A second TESA site, the Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Zimbabwe, was one of two centres selected to pilot a new initiative established by EDCTP, the Novartis pharmaceutical company, and the TriNetX digital science company. The aim of this initiative is to rollout TriNetX’s patient data collection and management systems, which will support involvement in industry-led trials in the region by facilitating access to (anonymised) patient data.

Healthcare centres will gain free access to the platform as well as training in its use, helping to build their capacity to take part in international-standard clinical trials and enhancing patient access to innovative new medical interventions. The Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Zimbabwe is one of two sites piloting the technology, alongside the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Ghana. Wider rollout across the EDCTP networks is planned following the pilots.

EDCTP’s four Regional Networks of Excellence bring together research centres across multiple sub-Saharan African countries, to create platforms to support multi-centre trials, coordinate development of research capacity, and train the next generation of African researchers.

Among notable developments in 2023, a member of the TESA network – the Botswana Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory, part of the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership – was named a WHO Collaborating Centre of Excellence for HIV drug resistance testing. The centre hit the headlines in 2021 when it was the first to release the sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant. In August 2023, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros visited the centre to bestow the honour, at a ceremony also attended by the President of Botswana.

In 2023, centres within the Trials of Excellence in South Africa (TESA) network, one of the four EDCTP-funded Regional Networks of Excellence, received WHO Collaborating Centre status and piloted an innovative digital science platform for managing patient data.