West African Bioethics Training Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): In recent decades, there has been an increase in research and program funding to developing countries. This increase has highlighted the limited health care infrastructure and personnel limitations in these countries. One of such limitations is lack of bioethics expertise. Several studies and programs have run aground on this account. There is also growing outsourcing of clinical trials to developing countries and some sophisticated research are now occurring there. Because of the "Out of Africa" theory of human origin, Africa also holds interest for research in genetics. In addition, new biotechnologies are being developed that are likely to improve public health in these countries. All of these are occurring at a time when it is increasingly realized that routine ethical misbehavior among scientists is a greater threat to science than major ethics scandals. Our needs assessment survey showed poor knowledge of ethical issues among biomedical researchers in Nigeria and several problems including delay, inaccessibility and funding limitations plagued the few functional IRBs in the country. Respondents also emphasized the need for training for IRB personnel. Based on these, we propose a comprehensive training program in international research ethics designed to take advantage of the resources at the University of Ibadan, its unique historical role in biomedical education and research in Nigeria and its historical linkages with the West African Postgraduate Medical Colleges. This training grant will offer Masters' degree program leading to development of bioethics experts and provide training in international research ethics for members of IRBs, persons interested in Bioethics, biomedical researchers, IRB administrators, and research staff in Nigeria other West African countries. It will also offer training in scientific integrity in order to enhance the creation of ethical working environment for scientists and increase awareness of bioethics in general in West Africa.