We are pleased to announce the submission of STRIDE-Africa project to the European Commission under the Global Health EDCTP3 programme.

The project STRIDE-Africa (African-led Training and Innovation Networks for Sustained EThics, Regulatory, and Pharmacovigilance Capacity Through Interoperable Digital Platforms and REsponsible AI-Supported Review) will strengthen research ethics oversight, medicines regulation and pharmacovigilance while reinforcing the institutions, professionals and digital infrastructures responsible for these functions, by bringing together institutions from Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia and Italy.

At the core of STRIDE-Africa lies a clear principle: lasting capacity strengthening should be embedded within existing African institutions and systems, rather than built through parallel project structures.

A central com workforce and institutional development. Competency-based training, Training of Trainers, mentorship and institutional twinning will be combined with targeted improvements in ethics review, regulatory assessment, pharmacovigilance, post-authorisation safety and emergency preparedness.

Ultimately, STRIDE-Africa aims to translate training and technical support into durable institutional change: stronger procedures, a more competent workforce, more interoperable systems and a sustainable regional network whose tools and implementation lessons can support wider adaptation across sub-Saharan Africa.

A sincere thank you to all consortium partners and colleagues whose expertise, collaboration and commitment made this submission possible.

We now look forward to the evaluation – and hopefully to taking the next steps together with the STRIDE-Africa consortium.