$70m AESA grant for African researchers working on mental health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis

Grants totaling $70 million have been announced to support seven African researchers working on issues such as mental health in Zimbabwe, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in South Africa and malaria in Mali.

The grants were announced by the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), based at the African Academy of Sciences in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

The Trust provided seed money for AESA, along with the Gates Foundation and the British government; the fund is also asking African governments to invest one percent of GDP in scientific work.

“It is first and foremost our responsibility as African scientists, as African governments, to actually make sure we are prepared for these sort of emergencies,” said Tom Kariuki, AESA Director.

“What AESA hopes to achieve is to look at the major diseases that are already epidemics, the neglected tropical diseases… and the emerging challenges like Ebola and really build the capacities to try and deal with these challenges,” Kariuki told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“We want good scientists trained and retained on the continent, and rewarded to do the work that they do.”