TARGETS
Team for Applied Research Generating Effective Tools and Strategies for Communicable Disease Control
TARGETS Partners
The TARGETS Consortium brings together researchers based at seven key international institutions. Through core funding and a bottom-up approach to research programme design and implementation, the TARGETS Consortium seeks to support the independence and influence of its partners to engage in nationally and internationally recognised research.
The strengthening of research capacity is an essential feature of collaboration between Northern- and Southern-based partners, and is best done by conducting research together. TARGETS partnerships are strengthened by exchange, training, example and by experience.
TARGETS partners in India hosted the annual partners' meeting in December 2008. The conference provided an inclusive opportunity for all MAAS-CHRD researchers to find out about the work undertaken by partners globally, as well disseminate their own findings in depth to both national and international research communities. Further links have been established between partners in Sub-Saharan Africa, where laboratory scientists from Uganda have established an exchange with the Zambian TB National Reference Laboratory and ZAMBART to share experiences testing for TB drug resistance.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
LSHTM is Britain's national school of public health and a leading institution worldwide for research and postgraduate education in global health. Part of the University of London, the London School is the largest institution of its kind in Europe with a remarkable depth and breadth of expertise encompassing many disciplines. The TARGETS Consortium brings together over twenty researchers from different disciplines and departments at LSHTM. Researchers working on TARGETS projects form part of the Clinical Research Unit, Pathogen Molecular Biology Unitand Disease Control & Vector Biology Unit at the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases and the Health Policy Unit at the Department of Public Health and Policy.
Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania
The Ifakara Health Institute is a non profit-making, independent, district-based health research and resource centre in Tanzania. It generates new knowledge and relevant information regarding priority health problems and responses at district, national and international level through research, training and service support, aiming at better health and community development. It is the lead institution for the monitoring and evaluation of Tanzania's GFATM-funded voucher scheme for ITNs.
INDEPTH Network of Demographic Surveillance Systems, Ghana
INDEPTH is an international network of sentinel demographic sites, which provides health and demographic data and research to enable developing countries to set health priorities and policies based on longitudinal evidence. INDEPTH's data and research guides the cost-effective use of tools, interventions and systems to ensure and monitor progress towards national goals. The network is based in Accra, Ghana, and represents 37 sites in 19 countries.
KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, Netherlands
The KNCV-Tuberculosis Foundation is one of the most influential NGOs involved in tuberculosis control and is recognised as a key technical partner in the Stop TB partnership and works closely with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease(IUALTD) and the US Government to support national tuberculosis control programmes throughout the world. The Foundation has an active research team, which has a long-standing collaboration with the Tanzanian National Tuberculosis Control Programme.
MAAS Centre for Health Research & Development, India
CHRD is one of the two arms of the Maharashtra Association of Anthropological Sciences (MAAS), an academic NGO founded in 1976. It conducts action-oriented, participatory and operational research on reproductive and child health, leprosy, tuberculosis and HIV in tribal, rural and urban field sites. MAAS is organically linked to Pune University and other academic institutions.
Makerere University, Uganda
Makerere is a top university for health research in tropical Africa. It has a mature faculty with an international reputation not only in HIV research but across a range of communicable diseases.
ZAMBART Zambia AIDS-Related Tuberculosis Project, Zambia
Based at the University of Zambia, ZAMBART is an independent NGO engaged in trials, studies of health systems, diagnostic technology, molecular epidemiology, economics, anthropology and action-oriented operations research. ZAMBART currently works with the Ministry of Health as a key partner in the roll out of tuberculosis and HIV services. It is recognised as one of the leading TB/HIV research organizations in Africa and is the principal partner in a $10 million Gates Foundation project to reduce the burden of tuberculosis in the context of HIV.
