KHRC Strengthens Project Management Capacity with European Vaccine Initiative Visit in Germany

March 18, 2025 | News Feed | Reading time: 4 min

As part of efforts to strengthen project and financial management within the Malaria Vaccine Pilot Evaluation-Case-Control Studies (MVPE-CC) Consortium, a team from the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) visited the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) in Heidelberg, Germany, from 11 - 12 March 2025. The visit sought to leverage EVI’s expertise in project and financial management to strengthen capacity-building initiatives within the consortium and explore future collaborations.

The KHRC team was led by Prof. Kwaku Poku Asante, Director of KHRC and Coordinating Investigator of MVPE-CC, and included Dr. Thomas Gyan (Ghana Co-PI and Coordinating Fellow, MVPE-CC), Mr. Abdul-Karimu Alhassan (Financial Administrator/Head of Accounts, KHRC), and Mr. Martin Dzimabi (Accountant).

Discussions during the visit centered on capacity building in project, financial, and research management, particularly within the context of North-South collaborations. During the scientific and technical sessions, both KHRC and EVI explored new research areas, joint grant applications, and ongoing projects including MVPE-CC, Advance_VAC4PM, EVAPREAP, and a study on placental malaria vaccine acceptability. Discussions also highlighted KHRC’s institutional training programmes and EVI’s TRANSVAC initiative as key capacity-building models. The finance meeting covered budgeting, proposal development, financial management, and audits. This visit has strengthened partnership between KHRC and EVI and set the stage for future research collaborations.

About the MVCE-CC Consortium

The MVPE-CC Consortium is funded under the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) (Grant Agreement RIA2020S-3310), to evaluate the implementation of the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine through routine health systems in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi using a case-control approach.