AFRICA BUILD aims to improve capacity for health research and education in Africa, through Information Technologies (IT). It will provide innovative learning and research opportunities.

Background: The EU has supported many IT and health initiatives, with significant results. In contrast, there has been no significant transfer of expertise, methods and tools to neighbour countries in Africa.

Main objective: To promote health research, education and practice in Africa through the creation of centres of excellence, by using IT, know-how, e-learning and knowledge sharing through Web-enabled virtual communities. Initial EU-Africa transfer aims to create sustainable South-South communities of African researchers.

Sub-objectives:
(1) To analyse the state of the art in health research and education in Africa. A Roadmap for future European actions will be released.
(2) To implement an IT-enabled, open and collaborative infrastructure for education, training and knowledge sharing for health researchers in English-, French- and Arabic-speaking African countries, developing virtual communities of practice.
(3) To develop and offer a large number of e-learning courses, validated learning resources, methodologies and supporting evidence for improving the education capacities of health-focused centres of excellence in Africa.
(4) To facilitate researchers mobility and participation in local and international meetings.
(5) To validate the AFRICA BUILD impact in pilot research and education initiatives related to reproductive health and HIV/AIDS research.
(6) To disseminate outcomes in scientific conferences and journals, media and workshops and conferences in Africa.

Expected impact: Based on the experience of the partners including WHO we aim to improve know-how, research and technological capacities at the African centres of excellence. Successful actions will be transferred to other organizations and industry.