This health-focus was based on the recognition of health as a major human right and a major cause of human crises and impoverishment in Africa. We recognized the ever-increasing health threats that affect Africa and sought to address it through promoting research by our participation in implementing research, training of researchers, and offering ready expertise and infrastructural services to support researchers working in low resource settings in Africa.
We recognized with great concern, the limited involvement and engagement of the private sector in addressing the gap in the development of sufficient numbers of skilled researchers, attainment of country/continental-specific development goals and acceleration in the number of scientific outputs that would improve Africa’s competitiveness in research and development (R&D). Through our formative studies, we noted with concern that despite the mandate given to Institutions of higher learning in developing skilled human resource for accelerating Research and Development (R&D), many students with excellent potential in research, graduate with minimal skills that limit their continuity in research careers, with some losing their interest in research due to lack of supportive research environments both inside and outside these institutions of higher learning (IHL).
How findings of the formative study informed the SRF's scope of work
Therefore, SRF has piloted and implemented a private-public partnership model and the SRF model for research human resource development so as to minimize this research human resource loss and enhance the raising of more skilled researchers by providing continued or complimentary opportunities for; research training, mentorship, consultancy, a platform for research designing and implementation, infrastructural services, human resources services and sharing of best and evolving research implementation practices from experienced researchers. Also, SRF offers services of implementing, coordinating, and quality monitoring of a wide spectrum of research that partly include observational studies, feasibility studies, program evaluations, systematic reviews and meta-analysis and clinical trials. SRF is a partner to international entities, and it helps with implementing and overseeing global health research engagements.
Our services are open to; university staff, students, independent researchers, national and international private or public organizations, and International Universities and researchers who desire to implement research in Africa. We are also open to supporting non-African visiting students who seek to gain experience in Global Health research by collaborating and implementing research in Africa. We are open to governments, private companies, and hospitals to support in building strong data management and analysis systems that could aid research and evidence synthesis for decision making.
SRF’s Strategic Focus Towards Promoting Research Excellence in Resource Limited Settings
SRF Vision: SRF Vision: To become an international one-stop centre for research excellence promotion in low-resource settings. In all we do, we aim at establishing the right research infrastructure and services that could support research implementation, research career development & skills acquisition and easy access to Research Experts. This would be so beneficial to researchers outside Institutions of Higher learning, those in employments that limit research career growth, those in universities with limited accessible research support, and international researchers seeking to implement research in resource limited settings.
We believe that such infrastructure will include establishing in many African settings: Private Research Centres, Research training centres/institutes, Research consultancy Centres and Research administration support services.