UEM Collaborative Research Ethics Education Program

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT: Successful biomedical research and international collaboration require strong and well-staffed research support systems and an institutional infrastructure grounded in ethical best practices. The PALOP countries (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa) have worked to establish national and institutional Research Ethics Committees (REC) and other mechanisms of ensuring oversight and compliance of their human participant’s research. Despite these advances, the state of health research governance and ethics review in Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe is uneven, and each has struggled to varying degrees to keep pace with the science. These countries continue to face scant resources, limited regulation of health research, and insufficient training opportunities for REC members, health researchers, and students in health sciences institutions. Language has also been cited as a major barrier for the development of research ethics in the PALOP countries, both because the preponderance of bioethics educational materials are available only in English, and due to the linguistic isolation, that hinders academics from these countries from contributing their experiences within international bioethics discourse. A team of experienced research ethics educators from UEM, UTSW, and Tulane University seeks to renew the UEM-Collaborative Research Ethics Education Program (Formação Colaborativa em Etíca na Pesquisa, FoCEP). We propose a series of interrelated educational aims and activities intended to build capacity for advanced education in international research ethics in Mozambique and more broadly among a consortium of academic institutions from several PALOP countries. The Specific Aims of this study are 1) to continue expanding the cadre of Mozambican leaders in biomedical research with in-depth knowledge and practical skills in both ethical study design and ethical conduct of clinical and epidemiologic research through strengthening of a newly established Masters of Bioethics and Human Values at UEM; 2) to develop a cadre of research ethics educators from across FoCEP’s established network of PALOP country academic partners through the Tulane Research Ethics Educator Certificate Course; and 3) to develop the framework for the establishment of an additional Master’s degree programs focused on research ethics that targets students from three West African PALOP countries.