On the road to recovery: building Liberia's clinical and epidemiological research capacity to respond to emerging infectious diseases

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The recent and devastating Ebola outbreak exposed the need for greater investment in health and human resources in Liberia. Supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Liberian-U.S. Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus (PREVAIL) was developed as an emergency, collaborative research endeavor to conduct clinical trials for Ebola vaccines and therapeutics to help end the suffering from Ebola virus infection. Although the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak is over, the history of 33 prior Ebola outbreaks tells us that we must continue to prepare. The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in collaboration with the University of Liberia (UL), and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will develop and implement a rigorous training program in clinical and epidemiological research methods for Liberian investigators and health professionals. The primary aim of training is to build the capacity of Liberians to become independent clinical investigators who can successfully implement high-quality clinical and epidemiologic research addressing key areas of importance in Ebola virus and other emerging infectious diseases. The eventual goal is to enable UL to support its own Master's (MS) Degree in Clinical Research by having nurtured and mentored a core group of well-trained investigators who can in turn become leaders in their field. Specifically, we will enroll Liberian health professionals in UCSF's program Training in Clinical Research (TICR) that provides rigorous training in clinical research, epidemiology, biostatistics, implementation science and analysis of original research, and confers a two-year MS Degree in Clinical Research. The degree requires practical research training that will be performed in collaboration with PREVAIL. PREVAIL scientists will also co-mentor trainees along with UCSF and UCLA faculty. The School of Public Health at UCLA brings many years of experience with emerging infectious disease research and training in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The training plan is based on over two decades of experience at UCSF's Global Health Sciences and the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, in training international investigators, post-doctoral scholars, and junior faculty. In addition to providing Master's level training, we will also offer advanced training in how to be a successful mentor, which is critical to nurturing junior investigators, but is rarely formally supported as part of the academic or research culture in sub-Saharan Africa. This D71 application describes the planning process for developing a Global Infectious Disease Research Training Program (D43).The D43- funded training will strengthen the capacity of scientists and health research professionals in Liberia to conduct independent, high-quality infectious disease epidemiologic and clinical research relevant to a successful public health response to emerging infectious diseases.