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Professor Hannah Akuffo has a research background of immunology of leprosy and leishmaniasis. She is Lead Specialist, Research Cooperation, at the Swedish International development Agency (Sida) and adjunct professor of Parasitology at Karolinska Institutet (KI). Hannah had the privilege to start the research cooperation between Sida and Makerere University in 1999 when the University was trying to emerge from a major crisis. Long term financial support to enhance the research capacity at the university at all levels where it was needed, has contributed to Makerere University’s current possibility to assert its role as a prominent university with enhanced research capacity. Today interaction between the university and small businesses through “innovation clusters” has demonstrated the potential role of the Universities working with small businesses in the country. These results are replicated in other countries with which Sida has research cooperation. As a representative of Sida, Hannah has served as the Swedish representative in the General Assembly of EDCTP from the onset of the organisation (for 4 years as the chairperson. She previously served as the Chairperson of the European Malaria Vaccine Initiative (EMVI). She has been part of the ESSENCE on Health Research initiative from the initiation of this collaboration amongst funders of research for health and has had the position of chairperson. She has served in various research steering committees of the World Bank/UNDP/WHO Special programme on Tropical Disease Research and Training (TDR), including 5 years as the chairperson of the Research Strengthening Group of TDR, 6 years as a member of TDR’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee, and from 2014 to date as the Chairperson of the TDR governing organ, the Joint coordinating Board. Hannah currently serves on scientific committees of DFG (the German Research Foundation), MUII2 (Makerere University /UVRI Centre of Excellence Infection and Immunity Research and Training) as well as the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) “Research Networks for Health Innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa” Hannah’s passion remains research capacity strengthening in low income countries . Professor Karl Hoffmann Professor of Parasitology Leader, Parasitology and Epidemiology Research group Director, Barrett Center for Helminth Control IBERS, Aberystwyth University Professor Hoffmann holds the Aberystwyth University Chair of Parasitology at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), having relocated in 2007 from the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge. Since joining IBERS, Professor Hoffmann has instigated the formation of the Parasitology and Epidemiology (PE) Research Group and has recently directed the development of a new interdisciplinary research center in helminth control (the Barrett Center for Helminth Control, BCHC). He is an editor for Parasitology International and currently serves on the Welsh Government Life Sciences National Research Network’s management and executive boards. Professor Hoffmann directs a laboratory team working on strategies to control helminths (blood and liver flukes) of biomedical, veterinary and zoonotic importance. Here, using functional genomics as well as classical molecular and biochemical techniques, his team attempts to provide new insights into developmental biology, epigenetics, bilateral symmetry, immune-evasion, sexual reproduction and organogenesis. His laboratory has, to date, been awarded research funding from BBSRC, the European Union, the Welsh Government, the Wellcome Trust, the Nuffield Trust, Innovate UK, Pfizer Animal Health (Zoetis) and the Sandler Center for Parasitological Research. As part of current translational activities using the Roboworm high-throughput drug discovery platform, Professor Hoffmann welcomes the opportunity to engage with other investigators in the search for new anthelmintics effective against both blood (Schistosoma sp) and liver (Fasciola hepatica) flukes. Greg Bancroft is Programme Director of the MSc Immunology of Infectious Diseases and currently Head of the Department of Immunology and Infection. His research relates to understanding the mechanisms of pathogenesis and the development of novel vaccines against two important pathogenic bacteria, M. tuberculosis and B. pseudomallei. His work in tuberculosis relates to the provision of independent, head to head, safety and efficacy testing in murine models of candidate TB vaccines through the EU funded TBVAC programme. He uses similar approaches of experimental modelling, cell mediated immunity and imaging in studies on the causative agent of melioidosis (B. pseudomallei), an important cause of septic death in rural Thailand and Northern Australia. This work is done primarily with a long standing collaboration with colleagues at Khon Kaen University in the endemic region of Thailand who study human immune responses to this organism and at both Mahidol and Chulalongkorn Universities on melioidosis and tuberculosis.