Establishing a Cancer Research Consortium in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Challenges Faced and Lessons Learned

Abstract

There is an increasing effort in the global public health community to strengthen research capacity in low- and middle-income countries, but there is no consensus on how best to approach such endeavors. Successful consortia that perform research on HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases exist, but few papers have been published detailing the challenges faced and lessons learned in setting up and running a successful research consortium. Drawing on our experience of founding the African Research Group for Oncology (ARGO), we describe steps and key factors needed to establish a successful collaborative consortium between researchers from both high- and low-income countries. In addition, we present challenges we encountered in building our consortium, and how we managed those challenges. Although our research group is focused primarily on cancer, many of our lessons learned can be applied more widely in biomedical or public health research in low-income countries.

Colorectal cancer—global burden, trends, and geographical variations

“…Surgery thus appears to be the treatment option most readily available. To maximize on resource allocation, the African Research Group in Oncology (ARGO) was established in 2010 from the partnership between Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Obafemi Awolowo University . The group has grown to six academic centers in Nigeria gathering prospectively clinical, histological, and radiological data as well as biological samples for translational research on CRC.…”

Managing health research capacity strengthening consortia: a systematised review of the published literature

“…However, neither the factors informing the choice of management structure nor the effectiveness of the structures were discussed in any paper. One paper reported considering gender balance,59 and three described the involvement of junior researchers (in one case stating the capacity strengthening intent of the decision) 25 62 64. The leaders of the consortia tended to be those who initiated the collaboration, had the required resources or were selected to fulfil funder requirements 46 56 65.…”

Is it about the ‘where’ or the ‘how’? Comment onDefining global health as public health somewhere else

“…Furthermore, technology plays an important part in global health, for example, through telemedicine or transcontinental academic or clinical collaborations. 10 With technology providing instant access to people, information and products worldwide, the practice of global health no longer necessitates travelling somewhere else, yet the outcome of these collaborations have applicability both within our own communities as well as elsewhere. Thus, we feel that the definition provided by King and Koski is at variance with the transnational practice of global health that has narrowed the remoteness of public health interventions.…”