Introducion
The Uganda National Council for Science and Technology and partners implemented the Consortium for Clinical Research Regulation and Ethics Capacity Development in Uganda (CREDU) project funded in 2017 by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). The project that was concluded in June 2019 developed the Clinical Trials Information Management System (CRIMS)meant to improve clinical trial management in the country. CRIMS aimed at harmonizing standards of the in-country approval across all regulatory agencies as well setting up an online and sustainable platform for review and approval of a clinical trial. The initiative to build the CRIMS with the ability to address the needs of the regulatory agencies was to enable integration and harnessing of the research potential whilst protecting the safety, rights and welfare of the individual study participants, community, researcher, sponsor and the country at large. In November 2019, the Clinical Research Information Management System developed under the CREDU was upgraded to National Research Information Management System to encompass all research; Social Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology and the Medical and Health Sciences. The outstanding challenge, however, is that after it was fully developed the Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in the country were not able to tap into and use the system for the purposes and good intentions it was built to accomplish.
The Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST)in collaboration with Mbale Regional Referral Hospital and Busitema University are therefore implementing a two-year project funded by the European Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnerships (EDCTP) titled; Scaling Up of Capacity of Research Ethics Committees in Uganda (SCRECU).
The main objective of the project is to build sustainable capacity for the CRIMS framework for all the RECs in Uganda with capabilities of facilitating multi-REC ethical review of research, national registration of research and subsequent monitoring of approved studies by research ethics committees in Uganda.
Specific Objectives of the SRECU Project