experts to serve on the EDCTP Scientific Review Committee
EDCTP invites applications from individuals wishing to serve as reviewers for: Clinical trials for the diseases HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, postgraduate training awards and capacity building grants including ethics and establishment of networks of excellence.
Call for experts to serve on the EDCTP Scientific Review Committee
EDCTP invites applications from individuals wishing to serve as reviewers for:
- Clinical trials for the diseases HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis
- Postgraduate training awards
- Capacity building grants including ethics and establishment of networks of excellence
About EDCTP
The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) is a partnership between 14 EU countries, Switzerland, Norway and African countries. It aims to join relevant European national research programmes and their African partners to develop new clinical tools against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis with cofunding from the European Commission (EC) and with the
broad goal of contributing to poverty alleviation in developing countries. Specifically, this is to be achieved by accelerating the introduction of new or improved drugs, vaccines and microbicides by supporting clinical trials, especially of phases II and III. As sub-Saharan Africa bears the brunt of these diseases, the current focus of EDCTP is in this region. Moreover, in recognition of the inadequate personnel and infrastructure capacity, poor ethics review mechanisms and insufficient regulatory framework for conducting quality clinical trials in this region, EDCTP is strongly supporting capacity development and networking in order to address the immediate needs and to also ensure sustainable and synergistic programmes. Sustainability and synergy is further enhanced through the integration of European national programmes working in collaboration with African stakeholders as co-owners of the partnership.
Types of grants
Primarily EDCTP offers funding for Integrated Projects for conducting clinical trials. These integrated projects combine clinical trials with capacity building and networking. These components should be closely integrated in such a way as to ensure that the capacity development and networks established are utilised to successfully conduct the clinical trials under best practices and to promote sustainability of clinical research capacity in Africa. Independent of these integrated projects EDCTP also offers:
- Capacity development grants in ethics to support the establishment, strengthening and operations of national ethics committees and institutional review boards.
- Training awards to support and develop scientific leadership for conducting clinical trials in Africa. EDCTP will provide awards for senior fellowships. The training awards aim to create and strengthen both human and institutional capacity in African institutes to undertake clinical trials at the international level. EDCTP will also support the development of training programmes relevant to the conduct of clinical trials in Africa.
Please note that other capacity building components such as PhD and MSc studentships are offered as part of the integrated projects.
These grants will be provided on a competitive basis through grant schemes advertised on the EDCTP website.
General principles of EDCTP review procedure
i. Quality: all grant applications will be objectively evaluated to reflect the highest scientific merit and relevance to EDCTP to fulfil the objectives of the Joint Programme.
ii. Transparency: the decision-making process is described in procedures, and these procedures are available to any interested party upon request.
iii. Equality of treatment: all applications will be evaluated following the same standard procedures, irrespective of their origins and/or the identity of the applicants.
iv. Integrity and impartiality: all applications will be reviewed thoroughly and objectively to avoid any possible circumstances which might interfere or compromise the result of the evaluation.
v. Efficiency and speed: EDCTP aims to ensure that an optimal assessment is achieved in a competent and efficient environment.
vi. Ethical consideration: any proposal that violates the fundamental ethical principles may be excluded from the selection process at any stage.
Identification of expert reviewers
Subject to applicable criteria and procedures established by EDCTP policy, the EDCTP Secretariat will identify experts to either serve as Scientific Review Committee (SRC) members or as External Reviewers (ER).
Selected applicants will be added to a pool of experts with the following terms of reference:
i. To peer-review (comment, score, rank) grant applications for EDCTP and make a recommendation to the EDCTP Partnership Board (PB)
ii. To assist EDCTP in identifying priority projects and opportunities for the treatment/prevention and capacity building in the fields of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria
iii. To review progress reports (intermediate and final) of grants selected for EDCTP support
iv. The expert will work in a personal capacity and in performing this function will not represent any organisation/institution
v. Reviewers will be accountable to the Executive Director of EDCTP.
Subject to the timelines set out in the grant procedure, the EDCTP Secretariat will convene an SRC meeting in the EDCTP office in The Hague where the assessments of applications will be discussed in order to reach a consensus on the ranking. All logistic arrangements for the organisation of the SRC meeting will be carried out by the EDCTP Secretariat and in compliance with EDCTP Professional Travel Policy.
External Reviewers shall be requested to perform their assignment from their own location.
Qualities of candidate expert reviewers
Subject to assignment criteria established by EDCTP policy, prospective expert reviewers are required to have skills and knowledge appropriate to the areas of diseases or expertise in which they might be asked to provide assistance.
All independent experts must also have a high level of professional experience in the public or private sector in one or more of the following areas or activities in their particular fields of expertise:
i. Research in the relevant scientific fields
ii. Evaluation of projects
iii. Use of the results of research and technological development projects
iv. Technology transfer and innovation
v. International collaboration
vi. Knowledge of the conduct of clinical trials.
Reviewers are expected to have an excellent command of English. They may be invited from countries other than EDCTP-EEIG Members States or sub-Saharan African countries. Under no circumstances may reviewers be applicants or collaborators within grant applications submitted in response to the Call for Proposals that they have been selected to review.
List of the EDCTP-EEIG Member States
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
List of sub-Saharan African countries
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality
To ensure that the review process of grant applications or other EDCTP activities are carried out in an independent atmosphere free of direct and indirect pressures, appointed experts in the grant procedure will have to declare conflict of interest as stipulated in the EDCTP Policy on Conflict of Interest. Throughout their assignment the experts shall demonstrate the appropriate loyalty to duty and fully understand the confidential nature of their task.
Gender policy
EDCTP follows the policy of the European Commission on gender issues implicating that the review panel, if possible, should comprise 40% of women. To achieve this target, EDCTP will encourage applications from suitably qualified female reviewers.
Legal information and support
EDCTP is supported by the Directorate General for Research of the European Commission, via Article 169 of the Treaty, decision No 1209/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 2003.
EDCTP conforms to the legislation of The Netherlands concerning the Personal Data Protection Act.
Submission of application
- Interested candidates are requested to complete the application form and submit it electronically (via email) to: proposals(at)edctp.org
- The call for experts is always open and the secretariat welcomes applications at any time
- Please note that you will only be contacted if and when you are invited to be part of a scientific review committee or serve as an expert
For queries not addressed on the website www.edctp.org, please contact proposals(at)edctp.org
If you would like to download this Call for experts in PDF, please click here.
For submission please use the following document:
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