Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback

Makerere University

Makerere University

Funder
Top 100 values are shown in the filters
Results number
arrow_drop_down
93 Projects, page 1 of 19
  • Funder: UK Research and Innovation Project Code: MR/T03937X/1
    Funder Contribution: 96,899 GBP

    Despite numerous efforts by many stakeholders, Uganda still has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality in the world with the maternal and infant mortality rates being 336 deaths per 100,000 births, and 55 per 1,000 live births, respectively as of 2016. Access to quality maternal and neonatal healthcare is being stretched by lack of access to trained health professionals with doctor to patient ratios in Uganda being 25 times higher than the minimum recommended by the WHO. The biggest percentage of Uganda's population live in rural communities where access to specialised care is a major challenge due to long distances to big health facilities. Approaches such as education, advocacy, increasing access to medicine and skilled birth attendance have been used to improve outcomes. However, many mothers in Uganda and other Low and Middle Income countries are dying due to conditions such as postpartum haemorrhage, preeclampsia and malaria, whereas neonatal mortality is mainly due to conditions such as pneumonia, sepsis among others. What is very evident is the clear need for early diagnosis, better access to therapy and improved monitoring. There is therefore an urgent need for innovative, cost effective and sustainable context specific approaches to healthcare delivery, which can reduce maternal and neonatal mortality within a resource limited healthcare system. Appropriate technological innovations present an opportunity to i) deliver economic and efficient improvements in maternal and neonatal outcomes at scale, ii) replace existing technologies which are not designed for the Ugandan healthcare systems and environment, iii) reduce waste and iv) drive local economic growth. Uganda is uniquely placed in SSA in that, driven by academia and supported by the Government, it is expanding local research and technical expertise in biomedical engineering, healthcare diagnostics and technologies and healthcare innovation. We propose to capitalise on a new strategic collaboration between the University of Makerere Biomedical Engineering Unit and College of Health Sciences, and the University of Edinburgh to strengthen capacity for our proposed interdisciplinary Centre of Design, Innovation and Translational Excellence (CITE), initially focused on maternal and neonatal health. Our medium to long-term aspiration is to act as a hub to build innovation and capacity in the region, to act as a blueprint to stimulate innovations beyond maternal and child health and to expand our technological and research expertise to become the leading centre for academic excellence and innovations in biomedical engineering in sub-Saharan Africa. Our initial broad objectives are: (1) To map existing knowledge about the systems and processes for clinical evaluation of locally made Investigational Medical Devices (IMD) amongst key stakeholders in Uganda; (2) To strengthen local research capacity through training on clinical trial design for investigational medical devices and medical writing for the regulation of such devices. Training seminars, sponsorships to attend good relevant courses and exchange bench-marking visits between Makerere and Edinburgh Clinical Trials Units are some of the activities aimed at achieving this objective. The output of this objective is develop a critical mass of Ugandan researchers knowledgeable in IMD trial design, with specific expertise on trials in maternal and neonatal health; and (3) To establish a multi-disciplinary network with the expertise to develop a draft regulatory framework for Investigational Medical Devices, bespoke for Uganda.

    more_vert
  • Funder: European Commission Project Code: 635727
    Overall Budget: 8,817,640 EURFunder Contribution: 8,817,640 EUR

    PROTEIN2FOOD’s aim is to develop innovative, cost-effective and resource-efficient plant proteins –rich food sources with positive impact on human health, the environment and biodiversity. The quality and quantity of protein from selected highly nutritious seed crops (quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat), and legumes with high protein quantity (lupin, faba beans, pea, chickpea, lentil) will be significantly enhanced by using a multi-disciplinary approach that will include genetic, agronomic, food process engineering, sensory, socio-economic, and environmental assessment. Research is expected to improve the quality of plant proteins, produced in Europe, and of the sustainability of their production and processing. Through a better understanding of the: i) genetic mechanisms driving the protein formation and accumulation in the seed, ii) plant performance towards biotic and abiotic stresses, and iii) protein interactions with other components in the food matrix and its sensory repercussions in the final food products, this research should lead to the development of adapted plant protein sources with positive impact on environment and biodiversity as well as human health. Expected results in the project are: i) enhance the protein production by 25% through new effective breeding techniques and optimised crop management with an increase by 10% of the EU’s arable land destined to protein-crop production, using also marginal soils, ii) accelerate protein transition from animal-based protein to plant based protein in Europe with clear impact on reduction of carbon footprint, iii) increase EU agro-biodiversity by introducing promising high quality crops and legumes. Further, activities will support the prototypes of new protein-rich-protein food with exceptional market potential. Finally, we will improve the EU’s visibility in the area of food processing and technology through high impact factors scientific publications.

    more_vert
  • Funder: UK Research and Innovation Project Code: MR/V03510X/1
    Funder Contribution: 200,267 GBP

    Thanks to the development of drugs known as antiretrovirals, people living with HIV (PLHIV) can live long, healthy lives. Unfortunately, PLHIV need to take antiretrovirals for the rest of their lives. Antiretrovirals are generally safe but can cause serious side effects in some people, particularly with long-term use. Common side effects are discovered in clinical trials. If a drug causes side effects that are too severe or too common it will fail the trial. It isn't possible to test enough people in a clinical trial to discover less common side effects. These are found by monitoring people taking the drug in the real world. It is also essential that the safety of a drug is monitored in people of all ethnicities because some side effects are more common in people belonging to a particular ethnic group. Our work focuses on the 3.5% of the Ugandan population - 1.5 million people - who live with HIV. At the moment we have very little information about how many PLHIV suffer side effects due to antiretrovirals. The importance of encouraging and enabling healthcare professionals to report drug-related side effects is recognised by the Ugandan government. However, systems for monitoring drug-related side effects have only recently been developed in Uganda and the number of reports is very low. Only 400 reports on side effects due to antiretrovirals were made during the 12-months from October 2018 to September 2019. We urgently need to improve reporting of drug-related side effects due to recent changes in the treatment offered to PLHIV in Uganda. In 2018, Uganda began a programme to rapidly roll-out antiretroviral combinations including dolutegravir (DTG), the new drug recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), to PLHIV. Uganda is also rolling-out Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT) to prevent active tuberculosis - the main cause of death in PLHIV. Although DTG has some important advantages over other antiretrovirals, we know that in some people it can cause liver damage, high blood sugar, anxiety, insomnia or depression. In addition, the risk of side effects is likely to be higher when DTG and IPT are taken together. We aim to test whether reporting via a mobile application is effective at increasing reporting of antiretroviral-related side effects by healthcare professionals. If successful, our project will also improve our understanding of which side effects are most common in Ugandan PLHIV and how many people they affect. These are essential first steps in our work to make sure that every PLHIV is treated with the right antiretrovirals at the right dose in the future. The mobile application that we will test is called Med Safety(R). Med Safety(R) was developed by a European drug safety project and adapted for Uganda's National Drug Authority (NDA) by the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) but isn't yet widely used. We will recruit 3820 healthcare professionals from 382 HIV treatment centres to: 1) investigate factors that affect the success of rolling out Med Safety(R) among healthcare professionals and how healthcare providers feel about using the application; 2) discover whether using Med Safety(R) leads to more reports of drug-related side effects than the traditional web- and paper-based forms; and 3) whether using Med Safety(R) saves money for healthcare providers. We will also train researchers in drug safety. This project will show whether Med Safety is effective at improving the reporting of drug-related side effects by healthcare professionals. Our learning from deploying the Med Safety(R) application across a population that encompasses large, developed cities and isolated rural areas will be invaluable for wider global efforts in drug safety monitoring. Our strong links with National and International agencies including the NDA, MHRA and WHO will help to ensure that our work improves the safety of PLHIV.

    more_vert
  • Funder: European Commission Project Code: 101118123
    Overall Budget: 2,700,360 EURFunder Contribution: 2,700,360 EUR

    OpenMod4Africa aims to develop an open Toolbox populated with state-of-the-art models for analysing long-term pathways to sustainable, secure and competitive energy systems in Africa. The Toolbox will build on EU projects like Open ENTRANCE, Plan4RES and FocusAfrica, and will adapt and further develop open models in accordance with the African context and needs. The models are scalable, and can be applied to cities, industries and countries. Furthermore, a main objective for OpenMod4Africa is capacity building among energy models in academia. Five African universities will be actively involved in adapting models and conducting three regional case studies. The additional capacity and the open Toolbox will enable the universities to train new generations of energy modelling experts for the energy industries in Africa. Three decision-makers will also be engaged, together with a network of energy industries and universities in 25 African countries. These players will be invited to use the Toolbox, and to be involved in training activities. They will also be invited to a permanent network of expertise, which will be developed for further capacity building and collaboration beyond the project. Three case studies will develop energy pathways for rural areas, cities, countries and large regions of countries in Western and Eastern Africa and in Tunisia. The replication strategies will pave the way for further analyses beyond the project. Finally, OpenMod4Africa aims to collaborate with other ongoing initiatives to maximize the impacts of the project and create synergies. The consortium consists of 16 partners and 2 associated partners. Nine partners are African. Important long-term impacts from the three-year project include enabling academia and decision-makers in Africa to conduct their own analyses for the optimal development of their energy system, supplying energy to a much larger share of the population, and establishing a system based upon the abundant share of renewables on the continent.

    more_vert
  • Funder: European Commission Project Code: 265411
    more_vert
  • chevron_left
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • chevron_right

Do the share buttons not appear? Please make sure, any blocking addon is disabled, and then reload the page.

Content report
No reports available
Funder report
No option selected
arrow_drop_down

Do you wish to download a CSV file? Note that this process may take a while.

There was an error in csv downloading. Please try again later.