The Hague, Netherlands · December 2022 — The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) released a comprehensive report in December 2022 documenting the achievements of its fellowship programme over two decades (2003–2022), revealing an investment of €63 million across 271 grants that built a generation of African clinical researchers now leading studies on the continent's most burdensome diseases.
The report, titled "EDCTP Fellowship Programme 2003–2022," was published as the EDCTP2 programme concluded and the partnership transitioned into its third phase, Global Health EDCTP3. It provides the most detailed accounting to date of how sustained fellowship funding can build research capacity in low-resource settings — and how that capacity can prove critical in moments of global health crisis.
The Numbers: Two Decades of Investment
Across both the EDCTP1 (2003–2014) and EDCTP2 (2014–2022) programmes, the fellowship scheme awarded 271 grants representing a total investment of €63 million. The total number of individual fellows supported exceeds the number of grants, as several fellowship schemes — notably the Senior Fellowship Plus and Epi-Biostat grants — supported multiple fellows per grant. Under EDCTP2 alone, 362 fellows were supported.
Funding was distributed across the three major poverty-related diseases that have historically dominated sub-Saharan Africa's infectious disease burden:
| Disease Area | Share of Funding | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| HIV/AIDS | 24.3% | €15.3 million |
| Tuberculosis (TB) | 23.6% | €14.8 million |
| Malaria | 22.4% | €14.1 million |
The remaining funding supported research on neglected tropical diseases, emerging infections, and cross-cutting health systems research.
A Career Pipeline from Preparatory to Senior Levels
The fellowship programme was designed to provide support at every critical stage of a researcher's career, creating a pipeline that allowed African scientists to progress from early training to independent research leadership without leaving the continent.
The schemes included:
- Preparatory Fellowships — for early-career researchers establishing foundational research skills
- Clinical Research and Product Development Fellowships — supporting mid-career scientists conducting clinical trials and developing interventions
- Career Development Fellowships — designed to equip early- to mid-career scientists to establish their own research teams and become independent research leaders at host institutions in sub-Saharan Africa
- Senior Fellowships — for experienced research leaders maintaining productive research programmes
- Senior Fellowship Plus — a distinctive scheme requiring senior fellows to mentor junior researchers at institutions with less well-developed research systems, creating a structured mentorship channel
The Career Development Fellowship scheme, in particular, was designed to promote retention — encouraging postdoctoral and postgraduate medical researchers to remain in sub-Saharan Africa rather than migrating to institutions in Europe or North America. Eligibility required that fellows be residents of, or willing to relocate to, sub-Saharan Africa, hold a PhD or medical degree with up to five years of relevant research experience, and have at least one publication in an international peer-reviewed journal.
Gender: From 22% to 40%
One of the programme's most significant achievements was the improvement in gender representation. Under EDCTP1, only 22% of fellows were women. Under EDCTP2, that figure rose to 40% — a near-doubling that reflects both deliberate policy interventions and a broader shift in the gender composition of African clinical research.
While 40% falls short of parity, the trajectory is significant. The improvement was driven in part by targeted outreach, gender-sensitive selection processes, and the growing number of women entering medical and scientific training in African countries. The EDCTP programme's explicit tracking of gender data — and its willingness to report it publicly — created accountability that many larger funding programmes still lack.
COVID-19: The Stress Test
The report highlights a point that may be the programme's most compelling vindication: when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, many EDCTP-trained fellows were able to make immediate and significant contributions to national response efforts across sub-Saharan Africa.
This was not accidental. The fellowship programme had spent nearly two decades building exactly the kind of capacity that a pandemic demands: researchers with clinical trial expertise, laboratory infrastructure, international networks, and the credibility to engage with national health ministries. Fellows who had been trained to run trials on malaria and TB could pivot those skills to COVID-19 treatment and prevention studies. Institutions that had been strengthened through fellowship grants could serve as surveillance and diagnostic centres.
International Recognition
The quality of research produced by EDCTP fellows has been recognised internationally. Professor Deborah Yeboah-Manu of Ghana received the Royal Society Africa Prize in 2018 for her contributions to the understanding of tuberculosis. Professor Novel Chegou of South Africa received the same prize in 2022 for his work on tuberculosis immunology and diagnostics. Both were EDCTP-supported researchers whose work exemplified the programme's dual mandate: producing world-class science while addressing diseases that disproportionately affect African populations.
The Alumni Network
The legacy of the fellowship programme continues through the EDCTP Alumni Network, established to maintain links among fellows, facilitate professional collaboration, and track the long-term career progress of researchers supported by the programme. The network serves as both a professional resource and a evidence base for the programme's impact — tracking where fellows are now, what positions they hold, and what research they are leading.
This longitudinal view matters because the true measure of a capacity-building programme is not the number of grants awarded but the career trajectories of the people supported. If fellows remain in Africa, lead research teams, train the next generation, and contribute to national health systems, the investment has succeeded. If they leave the continent or abandon research, the grants have produced papers but not capacity.
Transition to Global Health EDCTP3
As the EDCTP2 programme concluded in 2022, funding and capacity-building initiatives are being transitioned under the framework of Global Health EDCTP3, the partnership's third phase. The new programme inherits both the infrastructure and the lessons of two decades of fellowship investment.
The 2022 report is, in this sense, both a retrospective and a foundation. It documents what was achieved — 271 grants, 362 fellows, €63 million, a doubling of female participation, and a cohort of researchers who proved their mettle during a pandemic — and it sets the baseline against which EDCTP3 will be measured.
For African clinical research, the fellowship programme's conclusion marks the end of an era. But the researchers it trained, the institutions it strengthened, and the mentorship networks it established will shape the continent's research landscape for decades to come.
Sources
- EDCTP, "EDCTP Fellowship Programme 2003–2022" (report, December 2022) —
- EDCTP, "Report: EDCTP Fellowship Programme 2003–2022" —
- EDCTP, Fellowship Programme —
- EDCTP, EDCTP Alumni Network —
- EDCTP Annual Report 2022 —
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