Nine African and European Research Centres Collaborate in the MNSIRSES Project

The kick-off meeting of the MNSIRSES project took place in Rabat, Morocco, on 10-11 March 2014, under the coordination of CRESIB, ISGlobal's research centre. The project, which is entitled "Clinical and public health research to improve maternal, newborn health and to control sexually transmitted infections", is aimed to establish a long lasting collaboration between Moroccan, South African and European research teams involved in clinical epidemiology and public health research. MNSIRSES receives funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union FP7, as part of the International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) to support staff exchange among research institutions.

Over a 4-year period, 9 research institutions from Morocco, South Africa and Europe will develop exchanges in the research areas of maternal and newborn health, sexually transmitted infections, human papillomavirus, antibiotic resistance and public health and social health protection, including training in the area of clinical, epidemiological and public health research. MNSIRSES will allow the training of a substantial number of PhD candidates, as well as the capacity building of about 25 young researchers, together with the development of new collaborative scientific proposals and scientific articles.

The project brings together partners that have common research interests but that work in very different settings:

• Université Mohammed V Souissi, Rabat, Morocco.
• Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah of Fez, Morocco.
• Université Cadi Ayyad of Marrakech, Morrocco.
• Ecole Nationale de Santé Publique, Morocco.
• University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
• The Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
• Université Victor Segalen-Bordeaux II, France.
• University College London, United Kingdom.
• The Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB), Spain.