International Health Faculty Receives NIH Fogarty Funding to Establish Research Ethics Training Program in Ethiopia

Assistant Professor Joseph Ali received a new grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center to strengthen education and capacity in research ethics in Ethiopia. Ali, who is also the Associate Director for Global Programs at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, will lead the project along with Dr. Adamu Addissie, associate professor in the College of Health Sciences at Addis Ababa University, and Dr. Adnan Hyder, professor and senior associate dean for research at the Milken Institute School of Public Health of George Washington University. 

The initiative, called the Johns Hopkins University-Addis Ababa University Research Ethics Training Program, aims to galvanize the research ethics landscape in Ethiopia by implementing an innovative model of sustainable capacity strengthening. The five-year award is for $1.2 million. 

The grant supports the development of a research ethics specialization within the existing Master of Public Health program and the creation of a dedicated research ethics unit at Addis Ababa University (AAU). The project will also help promote research around key priorities for research ethics and support a national bioethics forum in Ethiopia. Trainees at AAU will receive support to conduct research around a wide range of nationally relevant ethical issues, including those associated with infectious disease, genetics and genomics, and non-communicable disease research.  

The JHU-AAU collaboration builds on 18 years of continuous NIH Fogarty-funded bioethics training at Johns Hopkins. The program will work with Africa-based ethics experts and existing research programs and initiatives in Ethiopia to advance training, leadership, service and scholarship.

Contributor: Melissa Reed