Examples of capacities mobilised by members of African Research Coalition for Health (ARCH) for COVID-19 response
| Research capacity mobilised | Activities | Consortia involved |
| Molecular biology expertise and laboratory infrastructure | Supporting COVID-19 testing; validation of testing kits; sequencing SARS-CoV-2 to understand transmission pathway and to detect changes in the virus over time | IDeAL, MUII-plus, THRiVE, MARCAD, Afrique One-ASPIRE, DELGEME, CARTA+, WACCBIP |
| Epidemiology, statistical and mathematical modelling | COVID-19 data analysis and predictive modelling; statistical advisory roles for data analysis for national response teams and intervention trials | SSACAB, IDeAL, CARTA+ |
| Surveillance platforms such as Health Demographic Surveillance Systems | Respiratory disease surveillance to estimate missed COVID-19 cases; sero-surveillance to provide national prevalence estimates and estimation of COVID-19-related deaths outside the hospital setting | IDeAL, MARCAD, THRiVE, SSACAB, CARTA+ |
| Immunology, clinical research, genetic susceptibility studies | Studies to understand genetic susceptibility, immunity and clinical manifestations of COVID-19 in the Africa population | SANTHE, IDeAL, MUII-plus, THRiVE |
| Clinical trials | Trials for COVID-19 drugs for example, hydroxychloroquine, repurposed influenza drugs, vaccines and locally developed medical equipment such as ventilators; data analysis for clinical trials | IDeAL, THRiVE, MUIIPlus, MARCAD, SSACAB, CARTA+ |
| Health systems and health economics | Assessing COVID-19 economic impact and health systems disruptions, including health workers experiences, health systems response and access to reproductive health systems. | Afrique One-ASPIRE, IDeAL, CARTA+ |
| Social sciences and ethics research | COVID-19 Knowledge Attitude and Practice Studies; studies on impact of lockdown on social well-being; studying and advising on expedited ethics approval process for COVID-19 studies | Afrique One-ASPIRE, CARTA, IDeAL, MARCAD, THRIVE, SSACAB |
| Mental health research capacity | Assessing the impact of lockdown on mental health and developing interventions including online support platforms | AMARI’ IDeAL |
| One Health platforms | COVID-19 knowledge transformation for communication design by intersectoral stakeholders and community leaders | Afrique One-ASPIRE, |
| Policy analysis and links national response teams, and with other agencies | Technical advisors on national response teams; training health workers in COVID-19 testing and use of PPEs; training response team on data analysis | All consortia |
| Paedagogy expertise and information technology infrastructure | ARCH fellows trained in paedagogy supporting online teaching in universities to ensure learning continuity | CARTA+ |
| Community and public engagement expertise and Information technology infrastructure | Hosting of and participation in COVID-19 webinars, television and radio shows and other media platform by ARCH fellows and scientists | All consortia |
| Fund raising for research and link with funders | Development of grant application to expand response activities beyond local funding; working with AAS to define local COVID-19 research priorities | All consortia |
| Research management | Expedited research protocols ethic review; expedited grants application processing | All consortia |
AAS, African Academy of Sciences; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.