The National Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Disease Research and Training (NCESRTA) at the University of Abuja has revealed there was over five million pounds grant available to strengthen the capacity of researchers to find sustainable solutions to sickle cell disease.

The Co-PI Patient- Centered Sickle Cell Disease Management in Sub-Saharan Africa (PACTS) and Director CESRTA, Prof Obiageli Nnodu made the disclosure at a workshop organised in partnership with NCESRTA and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) themed, “Strengthening Institutional Research Capacity and Safeguarding yesterday in Abuja.

She said: “It’s a research that we are carrying out with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Health and Allied Science and Technology and University of Zambia Teaching Hospital.

It’s over 5 million pounds. Nnodu who stressed the importance of research to national development, added that it was good for African institutions to have their capacity to undergo research training, ensure they put the right infrastructure in place not only to win grants, but to monitor, manage and carry out research projects as well as to report and implement findings from research projects into the society into policy.

“This capacity strengthening workshop is a very important one in our university because over the past four years we’ve had significant increases in the number of research grants that we’re getting but we also have what I would tend to say is a population.”