The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) is an innovative partnership through which the European Union (EU) and countries in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa are working together to alleviate the health and economic burden of infectious diseases in Africa.

Mission and vision

EDCTP’s vision is to reduce the individual, social and economic burden of poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases, including (re-)emerging infections, affecting sub-Saharan Africa. 

Our mission is to accelerate the development of new or improved medical interventions and health technologies to identify, treat and prevent poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases.

Our approach is to support collaborative research, with emphasis on clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa, to generate valuable new evidence on medical interventions, and how they can best be implemented in practice. We also support researchers’ careers and the strengthening of national health research systems in sub-Saharan Africa to enhance the capacity of sub-Saharan African countries – at individual, institutional, national and regional levels – to undertake collaborative clinical research.

History and establishment of EDCTP

Launched in 2003 and renewed in 2014 and 2022, EDCTP has been the focal point for EU support for global health research in Africa, and a visible sign of the EU’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals and more recently the Sustainable Development Goals. Through its evolution, EDCTP has been driven by the infectious disease priorities of sub-Saharan Africa and the need to develop African countries’ capacity to collectively address these priorities into the future.

EDCTP1 (2003-2015)

EDCTP was the first initiative based on Article 185 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (ex-Art. 169), which allows the EU’s participation in research programmes jointly undertaken by several EU countries. The EDCTP1 programme grants portfolio comprised 254 projects (€207.99M euros) on HIV, TB and malaria, including 102 clinical trials and 56 fellowships.

EDCTP2 (2014-2024)

The second EDCTP programme is implemented as part of the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020. The programme budget comprises a commitment of up to €683 million from the EU to match the contribution (cash and in-kind) from the European countries that are members of the EDCTP Association, as well as funding from partner organisations and countries. The EDCTP2 grants portfolio comprises 435 projects (€825.64 million) of which 84% of funding goes to research & development; and 16% towards transformative capacity development initiatives. These activities involve 44 African countries (with 100% participation of all French and Portuguese-speaking sub-Saharan African countries), 19 European countries and 8 other countries. EDCTP2 supports 215fellowships. Current and previous fellows from EDCTP1 are networking and collaborating through the EDCTP Alumni Platform.

Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking (2021-2031)

The third EDCTP programme, Global Health EDCTP3 (GH EDCTP3 2021-2031) was launched as a Joint Undertaking under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. It builds on the previous programmes and aims to address HIV, malaria and tuberculosis but also other poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases, to cover the response to emerging infectious diseases threats, the increasing problems of antimicrobial resistance and non-communicable diseases co-morbidities. It has a €1.6 billion budget (of which € 800M comes for the EU) over ten years to fund clinical research on infectious diseases impacting countries in sub-Saharan Africa.