-research-units-FINAL.pdf

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/publications/Characteristics-of-high-performing-research-units-FINAL.pdf

15

will further reinforce this strategy. This ensures that each student will have a dedicated supervisory team of

specialists from MUHAS/SUA/NIMR plus regional and international partner institutions.

The supervision team will be involved throughout the student/fellow project cycle from the development of

the proposal, supervision of research, review of student progress, review of manuscripts and presentations

and thesis preparation. A student passport (log-book) system will be introduced to monitor meetings and

interactions between PhD students and supervisors. A process for training and mentoring of supervisors,

including workshops and teleconferencing will be part of the supervisory arrangement. We will introduce

PhD students and their primary supervisors to the concept of research planning through trans-disciplinary or

stakeholder involvement, building on our experience in ecoHealth research and training. The Center will use

a quarterly reporting system as a tool of monitoring progress. The Center Training and Research Support

Officer will be responsible for follow up and collating the student reports and dealing with problems on a

day-to-day basis.

i. Research Focus:

Our research platform for the Center students and fellows will be designed to address disease problems

that the Southern African Development and East African Communities (SADC and EAC) have identified as

priorities, and/or that pose profound threats to global health security. Our students will examine host-

pathogen interactions in southern and East African ecosystems providing unique scientific opportunities for

medical/veterinary collaboration and building One Health research skills in molecular biology and analytical

epidemiology. In so doing we will also pay particular attention to such development challenges as food

security, poverty, gender and the needs of marginalized communities,

Our student based research will be in three strands, each grouped into theme clusters operating as

Communities of Practice (CoP). The themes have been selected on the basis of proven experience of Center

faculty members. The coordination of the 3 clusters will be shared between SUA, MUHAS and NIMR as

follows:

1. Addressing Viral Disease Threat to Human Health, Food Security and Livelihoods – SUA

Coordination

CoP for Emerging and Vector-borne Diseases, focusing on viral hemorrhagic fevers (e.g.

Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley fever, Dengue, Chikungunya, Zika),

CoP for Viral diseases of animals that threaten human food security and livelihood, focusing

on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and African swine

fever (ASF)

Developing diagnostics, reagents and vaccines for above.

2. Addressing Neglected Tropical Infectious Diseases that cause chronic disease and disability, with

severe health, economic and social consequences that impact on the quality of life and livelihoods

in low income or marginalized communities, especially women, children and people with disability

– MUHAS Coordination

CoP Bacterial and Parasitic Zoonoses, with a focus on mycobacterial infections, food-borne

diseases and cycsticercosis

CoP on genomic surveillance of anti-microbial resistance across human, animal, fish, and

environment compartments

3. Addressing Community Level One Health Security, with a focus on rural, remote, cross-border and

marginalized communities – SUA-NIMR Coordination

CoP One Health disease surveillance enhanced by digital mobile technologies (for humans

and animals)

CoP Integrative Eco-Health approaches to studying animal and human disease prevalence

and control in marginalized communities (especially pastoral communities)

16

During the implementation of this Center, we will collaborate synergistically with the University of

Zambia based ACE. This collaboration will build on our common origin and will be on a wide range of

infectious disease issues to accelerate the regional capacity for infectious disease expertise through

collaborative postgraduate training and research.

5.3 ACE Action Plan for Quality Assurance (Maximum 2 pages for this section)

Describe briefly to which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute:

This Action, which relates to Objectives 1 and 3, will be implemented in two strands, namely: (a) internal

systems that operate in the university augmented by new initiatives to include the selection of students and

their research supervisors as well as for publication, (b) an independent scientific advisory system


Quality assurance for teaching will be guided primarily by the systems at SUA and MUHAS. The Quality

Assurance and Promotion Bureau (QAPB) of SUA through the University Teaching and Learning

Improvement Program (UTLIP) and the Directorate of Continuing Education and Professional Development

(DCEPD) at MUHAS offer a series of teaching methodology courses for academic staff to ensure teaching

excellence. These include teaching methodologies for handling large classes, student assessment,

presentation skills, electronic literature search, interactive teaching, problem-centered learning and student-

centered learning.

The QAPB also provides a framework for ensuring quality delivery of academic programs and other

services offered within the university. Building on the existing experiences at SUA and MUHAS, the Center

will develop tailor made programs as a strategy to create a pool of instructors with skills and knowledge to

cope with the current teaching and learning environment. The tailor made program will include but not

limited to how to develop e-learning materials, and how to use modern teaching facilities such as e-learning

equipment, internet, working stations with specialized software, and modern laboratory equipment.

For research training our overall strategy for quality assurance covers the full cycle from program

development, recruitment of students, fellows and supervisors, specific research proposals right through to

implementation. Center students and supervisors will be required, first and foremost, to meet the prevailing

requirements by SUA or MUHAS. Additionally, there will be Center specific requirements covering student

selection, supervisor selection, training of students in enabling skills, monitoring performance of students

and supervisors through a structured Student log for MPhil/Res-MSc and PhD students. During Year 1, we

will develop such a Student Log by adapting to our conditions a system that operates at the RVC as our core

benchmark but taking into consideration of practices from other sources such as South African universities

and Washington State University.

In accordance with Tanzania national requirements, all research proposals involving human subjects will be

subject to ethical review and approval by the Medical Research Coordinating Committee.

i. Selection and performance review of MSc, MPhil/Res-MSc and PhD students:

This will be undertaken jointly by theme experts from SUA and MUHAS plus the involvement of external

partners. Student selection will be through an open competition. The process for reviewing student research

proposals and progress reports will build on the current practices and strengths of SUA, MUHAS and NIMR

with the introduction of additional criteria and rigor based on those used by our external collaborators from

South Africa and UK.

The Center will establish a selection panel for each category of studentship. Applicants will need to have

met requirements of the registering university, formally verified by the university e.g. by a letter of

provisional admission. Only such candidates will be considered for further assessment by the Center

Selection Panel.

17

Each student will be assigned at least 2 supervisors: the primary supervisor from the registering university.

He/she should have expertise and a research program relevant to the Center program. There will be 1 to 3

co-supervisors, preferably external to the university, with expertise and ongoing activity in the relevant to

the proposed research. The primary supervisor would normally be required to have undergone training in

supervision of postgraduate students either through the Center course or an equivalent course by others that

will be acceptable to the Center. Furthermore, we will organize training in leadership and management

skills to Center supervisors. Student-supervisor formal meetings will be recorded in the student log. This

will be part of the quarterly and annual appraisal reviews. Student feed-back will form part of the appraisal

so that where appropriate remedial measures can be taken promptly by Center management and/or

registering university. Student appraisal feed backs will also feed into the improvement of the selection and

performance review process for the selection of prospective students and supervisors

ii. Selection and performance review of postdoctoral fellows:

These will be widely advertised in the region. Selection will be competitive based on research record,

leadership skills, publications in international peer-reviewed journals and aptitude for research innovation

and grant writing. Written targets will set out post-appointment expectations for presentations, publications,

public engagement and grant writing. Confirmation of appointments beyond two years will be subject to a

formal evaluation of progress. All research proposals and publications will be reviewed and approved by a

Center internal review panel with experts drawn from external collaborators.

iii. Publications and presentations:

All scientists will be strongly encouraged to give presentations of their findings for peer discussion at

international conferences and to publish them in journals with the highest possible impact factors, so as to

ensure that the material is rigorously reviewed. Publications will be in Open access journals as advocated by

many reputable publishing houses and major science funding agencies. Our target will be on average 2

papers for each MPhil/Res-MSc student, 4 papers for each PhD student and Postdoc. All student

publications will be reviewed by a Center Publication committee to ensure quality, relevance and avoidance

of submission to low quality predatory, so-called open access journals (Beall’s List).

iv. Training Performance

SUA and MUHAS have established performance and evaluation systems for academic staff. These are Open

Performance Review and Appraisal System (OPRAS) and Student Evaluation.

The Center will introduce additional performance indicators, which will include the use of ICT in teaching

such as lodging teaching materials in the institutional repository for the students to access, graduation of

students on time, acceptance of manuscript in high impact peer-reviewed journals, engagement of

communities during proposal development, engagement of communities during results dissemination,

delivery of high quality lectures through engagement with partners (national or international) during

teaching such as the use via video links, and development of abstracts to participate in international

scientific meetings. Staff will be facilitated to ensure that they meet these performance indicators.

v. Research and Training Performance Evaluation

This will be based on internal Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) as well as external independent scientific

advice. We will use an integrated but outcome oriented results framework, based on a logic model that

allows analysis of performance results related to cultural, institutional and policy transformations that will

result from the outputs from project activities. We will design an integrated monitoring and evaluation

(M&E) framework for periodic analysis of the results, including measures of success (targets, milestones,

and metrics) and measures to be taken in case parts of the program do not proceed to plan, in line with the

template by the World Bank.

vi. Independent Scientific Advice

We will be guided by an established International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB), comprised of

independent scientists derived internationally and selected on the basis of expertise in the training or

18

research relevant to the program of the Center. Its key functions are: (a) Strategic and independent scientific

advice to the Center Leadership and Management Board; (b) Scientific scrutiny and advice on the

postgraduate training and student research projects; (c) Advice on the quality of scientific and societal

impacts; (d) Guidance on future scientific initiatives and uptake of research findings; and (e) Advice on

funding opportunities and strategic collaborations. ISAB will meet twice a year and at least once each year it

will undertake a detailed review of one CoP. It will also be available for consultations electronically.

Current SACIDS ISAB Membership: (NB: to be reviewed during Year 1 of the Center to reflect the

expanded objectives and to include expertise for results uptake or contact with industry and regulatory

expertise. We will endeavor to form a jointly appointed ISAB with the UNZA based ACE).

Name Primary ISAB function/area of expertise

Prof Julie FitzPatrick, Scientific Director, Moredun Research

Institute

Chair, Programs & Individual Capacity

Development

Prof Onesmo ole-MoiYoi, Chair, Kenya Agricultural Research

Institute

Deputy-Chair, Institutional Development

Prof Njenga Kariuki, Kenya Medical Research Institute

(KEMRI)

Emerging and Vector-borne Diseases

Prof Wilna Vosloo, Research Team Leader, CSIRO Australian

Animal Health Laboratory

Viral Diseases of Food Security

Importance

Prof Luke Mumba, Director, Southern African Network for

Biosciences, NEPAD

Policy interactions and Regional context

Prof Martyn Jeggo, Director, Geelong Center for Emerging

Infectious Diseases

One Health/EcoHealth Institutional

Development and Biosafety

Prof Guy Palmer, Chair, Global Health, Washington State

University

Post-graduate Education and Training

excellence, Infectious Diseases,

Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns and

Policy

Prof Tony Musoke, Partner, LMK Medical Laboratory &

Consultancies LTD, Kampala

Research quality, vaccinology, molecular

immunology and translation of research

outputs into practical outcomes

Prof Felicity Burt, Head, Research Group, Department of

Medical Microbiol and Virology, University of the Free State

Emerging and vector-borne diseases,

Development of research excellence in

African settings

5.4 ACE Action Plan regarding Equity Dimensions (Maximum 2 pages for this section)

Describe briefly to which Results this Action Plan will contribute:

To ensure effective attainment of our target Results for equity, we will implement this Action through five

channels: (i) pro-active promotion of women into scientific academia and science; (ii) trans-disciplinary

approach for stakeholder participation at national and regional levels in research planning and at periodic

open meetings; (iii) procedures for recruiting students beyond national borders; (iv) utilization of the

Communication strategy put in place by SACIDS, SUA, NIMR and MUHAS for community, public and

policy engagement; (v) the Summer School and Forum, including inter-sectoral working groups and biennial

One Health Conferences.

Describe in some detail what this action plan entails, either comprehensively across sectors and

academic disciplines, or individually per sector and academic discipline, or by scientific topic selected:

a. Women in Academia and Research

Member States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), including Tanzania, have

committed themselves to ensuring a minimum 30% staff occupancy by female candidates. We have used

this target with varying degrees of success, during our current formative phase. Accordingly, women

constitute the following percentage at the various levels: (i) Secretariat = 45%; (ii) One Health Molecular

Biology MSc at SUA = 28%; (iii) One Health Analytical Epidemiology MSc at UNZA= 31%; (iv)

MPhil/Res-MSc = 30%; PhD students = 38%; We expect the ratios to improve under ACE-II, as we now

have a cohort of women young scientists that will be able to compete for new positions in addition to those

19

from the wider market of the region. The national and regional climate for attention to gender balance has

improved remarkably since 2008. This is reflected in the national and regional representation targets in

MSc, MPhil/Res-MSc, PhD and Secretariat categories of the Center, which has had a younger bracket than

the Postdoc category. We plan to vigorously pursue the minimum target, hoping that we can reach a 30 to

40% female occupancy level during the course of ACE-II at all levels.

In order to facilitate the process towards attaining the above targets, we will also provide a 5% preferential

stipend to women PhD and MPhil/Res-MSc students. We will ensure female representation in panels,

advisory and governing boards. In addition to the legal requirements in the countries of placement for our

students, we will maintain mother students on full stipend during maternity leave for 3 months and adjust

the studentship accordingly.

b. Trans-disciplinary Consultations, Planning and Involvement

We have developed a practice by which projects include a trans-disciplinary consultation in developing

work plans and periodic reporting. These include scientists, government officials at local and national levels

from project participating countries, target communities (such as pastoral communities in the livestock-

wildlife interface areas) and, as appropriate, international collaborators and non-governmental organizations

(NGOs). In some cases, such groups have gone on to form a regional Community of Practice (e.g. for

disease surveillance) to ensure regular engagement. We intend to encourage such broad involvement under

ACE-II. This approach will also allow the Center to collaborate with government and other stakeholders in

enhancing the effectiveness of their disease surveillance and diagnostic programs as well as in providing

expertise in the Center for technical surge in response to epidemic outbreaks.

c. Students and Fellows from Across Sectors and Across geographical Borders

Our CoP research focus will help us to promote interdisciplinary interactions between medics, vets and

biologists. To further reinforce these inter-connections, we will introduce novel One Health internships for

PhD students to study for up to a 3-month period in complementary medical (for vets) or veterinary (for

medics) environments. Such internship could include work in research or diagnostic laboratories as well as

placement with regulatory agencies such as the Tanzania Food and Drug Agency or in pharmaceutical

industry or in the policy sections of Ministries responsible for human or animal health.

Thanks to funding from Skoll Global Threat Fund, we are setting up a resource center for the development

of mobile telephony programs for disease surveillance which houses medical and veterinary epidemiologists

plus ICT Programmers within the facilities of NIMR at the Regional Hospital in Morogoro, in the

neighborhood of SUA. The ICT tools being developed will have the following objectives: (a) Community

level disease information and data collection; (b) Official Medical and Veterinary Disease Reporting and

Surveillance; (c) Forward and Backward Tracing; and (d) Feed-back system to community level. These

disease surveillance tools will further stimulate the inter-sectoral internship under ACE-II. We have initiated

a cross-border, digital and mobile technology enhanced disease surveillance in the Masai ecosystem across

Tanzania and Kenya. We hope to build on this during the ACE-II to extend such cross-border activities with

at least 6 of the 8 countries that share borders with Tanzania. In this we hope to collaborate with the ECSA-

HC7 networks of Public Health Laboratories that have been supported by the World Bank funded East

Africa Public Health Laboratory Networking project. We have an established regional, cross-border

collaboration by which we have had student research activities concurrently in different countries, e.g. Rift

Valley fever during inter-epidemic periods in Tanzania, DRC, Zambia and Mozambique or anti-microbial

resistance prevalence in these 4 SADC countries.

d. Communication Strategy

7 ECSA-Health Community: The East, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA-HC) is a regional inter-governmental health

organization that fosters and promotes regional cooperation in health among member states. Member states of the ECSA Health Community include Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. http://www.ecsahc.org/about-

us/

http://www.ecsahc.org/about-us/

http://www.ecsahc.org/about-us/

20

Our Communication Strategy targets: (i) developing internal capacity for students through effective

communication with the media and with the non-academic public; (ii) Community engagement; (iii)

Engagement with national and regional policy makers, (iv) Targeting informed opinion at national, regional

and international levels. This will be aided by specific training of students and fellows; use of mobile

technologies, community radio and social media for public engagement; publishing research results in

scientific journals, translation of key research findings into policy briefs and in student participation in

national exhibitions like the annual Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair (Saba-Saba) and the Agricultural

Show (Nane-Nane) under the umbrella of SUA, MUHAS, NIMR. Center students will be encouraged to use

of the Center website and social media platforms and preparing press and media releases for national and

international media. This program will be undertaken in collaboration with the Communications units of

Partner institutions that nowadays attach great importance to public engagement, as well as with the help of

specialist teams of the LIDC, SOAS-Radio and CORDS.

e. “Summer School” Channel

Our Summer Schools initiative, which started 2013, has been popular with students and fellows as well as

with health professionals from national research institutions, universities, NGOs and Ministries. So far there

have been 230 participants in short-courses, including summer schools, derived from Tanzania,

Mozambique, South Africa, Malawi, DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria. We

plan to build on this success. The video-conference facility at SUA has enabled us to tap into international

expertise. It will be a key asset for expanding our international faculty for the One Health Summer Schools.

5.5 ACE Action Plan for Attracting Academic Staff and Students from the Region (Max 2 pages)


Our Action will contribute to Objectives 1 and 3 in attracting 30% of regional students and attracting beyond

campus faculty. SUA, MUHAS and NIMR are leading institutions in Tanzania that are well respected in the

region. They also have agreements with other academic and research institutions working on infectious

diseases of humans and animals. There are established procedures for attracting non-Tanzanian students and

postdoctoral research fellows and, subject to extra-budgetary funding, visiting academics and senior

researchers. As a contribution to needs based regional capacity development for risk management of

emerging diseases, we will reserve 5 of the 30 places on the MSc OHMB program to students from recently

Ebola affected countries in West Africa and the DRC


Our Community of Practice (CoP) approach gives us a pool of beyond campus expertise for co-supervision

and mentorship of students and fellows. This is already improving the quality of our PhD student output as

the outlook for our students and fellows is no longer restricted to the resources and single supervisor

expertise at the registering university. The SUA Department of Microbiology and Parasitology has also a

number Visiting Professors. During Year 1, the Department of Microbiology at SUA will appoint a further

4 to 6 Visiting Professors from among Center Faculty from the region to enhance the quality of the Center

programs through the additional contribution of such an international faculty and to consolidate the

relevance of the Center to the region’s academic and research community.

5.6 ACE Action Plan for National and Regional Academic Partners (Maximum 2 pages)


The lead Department of Microbiology will enhance its established collaboration with the 4 other

Departments at SUA as well as with 2 Medical Universities in Tanzania and 5 universities in southern

Africa, which contribute to Section 4 Objectives 1 and 3. These universities participate in the co-supervision

and mentorship of research students and fellows. They are also part of the international faculty for

curriculum development and enhancement lecturing.


The core institutions for our proposed Center of Excellence will be Sokoine University of Agriculture

(SUA), Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and the Tanzania National Institute

21

for Medical Research (NIMR).We will strengthen our collaboration with the Center for Emerging and

Zoonotic Diseases of the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases. This core group will

collaborate with the wider national and regional academic institutions with the following roles:

National Academic Institutions

i. SUA will provide overall technical and financial leadership of the Center through the Center Leader

and Deputy Center Leader cum Principal Investigator (Executive Director) with a dedicated

Secretariat from the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology. It will coordinate the training

and virtual graduate school component and lead the research strand that will address viral disease

threat to human health, food security and livelihoods. It will be responsible for the curriculum

development and delivery of the Center training program for Research Leadership and Management.

It will also co-coordinate with NIMR the research strand that address community One Health

security with a focus on rural, remote, cross-border and marginalized communities. The

collaborating Departments at SUA will be Veterinary Medicine across the research and training

program; the Pest Management Center for plague and disease vectors; the Development Studies

Institute for sociology and development of the training and delivery of the Research Leadership and

Management and the Department of Agricultural Economics for socio-economics of disease and for

impact assessment. It will also build on its established molecular biology expertise in pathogen

genome analysis, video-conference and ICT server capacity to serve all strands of the Center

postgraduate training program.

ii. MUHAS will be responsible for ensuring the relevance and excellence of the Center postgraduate

training program to the primary needs of human health, including leadership for student research on

neglected tropical infectious diseases, focusing on bacterial and parasitic Zoonoses as well as on

anti-microbial resistance. The Lead Unit at MUHAS will be the Department of Microbiology and

Immunology, which will collaborate with the departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and that

of Community Health. It will link with the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences

(CUHAS), Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender,

Elderly and Children and the Prime Minister’s Office for the national preparedness and response to

epidemics of humans and animals. It will give access to public health training environments

including CPDs of One Health relevance to the Center students and fellows; relevant national

programs like National Tuberculosis, Leprosy Program and Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Other SACIDS linked Academic Institutions in the Region

iii. UNZA will also be hosting an ACE for infectious diseases. We plan the two Centers to collaborate in

student exchange especially with respect to the MSc courses,, namely OHMB at SUA and the One

Health MSc in analytical epidemiology (OHAE) at UNZA. We will also endeavor to develop

collaborative student research with the UNZA based ACE, including student and faculty exchange

and shared expertise for independent scientific advice. The UNZA-Hokkaido collaboration has also

established BSL-2 experimental animal accommodation, a valuable asset to the research component

of the Zambian students of our Center at SUA-MUHAS.

iv. Eduardo Mondlane University, Faculties of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, Maputo,

Mozambique. The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine hosts the university inter-faculty biotechnology

center, where Mozambican students and fellows from our Center at SUA-MUHAS will undertake

their research.

v. University of Kinshasa, School of Medicine in partnership with the affiliated Biomedical Research

Institute, Kinshasa, DRC, provide expertise in Ebola clinical research and training for infection

containment outbreak response. This partnership will host the Center’s Congolese students for their

research.

vi. Stellenbosch University, Medical School provides supervisory expertise to our research on the

bacterial Zoonoses theme, especially Mycobacteria for which Professor van Helden is the leading

African specialist of international repute. His department, which hosts two centers of excellence,

22

funded by the South African Medical Research Council and the National Research Fund, has a

cohort of over 60 Master’s and doctoral students and has contributed to student training. This will be

an invaluable benchmarking for our Center.

5.7 ACE Action Plan for National and Regional Sector Partners (Maximum 2 pages for this section)


National and regional research institutions in Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of

Congo (DRC), Kenya, Uganda and South Africa provide research placements and access to specialized

facilities for our students and fellows. National Ministries responsible for human and animal health

collaborate in providing the research and training context, including sampling. National and Regional

industry that provide orientation of students to industry and commercial concepts through industry lectures,

student placement and collaboration in research and product trials.


The institutions that most closely associated with our activities are: (i) National Institute for Medical

Research (NIMR) of Tanzania; (ii) Tanzania Veterinary Laboratory Agency (TVLA); (iii) Tanzania Wildlife

Research Institute (TAWIRI); (iv) The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) of the South

African National Health Laboratory Services; (v) The National Health Institute (NHI), Maputo,

Mozambique; (vi) The Biomedical Research Institute, Kinshasa, Congo; (vii) The ARC-Onderstepoort

Veterinary Institute (ARC-OVI), South Africa; (viii) Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI); (ix) the

Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI); and (x) the International Livestock Research Institute –

Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa (BecA) hub in Nairobi, Kenya.

NIMR is the prime national medical research network in Tanzania. It has MoU agreements with both SUA

and MUHAS. Its institutions provide a research platform for our students and fellows. These include BSL-3

and BSL-2 facilities, the biggest mosquito collection in East Africa and national coverage. It has a Mobile

Laboratory for processing pathogens up to Risk Group 4. NIMR is part of the national and regional health

policy organs. Its Chief Research Scientist (Dr Leonard Mboera) has a personal research involvement in

several of our activities, especially in disease surveillance systems, ecoHealth and mosquito-borne diseases

as well as provision of specialist lectures and co-supervision of PhD students SUA. NIMR will also take

part in training of students in research methodology, Bioethics, scientific writing. NIMR will co-coordinate,

with SUA, the research strand that will address Community Level One Health Security, with a focus on

rural, remote, cross-border and marginalized communities.

TVLA collaborates closely with the SUA Department of Microbiology in research on transboundary animal

diseases, which will provide a rich research training platform for students and fellows, including a relatively

higher throughput of samples than would be possible with SUA working alone.

TAWIRI is the prime research organization for wildlife research in Tanzania. This has provided us with a

unique platform for studying the ecology of pathogens across the wildlife-livestock-human interface.

The NICD is a unique hub of expertise and unparalleled well equipped bio-secure facility, including the

largest BSL-4 laboratory in Africa (–see attached registrations and annual certification), for handling even

the most dangerous pathogens known. During the Ebola epidemic in West Africa the NICD set up the only

African led mobile laboratory in Sierra Leone, which in 9 months processed over 7,000 Ebola virus disease

samples in Sierra Leone? Our PhD students and Postdocs in the emerging and vector-borne diseases have

spent variable periods of attachment to the NICD as a crucial component of their research work. During the

2014/15 academic year, we placed 4 students from the OHMB MSc program at the NICD for three months

at the beginning of their year of research. We will build on this experience to repeat placements of

SUA/MUHAS students at NICD for training in biosafety and diagnostic systems for viral hemorrhagic

fevers (e.g. Ebola and Marburg), vector-borne and other emerging diseases. We hope to intensify this

relationship with the NICD under the ACE-II program.

23

The DRC Biomedical Research Institute has expertise in the epidemiology and infection containment for

Ebola and Marburg. Its Director, Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe, is a Professor in the School of Medicine at the

University of Kinshasa. He has the unique experience of having been associated with ALL Ebola Virus

epidemics in Africa from its discovery in 1976 up to now, including the 2014/15 epidemic in West Africa.

The Mozambican National Health Institute (NHI) collaborates closely with the Faculty of Veterinary

medicine and provides a research platform for research, especially on vector-borne diseases.

The Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI – Dr Julius Lutwama) has established expertise for viral

hemorrhagic fever and viral disease surveillance that will be valuable to our Center. We already collaborate

in developing disease surveillance systems and in training of medical and veterinary professionals from East

Africa and West Africa for integrated preparedness planning against emerging epidemic diseases.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI – Dr RoseMary Sang) for student placement to work on

the entomology and virology of vector-borne diseases. In the wake of the Zika epidemic in South America,

we are initiating a program of research student exchange by placing 2 of our current students at KEMRI, Dr

Sang’s laboratory, to screen mosquito extracts collected in Tanzania and Kenya for Zika, Dengue,

Chikungunya and RVF using cell culture and PCR. Our Center will enhance such student placement.

Biosciences eastern and central Africa at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya

(BecA-ILRI or ILRI-BecA) – (Dr Apollinaire Djikeng). To provide additional specialized training in

DNA sequencing, genomics, advanced bioinformatics and scientific writing as well as for short-term

placement of Center students for advanced analytical research activities. One of our current Postdocs is

seeking to pass a few weeks at BecA as a short-term visiting scientist undertaking sequencing of his PCR

products derived from antibiotic resistant bacteria and to intensify his knowledge and skills for both DNA

sequencing and advanced bioinformatics for analysis of large and complex gene data.

Partnership with Industry

Our primary industry partner at the national level will be the Zenufa Laboratories (Tanzania) a

pharmaceutical manufacturing company based in Dar es Salaam. We will build on the established

collaboration between this company and the MUHAS School of Pharmacy. The collaboration will involve

student placement for practical experience and commercial orientation in a pharmaceutical manufacturing

environment as well as in collaborative applied research activities between Zenufa and the Center. From the

animal health side, we are at an early stage of discussion with a Dar es Salaam based animal feeds and

medicine manufacturing company (Farmers Centre Ltd) for possible future collaboration as an industry

partner. At the regional and vaccine development end, we will build on our relationship with the Botswana

Vaccine Institute (BVI) to introduce new vaccine strains of either improved performance or enhanced safety.

This will include placement of our students at BVI for training as well as in joint research and development

activities. BVI scientific and managerial specialists will also provide “industry” lectures to our students to

cultivate industry orientation and practices.

We have initiated developing in-house capacity for process development, prototype and vaccine/diagnostics

trials under a USAID funded collaborative project between Texas University, El Paso (Professor

DoughWatts) and the Department of Microbiology (Professor Philemon Wambura) that includes a linkage

with a Moroccan commercial vaccine manufacturer, MCI Sante-Animale (MCI). The program objective is

to train scientists (1 PhD male, 1PhD female and, 1 MSc female) and transfer cell based research and

development technology to SUA, as part of an effort to develop, test and assist in licensing a vaccine to

prevent Rift Valley fever (RVF) in animals in Africa.

At the regulatory end we are collaborating with Tanzania Food and Drug Authority (TFDA) to form a basis

for introducing students to the regulatory framework and practices that govern medical and veterinary

biological and therapeutics. This will include placement of our students at the TFDA laboratories and

Headquarters facilities as well as our Center scientists playing an increasing background scientific advisory

role to TFDA.

24

The coherence of these partnerships will be guided by our conceptual framework to develop the SACIDS

Innovation Hub for an effective and mutually beneficial collaboration with industry and the private sector.

We will seek leverage funding for translating the concept into operation.

5.8 ACE Action Plan for Collaboration with International Academic Partners (Maximum 2 pages)


This objective will be based on the established SACIDS Partnership with the introduction of new

collaborating institutions, which contribute to Objectives 1 and 3, specifically in co-supervision of students,

offering specialized short courses (e.g. disease modeling) and joint publications.


Primary Collaborating Institutions:

i. LSHTM will provide (i) expertise in genomics including bioinformatics, genomics driven diagnostics

and links with the Wellcome Trust (WT) Sanger Institute and the to the newly established Bloomsbury

Research Institute; (ii) training in above subjects and the cross-cutting programs for enabling and

transferable skills. The LSHTM together with the RVC will also help us with curriculum review.

Currently one of our short-term Postdoctoral fellows is at the LSHTM undertaking whole genome

sequencing of Mycobacteria following up his PhD findings of a novel genotype of Mycobacterium bovis.

ii. RVC will contribute its international expertise on epidemiological risk modeling, analytical socio-

economics, One Health training and ecology. For the bacterial Zoonoses theme, it will collaborate with

LSHTM assisting our Center with whole genome sequencing of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) Tb.

iii. TPI has major surveillance and research programs on transboundary animal diseases, including FMD,

PPR and ASF. This offers many collaborative research training opportunities. Its newly opened UK

national virology facility will provide unique access to state of the art expertise and infrastructure to our

students and fellows. It will provide primary supervisory support to research activities undertaken within

the theme for viral diseases of food security importance, especially with respect to molecular biology

and phylogenetic analyses. TPI will also provide technical support to the functioning of the molecular

biology platform at SUA that will underpin the SACIDS research and training activities.

25

iv. LIDC brings experience in facilitating research strengthening across institutions and across research

disciplines and sectors, and will support research and training linkages, building on experience in the

current program of SACIDS.

Other International Collaborating Institutions and Organizations:

v. University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) for training in biosafety and good laboratory practice and

the El Paso campus Department of Microbiology in the School of Veterinary Medical Science for

vaccine development and trials.

vi. InSTEDD, a Silicon Valley based non-profit with a unique offering that designs and develops open

source technology tools. SACIDS collaborates with InSTEDD in the design and operation of mobile and

digital solutions for infectious disease surveillance as well as in training of ICT programs and

epidemiologists from southern and East Africa.

vii. We are exploring the potential for formal collaboration with two Chinese institutions, who have

expressed an interest in the program of our Centre, i.e (a) The Yunnan Tropical and Subtropical

Animal Virus Disease Laboratory (– contact Dr Yang Shibiao, Senior Research Scientist/Deputy

Director), through a long standing contact with Professor Rweyemamu since his tenure at FAO of the

United Nations; and (b) Huazhong Agricultural University (- contact Prof Shujun Zhang), through

the current bilateral MoU between Huazhong University and the RVC in the UK for a Sino-UK

Laboratory (contact Professor Jonathan Elliot, Deputy Principal for Research and Innovation, RVC).

viii. CORDS (Connecting Organization for Regional Disease Surveillance). SACIDS I a founder member of

CORDS. This collaboration enhances our South-South-North networking on infectious diseases by

linking with institutions, organizations and networks in Southeast Asia, Middle East, Southeast Europe,

Northern Europe and USA as well as with WHO, OIE and FAO.

ix. The Global Research Alliances for FMD, PPR and ASF. Active participation, as members of the

Global Research Alliances on FMD, PPR and ASF links SACIDS students and scientists to other

researchers and scientific meetings along with discussions on research priorities and outcomes.

x. The FAO, OIE and WHO global tripartite for our points-of-reference for standards, guidance and

collaborative activities related to infectious diseases and One Health.

5.9 ACE Action Plan for Management and Governance (Maximum 2 pages for this section)


To strengthen our capacity for training and research excellence, we have set up a coherent management

entity under the university legal framework. Our Center for infectious diseases of humans and animals will

build on the established governance structure for SACIDS including Management and Scientific Advisory

Boards.

SACIDS was formed in 2008 through an inter-institutional agreement. SACIDS Headquarters is hosted by

Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) through Decision of the University Council (116th

Council

Meeting held on 30th

September 2010) and operates under the legal framework SUA. It is part of the

Department of Microbiology in collaboration with the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Public

Health, within the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, but enjoys a semi-autonomous status because of its

regional nature. We will seek to consolidate the semi-autonomous nature of SACIDS, progressively into a

formal Regional Center of Excellence for Infectious Diseases of Humans and Animals under the SUA

University Charter as may be determined by the University Council.


The host institution will be SUA allied with MUHAS and NIMR. We will strengthen training and themed

research, supported by medical and veterinary institutions in Zambia, South Africa and United Kingdom

("Smart Partners"), whilst maintaining research collaboration in DRC and Mozambique.

At the executive level, SUA will manage the ACE-II program, with the Center Leader and Deputy Center

Leader cum Principal Investigator will provide center leadership and management, supported by a dedicated

Secretariat, for day-to-day coordination. SUA will oversee sub-contracting of relevant program activities to

partner institutions, through an already established mechanism. The Center Leader together with Deputy

26

Center Leader/PI, second Deputy Center Leader, Program Operations Manager, Coordinator for Training

and Research, Coordinators for Innovation and Technology Development and CoP leaders will constitute the

Executive Team of the Center (Fig 2).

Fig 2. SACIDS-ACE OrganogramCenter Leader (Prof Gerald Misinzo)

Deputy Leader & PI

(Prof Mark Rweyemamu)

Programme Operations Manager (Dr Filomena

Namuba)

(Secretariat)

Training & Research

(Prof Esron Karimuribo)

Innovation & Technology Development

Prof Philemon Wambura (Biologicals) & Dr Kenneth Bengesi (Equity and Career

Skills Development)

Second Deputy Leader – MUHAS

(Prof Mecky Matee)

Coordinator – NIMR

(Dr Leonard Mboera)

CoP Leaders: Profs Matee, Gwakisa, Karimuribo, Wambura and Paweska, Dr Mboera

At the programmatic level, the CoP and Training Leaders hold senior academic/research positions

(Associate or Full Professor, or Chief Scientist) at SUA, MUHAS or NIMR. They will be responsible for the

science programs and for scientific outputs; (ii) the policy engagement component of the program, will be

delivered by a 2-way process of informing research objectives from policy requirement and timely

communication of research and training results, building on SACIDS experience on issues of public and

policy engagement. We will continue to take lessons from the expertise of the LIDC for managing an inter-

institutional Center and inter-disciplinary programs, as our Center is also an inter-institutional initiative and

our One Health involves multidisciplinary approaches.

The quarterly, biennial and annual progress reports of students/fellows will be channeled through the

primary supervisor and the respective CoP Leader to the Secretariat and thence to the independent

International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) for review. The SACIDS Training and Research Support

Officer will assist the process.

At the Strategic Level: Currently, the overall oversight body of SACIDS is the Management Board

comprised of coordinators of SACIDS programs at national level in SACIDS participating countries (DRC,

Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania), plus CoP Leaders and representatives of the UK collaborating

partners. This Board is chaired by the Vice Chancellor of SUA as the head of the Lead Institution. During

Year 1, we will restructure this Board to include eminent policy-level individuals such as Vice-Chancellors,

Heads of key Research Institutions/Organizations, eminent scientists or corporate world experts and

national/local decision makers for disease control policy. The new Board will provide strategic and long-

term guidance to the Center for Infectious Diseases of Humans and Animals and on institutional issues,

while maintaining oversight of program implementation; the management of the program will be the

responsibility of the Center Leader assisted by the Center Executive Team. The independent scientific advice

from ISAB will feed in at all three governance levels.

27

National overall oversight responsibility for all Tanzania based ACEs will be through the National

Steering Committee (NSC) of 5 to 9 members with representation from the Ministry of Education, Science

and Technology and Vocational Training, Ministry of Finance and relevant Sector Ministries, the Tanzania

Commission for Universities, the Commission for Science and Technology, the host universities for the

ACEs and the private sector. The NSC will provide guidance and oversight to its selected ACEs during the

project implementation. It will (a) oversee the implementation of the ACEs on a regular basis; and (b)

receive and review results achievement and expenditure reports, for the ACE in the country.

Leadership Succession Plan: When we first set up, we realized that our ability to develop scientific

excellence would depend immensely on the ability for institutions to absorb change. We also realized that

embedding such institutional change, and the new scientific approaches that our programs were introducing,

would be best realized by our placing some emphasis on developing “home grown” talent as a pro-active

succession development program. So we introduced the concept of “Career Development Postdoctoral

Program” that involved supporting Postdocs for 3 to 5 years, i.e. longer than the conventional transitional

Postdocs. Apart from developing their scientific skills, we have conducted leadership and management

courses for this crop of Postdocs. The individuals who have come through this career development Postdoc

program will be at the core of leadership for our ACE. For example, the Centre Leader, Professor Misinzo,

will be migrating from this program to assume overall leadership of the Centre. Professor Rweyemamu,

who set up SACIDS and who has been responsible for introducing most of the innovations of SACIDS, will

step back to be Deputy, assisting and mentoring Professor Misinzo. Similarly, Professor Karimuribo, the

first SACIDS Postdoc at SUA, is already building a team of Postdocs who are progressively assuming

primary responsibilities and who will play a key role in supervising student research in analytical

epidemiology and socio-anthropology. He will be the Center Coordinator for Training and Research. Other

former SACIDS Postdocs, like Dr Christopher Kasanga, Prof Stephen Mshana, Dr Erasto Mbugi, Prof Justin

Masumu, Prof Kim Kayunze and Dr José Fafetine will be playing key scientific roles.

5.10 ACE Action Plan for Sustainable Financing (Maximum 2 pages for this section)

Describe briefly which Objectives and Results this action plan will contribute towards:

Our Center’s strategy for Objective 4 will be to target sustainable core funding for its basic core teaching

functions and extra-budgetary grant funding for its research excellence.


During its formative phase, SACIDS has an established acceptance in the region and competence in resource

mobilization from international funding agencies. It has developed internal competence for fiscal operating

projects that require financial performance discipline that is associated with managing a relatively large

portfolio in an academic setting. We will build on this to introduce the following measure for financial

mobilization for sustaining the Center’s excellence. These will include: (i) an active resource mobilization

strategy that will involve each Postdoc applying for individual research project funding and the Center

Leadership, including CoP Leaders, targeting large (>USD500,000) grants for strategic and collaborative

activities, to facilitate a continuing research platform for capacity development; (ii) introduction of a

performance indicator that will require each Center academic/research staff member to attract to the Center

research funding; (iii) introduction of full economic costing for the Center projects, which will include an

allowance for accumulating a reserve fund to cater for inter-project fluctuations; and (iv) introduction of a

levy for the premium short courses that will attract regional participation. We note that academic research

excellence increasingly depends on scientific credibility, a flexible and innovative governance structure that

is able to attract performance related grant funding whether from government, inter-governmental

institutions or private philanthropy.

It will be desirable for the Center leadership to be conversant with management by objective systems that

operate in similar centers at the international level.

5.11 ACE Action Plan for Monitoring and Evaluation (Maximum 2 pages for this section)


28

We will adopt a Results based Monitoring and Evaluation system for which we will use both internal

expertise at SUA, MUHAS and NIMR as well as engagement of an Outcome Mapping Specialist as a short

term consultant for assistance with the design and evaluation. Accordingly, this Action will contribute to all

the 4 Objectives.


i. Monitoring:

The Center’s program will be translated into a detailed results framework to guide monitoring of progress

and performance. This links the program’s research themes and training programs whose outputs are

capacity development and knowledge generation with outcomes related to cultural, institutional and policy

changes. Internally, the top-level for verification will be reports to the Management Board and externally,

this will occur via the ISAB and periodic reports.

Program

strand

Result Indicators and success metrics Means of verification

The Training

Program

Activities and

outputs:

- Recruitment of

students,

coursework and

project support

- Development of selection criteria and

interview panels

- Number of students recruited and

supported as per project plans

- Project implementation as per work

plan

- Numbers of students and

fellowships established

- Development of

improved

training and

special skills

- Establishment and uptake of new

curricula, summer school, regional

conferences and special skills courses

- Annual reports to

Management Board and

ISAB

- Mid-term and terminal

reports

- Student and

postdoc support

mechanisms

- Student: supervisor ratios

- Number of international visits

- Mentoring program evidence

- Reports prepared by

training CoP leader

Outcomes

- Successful

completion of

courses

- Rate of student throughput to

dissertation and graduation

- Length of time in course

- Academic performance

- University reports

- Project reports

- Subsequent career

development and

employment of students

- Publications - Publications and presentations in peer

reviewed forums

- Project reports

- Student reports

- Application of

knowledge and

skills

- Extent of demonstration of

knowledge in new roles,

responsibilities and grant application

- Career development

- Tracer studies

- Case studies

- Post training appointments

The Research

Themes

Activities and

outputs - Research protocol setting, input

acquisition and use

- Project implementation as per work

plans

- Research findings disseminated

through publications, presentations,

and other means in line with staff

metrics

- Partner institute contributions

- Project reports

- Publication bibliographies

- Annual CoP scientific

meetings

- ISAB and external

stakeholder review

findings

Outcomes - Cultural and institutional

transformation leading to sustainable

research capacity and excellence

- Improved capacity for diagnosis,

research and advice

- Levels of cross-sectoral cooperation

- Feedback from visiting

experts

- Surveys and informant

interviews

- Grant application and

success figures

29

Program

strand

Result Indicators and success metrics Means of verification

(joint meetings, projects, policy

development) between animal and

human health sectors and institutions

and between countries

- Quotation and use of research

findings by stakeholders – peer

communities, policy makers

- Stakeholder forum reports/

publications

- evidence of behavioral or

policy changes

ii. Evaluation:

The Center will produce annual technical and financial reports. Formal mid-term and terminal program

evaluation by an independent team, to be commissioned by the World Bank-IUCEA, will involve program

partners, the Executive Team and external stakeholders, facilitated by an evaluation specialist. The formal

evaluations will review capacity, policy interaction, communication, partnerships and networking

developments, as well as training and research. Reports from ISAB and Financial Auditors will be key

resource documents.

These evaluations will report on strengths, weaknesses and problems and recommend remedies for the

remaining period of the program and beyond.

iii. Monitoring and evaluation roles:

The Center Secretariat in collaboration with the SUA Directorate for Research and Postgraduate Studies

(DRPGS) will bear responsibility for organizing the M&E and will collate and analyze supervision and

research reports. The CoP Leaders will review progress of research activities against the project milestones.

Problems will be brought to the attention of the Center Director. The performance data reviewed by the

Director will be evaluated by the ISAB and the Management Board. Periodic reviews (evaluation) will be

more holistic, taking stock of specific areas or overall program outputs and outcomes in order to identify

underlying issues and corrective actions.

Section 6: Use of Existing Physical Resources

Resource Currently Used For

and By

Proposed Project Use

Molecular Biology Research Laboratory –SUA. Following

equipment in place thanks to Wellcome Trust Grant

WT087546MA: Class II biological safety cabinets; a 7500

Applied Biosystems Fast real time PCR systems, a GeneAmp

9700 and 3 Veriti ABI for conventional PCR, Field Laboratory

System (Enigma Diagnostics) for fully automated combined

nucleic acid extraction and real-time PCR, A 3500 Applied

Biosystems Genetic Analyser for automated dideoxy cycle

sequencing of PCR products, Conventional and a nanodrop

spectrophotometers for determining quality and quantity of DNA,

gel documentation system for visualization of electrophoresed

PCR products, Ultralow freezers (-80 °C), freezers (-20 °C),

refrigerators (+4 °C) for storage of reagents and cryopreservation

of samples, and ELISA washer and reader for serology and an ice

maker. An IsoArk BSL-3 laboratory unit has been procured is due

to be installed

Thanks to grant WT104017MA, the laboratory expects to buy a

Next Generation Sequencer during 2016, subject to grant

conditions.

For research on viral

pathogens of food

and livelihoods

diseases (e.g. FMD,

PPR, ASF) and for

vector-borne viral

pathogens (dengue

virus, rift valley fever

virus, Chikungunya

virus)

Used by the

Wellcome Trust

intermediate fellow

and postdoctoral

fellows and PhD

students at the

Department of

Microbiology

Will be used by Center

PhD students and

postdoctoral fellows for

pathogen genomics for all

the five research themes –

see Section 5.2.

Next Generation

Sequencer will enhance

our capacity for whole

genome sequencing to

determine subtle genomic

variations and also multi-

agent diagnosis and/or

detection of previously

unknown pathogens.

The IsoArk BSL-3 facility

will enable us to handle

Category-3 pathogens

safely.

Genome Science Center (GSC) laboratory – SUA .Thanks to

support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation this

laboratory equipped with (i) basic molecular biology equipment

Used by MSc, MPhil

and PhD students to

undertake research on

Will be used by

MSc/MPhil students to

undertake research using

30


and By


for DNA studies (PCR and gel documentation), (ii) ELISA reader

machines for antigen and antibody detection and Western blotting

equipment for the analysis of protein expression, (iii) Gene

scanner for the differential analysis of microarray gene expression

and (iv) basic laboratory equipment like ice making machine,

centrifuges, heater blocks,+4, -20, -40 fridge/freezers, and a 30

KVA diesel back-up power generator.

infectious diseases of

animals, including

diagnosis and

identification of

infectious pathogens,

molecular biology,

serological and

bioinformatics tools on

bacterial zoonoses, viral

diseases that compromise

food security and

undermine livelihoods and

Emerging and vector-

borne diseases

Molecular Biology Training Laboratories – SUA equipped with

Class II biological safety cabinet for biosafety, a Takara

Thermocycler for conventional PCR, centrifuges, electrophoresis

machines for agarose gel electrophoresis, BioRad gel

documentation system for visualization and imaging of

electrophoresed PCR products, freezers (-20 °C), refrigerators (+4

°C) and liquid nitrogen containers for storage of reagents and

cryopreservation of samples. This facility was funded from

several sources including by the World Bank funded project

entitled "Lower Kihansi Environmental Management Project

(LKEMP, IDA Credit No: 3546-1-TA) coordinated by the

National Environment Management Council (NEMC).

Used by MSc, MPhil

and PhD students to

undertake research on

infectious diseases of

animals

Will be used by

MSc/MPhil students to

undertake research using

molecular biology tools on

bacterial zoonoses, viral

diseases that compromise

food security and

undermine livelihoods and


borne diseases

Conventional Virology Laboratory for vaccine development,

and diagnostic testing funded by USAID – SUA

A modern cell culture based biosafety level 2 research

laboratory equipped with biological safety cabinet 2, two

fluorescence microscopes, two CO2 incubators, ultralow freezers

A second building is planned for a biosafety level 2 animal

pen, capable of testing vaccines on goats, sheep, cattle or

other mid-sized animals to perform inoculations and take

and analyze samples under conditions following Good

Laboratory Practices, for use in future research efforts and

industrial product development projects.. .

For virus culture in

eggs and cell cultures

by students and

researchers

For student research in

virology,

development/trials of

diagnostics and vaccines

A dedicated Resource Center – SUA and NIMR

comprising epidemiologists and ICT Programmers equipped with

3 Servers: Power Edge R710 Rack Chassis for up to 6x3.5”

HDDS and Intel 55xx/56xx; plus

One server: PV MD3200i External iSCI Raid array with 2 Dual

Port Controllers. This facility is being funded by Skoll Global

Threat Fund and partly by Rockefeller Foundation

Set up to develop ICT

tools for disease

surveillance aided by

mobile and other

digital technologies.

MSc/MPhil and PhD

students will be able to use

the developed digital tools

and the enhanced server

capacity for data

collection, data storage and

analysis

Video conference facility - SUA:

Cisco Tandberg c40 x 12 ZOOM; including Natural Presenter

package, multisite software, Premium resolution and Dual

display. Funded by Wellcome Trust

Meetings and training Used to train MSc students

and for guest lecturers for

seminars and workshops

Community radio: Deluxe Radio Station- SUA

with 600 watt Site; link and 150-watt repeater site, including

D&tR Airmate Broadcasting console (8 Mic 8 Sterio Line 2

Hybrids), 12 Channel Production Mixing Console, BW TX600

Watt FM Transmitter V2 with built-in audio processor; BW

TX150 Watt FM Transmitter. Funder by the Canadian IDRC

Being installed in

Ngorongoro,

Tanzania

Will be used for rural

community engagement

and awareness, including

risk communication about

infectious and epidemic

diseases.

The Sokoine University Agricultural Library (SNAL) and

HINARI Program set up by WHO together with major publishers,

enables low- and middle- income countries to gain access to one

of the world's largest collections of biomedical and health

literature.

Used as virtual

library by students

and staff at SUA to

access freely up to

14,000 journals and

up to 46,000 e-books.

Used by MSc/MPhil, PhD

students, postdoctoral

fellows and faculty to

access literature

Department of Microbiology (MUHAS) Equipped with

diagnostic and research microbiology laboratories (bacteriology,

Used for

bacteriological,

Will be used by

MSc/MPhil, PhD,

31


and By


immunology, virology) with the following equipment: UV

spectrometer, pH meters, Analytical Balances, Inhibition zones

reader, centrifuge, incubators, Autoclaves, hot air ovens,

electrophoresis tools, PCR machine, laminar flow cabinets,

fridge, freezers and binocular microscopes, FACSCount;

FACSCalibur, FACSCanto, ELISpot Reader Cell harvester,

Microbeta counter, liquid nitrogen plant, Bactec 960 MGIT and

Blood culture machine.

immunologic and

virologic research

and diagnosis of

diseases. Utilized by

undergraduate and

postgraduate for

practical training.

Postdocs for research on

infectious diseases

Molecular Biology research laboratory (MUHAS): Equipped

with two biosafety cabinets, centrifuges, freezers, dark room and

modern lab imaging equipment, PCR machines

For student practicals

and research.

To be used by MSc/MPhil,

PhD, Postdocs for

research

NIMR Laboratory Capacity that will be available for research student placement: NMR-Center Biosafety Areas of specialization

AMANI BSL2 Protozoology, Molecular Biology, Large mosquito insectary

National Quality Assurance and

Training Laboratory, Dar

BSL2 HIV resistance testing, Antimicrobial resistance surveillance,

proficiency testing, Hosts the National Influenza Laboratory

MBEYA BSL 2 and 3 Virology and Tuberculosis

MUHIMBILI BSL 3 Tuberculosis

MWANZA BSL 2 and 3 Microbiology, parasitology, entomology, molecular biology,

immunology, biochemistry & haematology

TANGA - Ambrela BSL2 Parasitology, Molecular biology and Microbiology

TANGA - Korogwe BSL2 Parasitology, Microbiology, Biochemistry & Haematology

and Virology

Dar es Salaam Mobile

Laboratory

BSL3

Pathogens up to Risk Group 4

Section 7: Academic Staff Resources, Capacity Building and Visiting Academic Staff

/Industry Experts Plan

Our Center pools expertise from 3 institutions and two sectors into a single entity; this enables us to generate

a critical mass of expertise for such a complex problem as developing competence for infectious diseases of

humans and animals. We have been testing this model over the last six year and we are learning how to

focus much more on our combined strength than on individual weaknesses. We have strengthened and

developed the molecular biology competence at SUA, MUHAS and CUHAS. We are also building on the

extensive network of NIMR, including its unique expertise in the mosquito vector, work on health systems

and vaccine trials. Our internal expertise in terms of gene analysis has been reinforced recently with support,

mainly from the Wellcome Trust. The 3 institutions also have credibility in epidemiology. We have started

to strengthen expertise in epidemiological modeling. Our selection of partnership with the UK and South

African institutions as well as ILRI-BecA has been carefully targeted towards strengthening our internal

capacity for molecular biology and analytical epidemiology. We will be focusing on 3 approaches:

strengthening our beyond campus appointments of Visiting academicians, co-supervision of PhD students

and Postdocs and development of joint proposals for collaborative research and thereby publications.

We will reinforce the collaboration between the natural and social sciences by tapping into the specialized

social science and socio-anthropology units of SUA, NIMR and MUHAS. Our Center will benefit from the

recent merger of the SUA Development Studies Institute (DSI) and other social science oriented units into a

single College of Social Sciences and Humanities providing us with a one-stop reference point for in-house

social sciences expertise, including gender and for developing and delivery of the Center multi-tier training

program in Research Leadership and Management. Additionally, we will be tapping into the unique

expertise of the RVC to enable us develop in situ capacity for socio-economics and ecology.

We have found the involvement of visiting academic and research staff from the region and international

collaboration, in a smart partnership arrangement to be particularly beneficial in raising the quality of

32

research by students and Postdocs (Section 5.2) as well as in curriculum development and delivery. We will

intensify this smart partnership model.

Type of Academic

Staff/Experts

(existing, visiting,

new, industry etc.)

Area of Expertise Comment (benefits)

Gerald Misinzo (PhD,

Existing), SUA

Molecular Biology,

Virology

Center Leader, workshops, teaching and research, research

collaborations, graduate training, mentoring PhD

Mark Rweyemamu

(PhD, Visiting), SUA

Virology, One Health, Deputy Center Leader, research collaboration, advisory,

mentoring PhD students/ Postdocs. Brings wealth of

international experience to the program; grant writing

Mecky Matee (PhD,

Existing), MUHAS

Microbiology,

Immunology

Second Deputy Center Leader, Workshops, teaching and

research, research collaboration, mentoring PhD students/

Postdocs

Paul Gwakisa (PhD,

Existing), SUA

Immunology, Animal

Biotechnology

Workshops, teaching and research, research collaboration,

mentoring PhD students/ Postdocs

Philemon Wambura

(PhD, Existing), SUA

Microbiology Workshops, teaching and research, research collaborations,

mentoring PhD students

Eliangiringa Kaale,

PhD, Existing,

MUHAS

Pharmacy and Quality

Assurance

Training and research supervision, Quality Assurance &

Quality Control. Link with Industry and TFDA

Christopher Kasanga


Molecular Biology,

Virology

Teaching and research, research collaborations, graduate

training

Esron Karimuribo PhD

(Existing), SUA

Epidemiology, EcoHealth,

Disease surveillance,

modeling

Workshops, teaching and research, research collaborations,

supervision PhD students, Innovations for ICT driven

disease detection and surveillance

Leonard Mboera (PhD,

Existing), NIMR


borne disease, EcoHealth,

Disease Surveillance

Information and Communications technology, research

collaboration, workshops, Speaking engagements

Huruma Tuntufye


Molecular Biology, Anti-

microbial resistance

Teaching and research, graduate training, research

collaborations

Lazaro Busagala, (PhD,

existing), SUA

Information systems

Engineering

Leadership of the ICT in Learning and Teaching component

Eric Beda Mutagaywa

MSc, Contractual SUA

ICT ICT-in-learning; mobile and digital technologies for disease

surveillance

Stephen Mshana (PhD

Visiting), CUHAS

Anti-microbial resistance Guest lectures and collaborative research and training

Rudovick Kazwala


Zoonosis, Public health,

One Health

Workshops, research collaboration, advisory, mentoring

PhD students/ Postdocs

Robinson Mdegela


Zoonosis, Public health,

One Health

Workshops, teaching, research collaboration, mentoring

PhD students

Helen Ngowi PhD

Existing), SUA

Parasitic Zoonoses,

Cycsticercosis

Workshops, research collaboration, supervision PhD

students

Ayoub Kassuku PhD

(Existing, SUA)

Parasitic Zoonoses,

Cycsticercosis


students

Billy Ngasala PhD

(Existing), MUHAS

Parasitic Zoonoses,

Cysticercosis


students

Sharadhuli Kimera


Epidemiology, Public

health


students

Kenneth Bengesi (PhD,

Existing), SUA

Agricultural economics,

Entrepreneurial economics

Workshops, research collaboration, teaching and research,

graduate training; developing and teaching Research

Leadership and Management

Carolyne Nombo


Sociology Teaching including Gender and development, public policy

and food security; developing and teaching Research

Leadership and Management

Majigo Mtebe

(MMED, Existing),

MUHAS

Microbiology,

Immunology

Teaching and research, graduate training, research

collaborations

Bruno Sunguya (PhD,

Existing), MUHAS

Public Health Teaching and research, graduate training, research

collaborations

33

Susan Rumisha PhD,

NIMR

Statistics and modeling Graduate training, research collaboration

Joe Brownlie (PhD,

Visiting, SUA), RVC

Virology and Mentorship Guest lecturing, mentorship to Postdocs and Supervisors.

Also supports Center with strategic planning

Donald King (PhD,

Visiting, SUA),

Pirbright

Molecular Virology Guest lecturing, student co-supervision. As Head of the

World Reference Laboratory brings to the Center program

global molecular epidemiology and tracking of pathogens

David Paton (PhD,

Visiting, Dept

Microbiol, SUA),

Pirbright

Veterinary Virology and

International Disease

Strategy

Guest lecturing, co-supervision of PhD students, Postdocs

and Wellcome Intermediate Fellow. Brings to the Center

knowledge of international norms/ standards and, as former

Science Director of The Pirbright Institute, expertise of

change management for excellence.

RoseMary Sang (PhD,

KEMRI), Kenya

Arbovirology Guest lecturing, student placement

Appolinaire Djikeng

(PhD ILRI-BecA),

Kenya

Molecular Biology Guest lecturing, student placement

OTHER KEY FACULTY

Janusz Paweska, PhD,

NICD South Africa

(Visiting)

Viral emerging and

zoonotic diseases,

biosafety

Guest lecturing; hosting Center students; co-supervision

Paul van Helden PhD,

Stellenbosch

Molecular bacteriology,

especially Mycobacteria


Hazel Dockrell, PhD,

LSHTM

Immunology and

Bacteriology

Program guidance, emphasis on human health content;

Board Member

Brendan Wren, PhD,

LSHTM

Molecular bacteriology

and pathogenesis;

antimicrobial resistance


Dirk Pfeiffer PhD,

LSHTM

Analytical epidemiology,

risk modeling


Jonathan Rushton PhD,

RVC

One Health economics,

interaction between

agriculture, health and

economic development


Richard Kock Visiting

PhD, RVC

One Health, Ecology,

conservation and

biodiversity

Curriculum review; training and collaborative research

EcoHealth

Nick Short PhD, RVC ICT in Learning; Head

Electronic Media Unit,

Guest lecturing; review and guidance to enhancing ICT in

learning and linkage with RVC & LSHTM

Taane Clark PhD,

LSHTM

Bioinformatics, molecular

bacteriology

Visiting, training bioinformatics and genomics collaborative

research

Tom Kennie PhD,

Ranmore

Research Leadership and

Management

Curriculum development and delivery

Jonathan Grant PhD,

King’s College

Policy Institute@King’s Curriculum development and delivery

Section 8: Implementation Capacity, Arrangements and Plans

1. Describe the overall implementation capacity and arrangements set up to implement this proposal.

The lead institution for the Center will be SUA with MUHAS and NIMR as the primary collaborators. Its

primary locus will be the Department of Microbiology and Parasitology at SUA, which will collaborate with

the Department of Veterinary Medicine and the Development Studies Institute at SUA. The current the Head

of Microbiology Department (Prof Gerald Misinzo) will be the Center Leader, with Professor Mark

Rweyemamu, Executive Director, SACIDS as the Deputy Center Leader and Principal Investigator. The

Center will build on the foundation laid by SACIDS, which is already a major program of the University

recognized by the University Council. At MUHAS the primary collaborating Departments will be

Department of Microbiology and Immunology of the School of Medicine and the Department of Public

Health in the School of Public Health and Social Sciences. Professor Matee of Microbiology and

Immunology Department, MUHAS, will be a second Deputy Center Leader with primary responsibility for

coordinating Center activities on human health. The participation of NIMR will be through its Headquarters

34

in Dar es Salaam under the Chief Research Scientist (Dr Leonard Mboera) responsible for infectious

diseases.

The coordination of the Center program at SUA, MUHAS, NIMR and external collaborating institutions

will be by the Center Leader and the Deputy Center Leader cum Principal Investigator (Executive Director),

supported by the Center Secretariat, which includes a Program Manager with training and experience in

project management (Dr Filomena Namuba), Training and Research Support Officer and a dedicated

Finance Unit. The Center will meet 60% of the running cost of the Secretariat; the remainder will be from

leveraged project funding to the Center.

At the programmatic level, the CoP and Training Leaders from the three institutions will be responsible for

the science programs and for scientific outputs. The CoP Leaders will also oversee the management of

students and Postdocs and their interactions with supervisors and mentors according to university guidelines

and Center practices. The progress reports of students/fellows will be channeled through the primary

supervisor and respective CoP Leader to the Secretariat and thence to the independent International

Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) for review. The SACIDS Training and Research Support Officer will

assist the process.

At the Strategic Level: The primary oversight body of the Center will be derived primarily from the current

SACIDS Management Board whose composition and mandate will be expanded to reflect the diversity of

the Center program and to enable the Board address the strategic and long-term goals of the Center.

Independent scientific advice on progression towards excellence by the Centers’ program for training and

research will be provided by an International Scientific Advisory Board.

2. Academic management

SUA and MUHAS have an established quality assurance program for training excellence, including

curriculum and effectiveness of delivery. Postgraduate training is coordinated through specific Directorates

for Research and Postgraduate Studies, which in turn respond to the Vice-Chancellor through the relevant

Deputy Vice-Chancellors. There is also a national Quality Assurance system for academic and research that

is operated by the Tanzania Commission for Universities. The work program of the Center will be subjected

to these quality assurance systems. The curricula and research awards will be aligned to the TCU university

qualification framework or equivalent in the region. The Center will benefit from beyond campus input into

both teaching and research supervision through the Community of Practice approach already described

under Section 5. The wide use of the video-conference and other electronic systems (e.g. e-mail, Skype,

GoTo Meeting etc) will facilitate the involvement of the international faculty.

3 Administration, including financial, procurement, and environmental aspects

At the Lead Institution (SUA), the Bursar is the Chief Financial Officer of the university and thereby will be

the Lead Finance Manager for the Center. He is accountable to the Vice-Chancellor for all financial

operations of the University. The Bursar holds an MSc in Accounting and Finance and an International

Certificate in Computer Studies. He is a Certified Public Accountant since 1998. He has 25 years’

experience as Chief Finance Officer for SUA. During the last three years, he has been overseeing the

computerization of the financial management system at SUA. He is assisted by a team of accountants, one of

whom for the Center, there is a Grants Accountant, who holds an Advanced Diploma in Accountancy with

15 years of grants accounting at SUA. Operationally, within the Center Secretariat there will be a dedicated

Finance Unit of 2 MSc-level accountants one of whom is a Certified Public Accountant with 14 years’

experience, responsible for day to day financial activities of the Center, including control-auditing of sub-

awardees.

Procurement uses competitive bidding in accordance with university regulations, public accounts

regulations, the Public Procurement Act of 2011 and Regulations of 2013 plus World Bank grant conditions.

All purchases have to be pre-authorized. The University Head of the Procurement Management Unit (i.e

Chief Suppliers Officer) holds a Diploma in Business Administration, National Diploma in Materials

35

Management; a Master’s in Business Administration and is a Certified Supplies Professional (CSP). He has

35 years of working experience. He is assisted by a Principal Procurement Specialist who holds a Diploma

and an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration. He also holds an MBA (International Business). He

is a Certified Supplies Professional (CSP) with 35 years of working experience. For day-to-day primary

procurement activities will be handled by a dedicated Procurement Officer, who is a Certified Supplies

Professional with MBA in Procurement and Supplies.

Project financial transactions and management procedures at SUA (the Lead Institution), NIMR and

MUHAS have been established already, in compliance with university regulations. SUA will submit

periodic financial reports as stipulated in the grant conditions. MUHAS, NIMR and other sub-awardees will

be required to submit their reports to SUA in time for their expenditure to be reviewed and incorporated into

the program report to the World Bank. In line with Tanzanian policy and financial regulations and the

World Bank grant conditions, the Center finances will be subject to annual government auditing and

external auditing by an internationally reputable audit firm.

36

Section 9: Implementation Plan of each ACE Action plan

Action

Plan Activity

Timeline

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

1.0 Learning Excellence

1.1 Review of MSc Curriculum for One Health Molecular Biology

1.2 Develop e-learning content and enhance use of ICT facilities in learning

1.2.1 Engage ICT specialist

1.2.2 Deploy e-learning and management system

1.2.3 Capacity building for trainers and trainees on e-learning

1.2.4 Procurement hardware and software for e-learning

1.3 Enroll MPhil / Res MSc students and run the program

1.3.1 Facilitate MPhil / Res MSc Students attachment at partners' institutions

1.4 8Enroll MSc students

1.5 Enroll of PhD students and approval of students PhD proposal

1.5.1 Organize PhD students attachment and travel to partners institutions

1.6 Scoping workshop, curriculum development and delivery of Research Leadership

and Management Skills Course

1.6.1 Workshop 1 – Scoping, planning & development workshop

1.6.2 Curriculum development – visit to the UK and training developing

1.6.3 Workshop 2 – Foundations of Research Leadership

1.6.4 Workshop 3 – Core Research Leadership Skills

1.6.5 Workshop 4 – Advanced Research Leadership - 1

1.6.6 Workshop 5 – Advanced Research Leadership – 2

1.7 Develop curricula for CPD

1.8 Curriculum review and launch open course for subscription

1.9 Organize One Health Summer School

1.10 Organize training in biosafety and Laboratory Quality Management

1.11 Procure training laboratory materials and equipment

1.11.1 Maintenance of equipment

1.12 Engage laboratory manager

1.13 Engage training and research support officer

2.0 Research Excellence

2.1 Upgrade effluent treatment of the BSL- 3 facility

2.2 Refurbish student training laboratories

8 MSc students start in September/ October each academic year

37

Action

Plan Activity

Timeline


Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

2.3 Engage Postdoctoral Fellows

2.4 Organize Research topics and supervision for MSc by course work

2.5 Organize Research topics and supervision for MPhil / Res MSc

2.6 Organize Research topics and supervision for PhD students

2.7 Organize Research topics and mentorship for Postdoctoral fellows

2.8 Coordinate student research on antimicrobial resistance and emerging diseases of

high risk to southern and East Africa

2.9 Publish research findings

2.10 Attend and present papers in Scientific Conferences

2.11 Monitor progress of Postdoctoral fellows, PhD, MSc and MPhil students

2.12 Organize travel for faculty from partner institutions (national, regional or

international) for supervision and mentorship

2.13 Train supervisors on supervision skills

3.0 Quality Assurance

3.1 Organize trans-disciplinary inception workshop to refine Implementation Plan,

Define and allocate research themes, CoP structures, Supervisors/Mentors

3.2 Organize Management Board/Board of Trustees meetings

3.3 Organize quarterly Executive Team Meetings (one physical and three virtual

meetings in a year)

3.4 Organize International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) meetings

3.5 Organize joint scientific conference

3.6 Review research and training performance

3.6 Review and develop center business plan and center strategic programs for new

generation research and training

3.8 Develop center criteria for selection and performance appraisal for students and

supervisors

4.0 Equity Dimensions

4.1 Integrate courses on gender issues in the Masters training programs

4.2 Recruit and Engage Communications Manager

4.3 Hold communication stakeholder engagement workshop

4.4 Communication engagement with policy makers and the public in the region

4.5 Develop Center Communication Strategy

5.0 Attracting Academic staff and students from the region

5.1 Enroll 30% regional MSc students

38

Action

Plan Activity

Timeline


Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

Q

1

Q

2

Q

3

Q

4

5.2 Enroll 30% regional PhD students

5.3 Faculty and PhD Exchange

6.0 National & Regional Academic Partners

6.1 Engage and collaborate with partners

6.2 Carry out joint research and training activities

6.3 Develop and publish joint scientific publications

6.4 Develop and apply joint research proposals

7.0 National and Regional Sector Partners

7.1 Engage and collaborate with regional sector partners

7.2 Carry out joint research activities

7.3 Placement of students on industrial training



8.0 Collaboration with International Academic Partners

8.1 Engage and collaborate with partners

8.2 Carry out joint research and training activities



8.5 Placement of students in Academic institutions

9.0 Management and Governance

9.1 Review functions of Board of Trustees/Management Board

9.2 Organize Board of Trustees/Management Board meetings

9.3 Support Center operation costs

9.4 Organize mission to London by Center Leader plus 1 or 2 CoP Leaders to become

acquainted with the governance and management systems

10.0 Sustainable Financing

10.1 Introduce full economic costing framework

10.2 Develop grant proposals by Postdocs, Senior Scientists and CoP leaders

10.3 Coordinate development of strategic collaborative major grant proposals

11.0 Monitoring and Evaluation

11.1 Develop KPIs for all research activities

11.2 Carry out monitoring

11.3 Meeting for National Steering Committee

1.4 Carry out External Audit

39

Section 10: Main Cost Items of the Proposal

ACTION PLAN LIST MAJOR ITEMS/GROUP OF ITEMS THAT ARE REQUIRED TO

CARRY OUT EACH ACTION PLAN IN SECTION 5

COMPONENT

ESTIMATED

COST

ACTION

COST $

Learning Excellence

2,468,830

Review of OHMB Curriculum 14,000

Develop e-learning content and enhance use of ICT Facilities in learning 43,500

Engage ICT Specialist 72,032

Training and Research support officer 80,555

Enrol 5 MPhil/ResMSc; Stipends, Research fund and Registration 157,363

Enrol 28 MSc Students; Stipends, Research fund and Registration 632,044

Enrol 10 PhD; Stipend, Research fund and Registration 925,750

Scoping workshop, curriculum development and delivery of research Leadership &

Management Skills Course. 205,500

Summer School/Skills enhancement short courses Yr. 2,Yr 3,and Y4 49,000

Equipment and Laboratory software for students practicals 141,585

Engage Laboratory Manager 37,500

Procure Two 4x4 Center vehicles and maintenance 110,000

Research Excellence

444,180

Upgrading effluent treatment of the BSL-3 Facility 45,000

Refurbishing teaching labs at Dept Microbial - SUA 81,000

Engage 2 Post Docs;Stipends, Research funds 211,680

Publishing research findings 24,000

International Travel for Directors CoP Leaders and academics including

participation/presentation at scientific conferences 82,500

Quality Assurance

445,750

Trans-disciplinary inception workshop 50,000

Board Meetings annually shared 75,000

Organize quarterly Executive Team meeting 30,000

Oversee and coordinate quality assurance strategy for centre budget 117,000

ISAB twice a year (once year dedicated; 2nd mtg a year shared) 153,750

Review research and training performance 20,000

Equity Dimension

180,000

Recruitment/Engagement of Communications Specialist/Manager 75,000

Communications Stakeholders engagement workshop 30,000

Engage Policy makers and Public 75,000

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Attracting Academic staff and Students from the

region

735,067

Enrol 3 MPhil/Res-MSc; Stipends, Research fund and Registration 67,441

Enrol 12 MSc Students; Stipends, Research fund and Registration 270,876

Enrol 5 PhD; Stipend, Research fund and Registration 396,750

National and Regional academic partners

560,700

Carry out joint research and training activities 430,200

Organize Joint Scientific research 60,000

Scoping workshop, curriculum development and delivery of research Leadership &

Management Skills Course. 49,500

Summer School/Skills enhancement short courses Yr. 2,Yr 3,and Y4 21,000

Collaboration with international academic partners 311,094

Engage and collaborate with partners 130,900

Attachment of PhD students primarily at UK and South African Institutions 180,194

Management and governance 809,379

Support Center operation costs :Centre Management & Coordination salaries,

including contribute 25% contract Deputy Leader & PI 371,042

Support Center operation costs: Salaries for Administration staff and Contribution to

secretariat & Departmental operational costs 438,337

Monitoring and Evaluation System 45,000

Carrying out Monitoring (And control auditing of partners) 20,000

Meetings of National Steering committee 10,000

External Auditing 15,000

Total Project activities 6,000,000 6,000,000

Co-financing including SUA Provision of Laboratory space, Specialised equipment,

Administrative and financial management support and payment for utilities 1,456,200

TOTAL 7,456,200

41

Section 11: Implementation Risks

1. Center Leadership and Sustainability of Excellence. We have identified the overall

leader of the Center as the current Head of Department of Microbiology and

Parasitology at SUA. The current Head is a respected molecular virologist committed

to the cause of the Center. The tenure of the position of Head of Department at SUA

is three years renewable, a process that is not automatic. It is not guaranteed that the

next Head of Department will necessarily be a molecular biologist with professional

interest in infectious diseases of humans and animals. We will protect the continuity

of the Center’s excellence by adopting the SACIDS model as a management entity

within the Department of Microbiology and therefore, which will always be managed

by an individual with due qualifications and experience that are pertinent to infectious

diseases of humans and animals, independent of the Departmental Headship. We will

also encourage Center scientists to apply for individual project funding. The CoP

Leaders with the Center Secretariat will be required to proactively seek leverage

funding for the Center programs and collaborative proposals with our external

partners. To this end we have already taken up subscription with Research Africa to

assist with identification of relevant funding sources. To ensure sustained excellence

in teaching, academic staff engaged in the Center’s Postgraduate program will be

subject to quality assurance monitoring by the university, will undergo training in

leadership as outlined in our training program . Finally, our strategy for partnership

with industry is designed to contribute to sustainability through mutually beneficial

collaborative arrangements. In this regard, we will seek to pursue funding

opportunities that will enable us to develop our USAID-funded collaborative pilot

process development and biological testing unit with the University of Texas, El Paso

into a viable Process Development and Biological Centre that can provide R&D

support to nascent pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing companies in the region

and/or attract international companies to act as a technically reliable unit for their

Phase 2 to 4 clinical/ vaccine trials.

2. Currency stability and inflation. The Tanzania economy is subject to fluctuations in

the value of the Tanzania Shilling and in inflation. We will take steps to shield the

work of the Center from such fluctuations by maintaining most of the money in a

Forex account and limiting transfer to the Tanzania Shilling account on as needed

basis.

3. Power supply: Tanzania experiences fluctuations in electricity supply that could

affect work flow of the Center. We mitigate these risks by including UPS with

sensitive equipment such as sequencers that we have included a budget component for

a standby generator that will be dedicated to the Molecular Biology Laboratory at

SUA.

Section 12: Additional Information Relevant to the Evaluation of this Proposal

MUHAS is constructing a new campus and teaching hospital at Mlongazila, about 25 km

from Dar es Salaam, on the way towards Morogoro. With this expansion, the MUHAS 2014 -

2023 Corporate Strategic Plan envisages an increase of student enrolment in order to address

the severe shortage of human resource in the country. On completion of the first phase of this

campus (2016/17), it is expected that the University will be able to increase student

enrolment from 2952 in 2012/2013 to 15,000 by 2023/2024. This expansion in student intake

will be accompanied by a concomitant increase in the research facility

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Section 13: Agreement of Key Members of the Proposal Implementation Team

Sokoine University of Agriculture - IUCEA

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