Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello. I am Dr. Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at
the United States National Institutes of Health — or NIH. Our Institute is responsible for
leading NIH’s contributions to the Human Health and Heredity in Africa project or H3Africa.
I was delighted to come to Africa on two previous occasions to participate in key meetings associated
with what has now become the H3Africa project, but my schedule this month precluded my travel
there to attend this meeting — and for that, I am very sorry.
However, I am certain that Dr. Jane Peterson, NHGRI’s project director for H3Africa, and
Dr. Mark Guyer, the NHGRI deputy director and director of our extramural research program,
will effectively represent this important project and will be extremely helpful to you.
As you probably know, H3Africa is a partnership among the African Society of Human Genetics,
the NIH, and the Wellcome Trust, a global charity based in the United Kingdom. More
than half of the NIH contribution comes from something called the NIH Common Fund, a program
that supports multi-disciplinary programs. NIH Common Fund projects aim to break down
key roadblocks in biomedical research that impede basic scientific discoveries and their
translation to clinical advances. NIH Common Fund projects also act as catalysts by advancing
work in emerging fields, such as genomics. At this time, the NIH Common Fund Global Health
Initiative supports biomedical research and training through two programs: H3Africa and
the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (also called MEPI).
In addition to NIH Common fund support, H3Africa is further supported by several institutes
and centers at NIH, including the NHGRI, The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the NIH Office of AIDS Research, and the NIH
Fogarty International Center.
Our goal for H3Africa is both simple and profound: we hope to help African researchers develop
a sustainable, collaborative research enterprise that will improve health in Africa. Through
H3Africa, we plan to support world-class research and infrastructure-building projects, with
an emphasis on using contemporary research approach to the study of genomics and environmental
determinants of common diseases.
The heritage of all people has been traced to Africa. Much can be learned about all human
populations in the world by studying African populations. Furthermore, many previous studies,
including the International HapMap Project, have shown that Africans have the greatest
amount of genetic variation. Studying the population with the greatest genetic variability
should provide insights about the role of genetics in health and disease for all people,
including Africans themselves.
While the competition for NIH funding is fierce, global health is too important to ignore.
NIH remains profoundly interested in funding good science in Africa, where there is tremendous
intellectual capacity, exciting scientific opportunities, and a need to improve healthcare.
To help researchers compete for limited funding, for high-priority projects, NIH often conducts
technical information sessions, like the one you are now attending. I urge you to take
full advantage of this meeting and to ask every question you may have about the research
and infrastructure-building that NIH seeks to support, including questions about the
grants process, proposal writing, and grants administration. When you sit down to write
your grant application — which takes an enormous amount of time and effort — I want
you to have all the information that you need. You are, of course, welcome to continue asking
questions after the meeting by e-mail and phone. And please be sure to visit the H3Africa
website (h3africa.org) for updates and contact information.
NIH is committed to supporting genetics and genomics research — as well as training
and infrastructure building — in Africa. Through this work, the African scientific
community will become empowered to make important breakthroughs on many diseases, from understanding
their causes to improved diagnostics and treatments. We look forward to building enduring partnerships
with you, our African scientific colleagues, and to advancing this valuable. Thank you
and good luck, and I hope that you have a productive meeting.