FCRM
Scientific Coordinator. Leading role in Work Package 2 “Scientific Project Coordination” and Work Package 4 “Epidemiological investigations to enhance surveillance of MPXV infection in populations, animals and environmental conditions in study sites at Congo River border at both sides (DRC and RoC)“
Foundation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale (FCRM) in Republic of Congo was created as a legal entity in 2008 to address the issue of the limited number of Congolese scientists conducting health research activities in the Republic of Congo. FCRM has a biosafety level 3 lab facility as well as RT-PCRs. FCRM has wide experience in project coordination: FCRM coordinates the Central
Africa clinical research Network (CANTAM 1, 2, 3), Central Africa Humboldt Hub as well as the PANDORA-ID-net consortium, aimed at strengthening partners to preparedness and rapid response to outbreaks of infectious diseases in Africa.
The Scientific Project Leader, Prof. Francine NTOUMI, is Founder, Chair and Executive Director of the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research, Republic of Congo, lecturer in Immunology at the University Marien Ngouabi, Republic of Congo, and Research Group Leader at the University of Tübingen, Germany. She is a member of several scientific committees and international scientific networks in Africa and Europe and serves as a reviewer for a number of leading scientific journals. Throughout her career she has trained African scientists of various nationalities in disciplines such as immunology and molecular epidemiology.
Since January 2009, Prof Ntoumi has been involved in developing health research capacities in Central Africa through the Central Africa Network on Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria, (CANTAM). Between 2007 and 2010, she served as the first African leader of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM), and in 2014 she was appointed to the board of the Global Health Scientific Advisory Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and in 2015 to the Board of Directors of the International Aids Vaccine Initiative. In 2012, she received the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Regional Scientific Award for women and was also laureate of the RICE prize (Reseau International des Congolais de l’Etranger). She received the Georg Forster Prize, Germany and the Christophe Mérieux Prize , France in 2015 and 2016, respectively.