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A delegation of 6 clinicians, engineers, and social scientists from the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University spent a week in Kampala (Uganda) to assess potential collaborative research between the two Institutions, Makerere University, a group of private, public and missionary hospitals, other key stakeholders and the Ugandan Ministry of Health. The workshop was funded by a University of Edinburgh Global Challenges Theme Development Fund Award.
The workshop was extremely successful with over 50 African colleagues including nurses, clinicians, biomedical engineers, social scientists, innovators, start-up companies and representatives from the Ugandan Ministry of Health. The workshop was co-led by Prof. Fiona Denison (University of Edinburgh) and Prof. Marc Desmulliez (Heriot-Watt University) from Edinburgh, and by Dr. Ssekitoleko (Makerere University) and Prof. Nyirenda (MRC – Ugandan Virus Research Unit) in Uganda.
The delegation agreed to focus on 3 projects related to neonatal and perinatal causes of death, training of personnel, and emergency care and funding from various sources including the MRC, NIHR, EPSRC and GCRF will be targeted. Key investigators of the workshop also met high level executives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Kampala to discuss future funding opportunities in Uganda.