Thought-provoking keynote addresses were delivered by Professor Abdoulaye Djimdé, from the Malaria Research and Training Centre (MRTC) in Mali, on institutional research capacity in sub-Saharan Africa; Professor Michel Kazatchkine, from the Graduate Institute for International Affairs and Development, Switzerland, on equitable access to medical interventions; Professor Salim Abdool Karim, from the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), on African-led discovery and innovation; and from Professor Claudia Hanson, from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, on maternal and neonatal care.

The scientific sessions covered all areas of EDCTP’s work, highlighting much exciting progress being made scientifically and in the strengthening of research capacity. The Forum also celebrated the work of the 2023 EDCTP Prize winners, who were announced at the meeting

The Forum was preceded by meetings dedicated to EDCTP Fellows and EDCTP/Africa CDC Epidemiology and Biostatistics Fellows. Sponsored satellite sessions included coverage of the Pandemic Preparedness Platform for Health and Emerging Infections Response (PANTHER), WHO’s RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine implementation project, and neglected infectious disease control and the work of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).

In addition, workshop themes included the World Health Assembly WHA75.8 clinical trials resolution, the EDCTP Knowledge Hub, the ‘Design, Analyse, Communicate Africa’ (DAC-A) clinical trial initiative, Horizon Europe, and Global Health EDCTP3 funding opportunities. Panel discussions explored key issues in maternal and neonatal health, inequalities in global health, and how Global Health EDCTP3 can best work with other global health initiatives.

During the Closing Ceremony, Rwanda was announced as the host country of the Twelfth EDCTP Forum in 2025, which will again jointly cover the EDCTP2 and Global Health EDCTP3 programmes.

The Forum was the largest EDCTP event ever, attracting 1,118 delegate registrations of which 960 in-person delegates from 64 countries. The six plenary sessions featured 35 speakers (20 female and 15 male). The Forum included 247 physical posters and 70 e-posters, as well as scientific symposia, sponsored satellite meetings, and highly popular ‘meet the experts’ sessions, at which delegates could discuss any technical or career-related issue with senior researchers.

It featured a wide range of prominent guest speakers, as well as scientific sessions that provided opportunities for EDCTP-funded projects to communicate their findings. Distinguished speakers included the French Minister for Higher Education and Research, the Nigerian Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, the French Ambassador for Global Health, the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, the Director of the People Directorate, the DG Research and Innovation at the European Commission, the Director General of the Health Emergency and Response Authority (HERA), and the Acting Chief Scientist at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

In 2023, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of EDCTP in Paris during the Eleventh EDCTP Forum.

For more than a decade, Peter has played a critical role in establishing CERMEL as a national centre of research excellence in Gabon. Research there has focused primarily on malaria, as well other locally important infectious diseases. From humble beginnings, CERMEL has now contributed to 200 trials and employs 300 staff. It is making vital contributions to capacity building, through training of master’s and PhD students and postdoctoral scientists. Furthermore, it now hosts research professorships at several European institutions but based at CERMEL.

Prof. Kremsner was presented with the Prize at the Forum opening ceremony by Professor Marcel Tanner (EDCTP High Representative for Europe) and Ms Sonia Mocumbi, Dr Mocumbi’s daughter, who shared their memories of an outstanding scientist, profound influence on EDCTP, and father.

Early in her career, Kogie was one of the first clinicians to provide antiretroviral therapy to people living with HIV in South Africa, and to offer free antiretrovirals in clinics in rural South Africa. However, these efforts then revealed the enormous death toll of TB in the country. Since then, she has devoted her life to finding ways to reduce the burden of TB and HIV co-infections.

Her work has focused on disease prevention, vaccine trials and implementation research, particularly around drug-resistant TB. A particularly notable achievement was work demonstrating more than a halving of mortality in HIV/TB co-infected patients.

Prof. Naidoo was presented the award at the Eleventh EDCTP Forum Opening Ceremony by Sylvie Retailleau, French Minister for Research, Higher Education and Innovation.

THRU-Zim’s goal is to conduct research that addresses the most pertinent and relevant public health issues confronting Zimbabwe. It has a very strong focus on strengthening academic capacity – building the capacity not just of researchers but also of research support staff.

The Unit embeds capacity building in all its work and has hosted several EDCTP fellows. The team is also highly multidisciplinary, encompassing epidemiologists, statisticians, social scientists, health economists and others.

The Prize was presented to THRU-Zim at a ceremony at the 2023 EDCTP Forum by Professor Hannah Akuffo, an adviser to the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and former chair of the EDCTP General Assembly.

Professor Phiri holds a position at the University of Malawi but has also set up an independent research institute, the Training and Research Unit of Excellence (TRUE), in 2018. This now employs around 150 people and focuses primarily on malaria and anaemia.

His most notable achievement has been the development of a WHO-recommended malaria chemoprevention strategy. This emerged from studies he undertook on children who had been treated in hospital for severe anaemia. “What we found was that, even after they had been discharged, about 20% of them died.”

In particular, these children were succumbing to malaria in the months immediately after discharge: “I then developed an intervention where we would give the child an antimalarial during that vulnerable three-month period post-discharge, and we found out that actually decreased their risk of dying by close to 90%.”

As well as these major public health gains, Kamija has also been committed to capacity building, training more than 20 PhD students at TRUE.

The prize ceremony took place at the Eleventh EDCTP Forum in Paris, France, on 9 November 2023 and was presented by Dr Thomas Nyirenda, EDCTP Strategic Partnerships & Capacity Development Manager and Head of Africa Office.