H3Africa Coordinating Center
H3Africa Administrative Coordinating Center (H3ACC)
The Goal: to provide administrative and operational support to the H3Africa consortium and promote sustainability and awareness in Genomics and Health in Africa through increased promotion of H3Africa amongst the public, policy makers, funders and other key stakeholders.
Project Lead
The Problem
The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium aims to influence continentwide research capacity in health and genomics through support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Wellcome Trust, and the African Academy of Sciences (AAS). H3Africa has over 500 members from 48 active projects, with networks and sub-nodes spanning 34 countries. This consortium is supported by over 14 working groups, an Informatics Network, three Biorepositories, and a Data and Biospecimen Access Committee. H3Africa is governed by a Steering Committee with oversight from an Independent Expert Committee. Such complex pan-African networks of inter-institutional, multi-national research partnerships require an Administrative Coordinating Centre for cohesion and coordination.
Project Strategy
- Provide quality and reliable administration and line of communication
- Provide fiscal and logistical support for the consortium meetings and cross-consortium activities
- Be custodians and overseers of cross-consortium collaborations, resources and databases
- Facilitate the pooling of training resources, opportunities and career-tracking of Fellows
- Monitor, evaluate and report on the progress and impact of the H3ACC and the consortium
- Facilitate stakeholder engagement activities and awareness of genomics research targeted at increased buy-in
Successes and Potential Impact
- Coordinating Centre staff manages online meetings of the consortium, mailing lists, and oversees consortium and working group communications, holding the consortium together.
- Planned and implemented 16 Consortium meetings.
- Coordinating Centre staff develop and manage key promotional tools, such as the H3Africa website.
Project Sites
A. South Africa
University of Cape Town