The Nigeria COVID-19 Research Coalition (NCRC) has recommended more deliberate coordination of research in Nigeria to maximise efficiency and impact of research in the country, based on the country’s identified research needs and priorities.
Dr Chinwe Ochu, NCRC, National Coordinator, said this at the first anniversary of Research Colloquium, on Monday in Abuja, with theme “Two Years On: Gains, Losses and Lessons in Nigeria’s COVID-19 Research”.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that as part of Nigeria’s COVID-19 response, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) continue to contribute to critical research activities to understand the epidemiology of the virus and inform public health measures instituted by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 and partners.
This includes establishment of the Nigeria COVID-19 Research Coalition (NCRC) on April 3, 2020, to generate research evidence to aid understanding of the COVID-19 and support Nigeria’s response to the current outbreak.
NCRC was established by NCDC and FMoH in collaboration with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), NIMR and National Universities Commission (NUC). The research consortium has membership of over 50 institutions and provides a national platform for coordinating research on COVID-19 in Nigeria.
A National COVID-19 Research Agenda was also developed by the NCRC which identifies national research priorities in line with the World Health Organization (WHO), research roadmap on COVID-19.
In keeping with this feat, it is deemed necessary to review the country’s gains, losses and lessons in COVID-19 research from different thematic areas including but not limited to: Diagnostics, transmission and epidemiology, Social and behavioral research, Health systems research and infection, prevention, and control (IPC), and many more.
Ochu, who is also the Director of Prevention Programmes and Knowledge Management, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said it is imperative that the Government of Nigeria, in partnership with the organized private sector and international partners, increases sustainable funding for research on epidemic and pandemic prone diseases.
“We urge Researchers to increase the development and conduct of indigenous research, tailored to the country’s realities to guide policy making and programming.
“Studies on complex ecological health phenomenon such as the COVID-19 pandemic should adopt an integrated multidisciplinary syndemic framework in order to understand its actual burden.
“We recommend capacity building and transfer by strengthening local capacity for multi-sectoral complex research methodologies through the lens of implementation and transnational research,” she said.
She noted that based on current realities in the epidemiology of epidemic and pandemic prone diseases, she urged Researchers to increase studies that employ the One Health approach in the country.
“We advocate for an increase in the patronage of local and African journals whilst these journals strive to achieve the highest possible industry standards as regards publishing high-quality peer-reviewed content.
“We recommend the application of the ‘quadruple helix model’ that incorporates the government, research institutions, industry and health consumers in the co-production and dissemination of research in order to maximize the pace, production and dissemination of research in order to maximize the pace, significance and impact of scientific evidence for action,” she recommended.
Prof. Ehimario Igumbor, an Epidemiologist, who spoke on the objective of the colloquium, said that the objectives of the Research Colloquium were to showcase high-quality research on COVID-19 conducted in Nigeria that was relevant both locally and globally; identify gaps in the research landscape apropos to COVID-19 and other health emergencies; and chart a course for health research priorities in Nigeria.
Igumbor said that the Research Colloquium featured plenary sessions and abstract presentations on COVID-19 research in Nigeria from Researchers across more than 20 institutions from governmental and non-governmental organisations within and outside Nigeria.
“Research presentations and discussions covered the subthemes of COVID-19 Diagnostics,Transmission and Epidemiology; Health Systems Research; Social and Behavioral Research; Vaccines, Therapeutics and Clinical Management; Syndemics in COVID-19; Infection Prevention Control and One Health Approach,” he explained.
Prof. Popoola Mustapha Ayo, Project Manager NCRC, said that the requirement in terms of funding for research in the country was US$ 5 billion.
“$500 million needed for research and development in the health sector proposition by the African Union is that countries should set aside one per cent of their GDP as contribution for Research and Development our National GDP is US$500 Billion and one per cent of this is US$ 5 billion.
“Presently, that is holding the highest grant portfolio for research is spending is spending around US$20 million.
“Health sector is in the requirement of nothing less than US$500 million per annum to have concrete research that can be of impact to the economy.
For the first time in the country, we are capitalizing on tripple.
“For research and development that has an interface between the government, private sector and the academia and we are actually focusing on the people,” he explained.
Ayo said that before now what the country did was to concentrate the funding for research and development only on tertiary education sector but for the first time, five institutions were brought together, having real time business in terms of development of vaccines generally in the country using the model of COVID-19.
“We have institutions like NEMA, National Research Institute, Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, University of Jos, and NIPRD among others because we are looking at the reagents component of what is needed so that it can be produced locally.
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“We are actually looking at the NIPRD that is going to be used for vaccine protection, TETFund has put in N450 million to support that process and the ultimate thing is to come up with candidate vaccine for COVID-19 in the next 18 months,” he explained.
