Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death from infectious disease globally and is among the top 10 causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is also the main cause of death among people living with HIV. Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous nation with an estimated 197 million people, has the highest burden of TB, multi-drug resistant TB, and TB/HIV co-infection in the continent, and the sixth highest burden of TB globally. According to the World Health Organization's recent report on the 'End TB Strategy', "the Sustainable Development Goals and the End TB Strategy targets set for 2030 cannot be met without intensified research and development". Without question, research to address this health challenge will require international collaborative efforts; and will need to happen in settings with the greatest burden of TB disease. Clearly, there is a need for a meeting to share knowledge and discuss gaps and opportunities for further research in a setting like Nigeria with such enormous TB problems. The objective of this proposal is to plan a meeting between Canadian investigators and multi-stakeholder teams (including researchers) from Nigeria to exchange knowledge on TB disease and co-develop priority and emerging research questions, that could form the basis of a future grant application to CIHR. If funded, we are poised to hold a series of face-to-face meetings in Nigeria, the epicentre of the TB epidemic in Africa. These meetings will represent a significant step in our efforts to facilitate knowledge transfer, co-develop and identify pressing research questions on TB; initiate new research collaborations; and move towards the development of a CIHR grant application to plan future research. Ultimately, an effort like this could evolve in the long-term into a research program that will place Canada and Nigeria at the cutting-edge of TB research internationally, by potentially demonstrating new approaches and strategies to address complex epidemics.