News

Shifting the centre of gravity for African research funding

Wellcome is handing over two major research programmes to the African Academy of Sciences' Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA). The move will shift the centre of gravity of our African science funding from the UK to Africa.

A woman holding a rack of blood samples
Blood samples, collected by fieldwork teams, being checked at the Africa Centre for Population Health, Mtubatuba, South Africa.
Credit: Ben Gilbert, Wellcome

The two programmes – DELTAS Africa and H3Africa – support cutting-edge research aimed at tackling some of Africa’s most urgent health challenges, including:

  • infectious diseases
  • mental health
  • obesity and diabetes.

Both programmes also focus on training and supporting the next generation of African researchers and research leaders. 

AESA is an agenda-setting funding platform set up to address Africa's science, technology, innovation and development challenges. It's backed by the UK Department for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome. AESA's headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya.

Over the past two years, AESA has worked intensively with the support of these funders to develop robust and transparent grant management systems. It will now manage both DELTAS and H3Africa programmes in partnership with the funders.

AESA Director Dr Tom Kariuki called the handover a vote of confidence for AESA and African institutions' grant management capacities. "This represents a new era in defining partnerships between Africa and global organisations and furthers the momentum we are building for an Africa-led science and research agenda to transform this continent's future," he said.

Read more about the handover in our press release

Hannah Isom (maternity leave)

Lead media manager – Research and Corporate

h.isom@wellcome.org

Phone Hannah Isom (maternity leave) on+44 (0)20 7611 8898