21/05/2025
NIPRD ANNOUNCES COLLABORATION WITH SPARK GLOBAL TO HOST SPARK TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH BOOTCAMP AND CONFERENCE TO CATALYSE PRESIDENTIAL INITIATIVES AND NATIONAL HEALTH SECTOR REFORMS
In a significant stride towards healthcare innovation and self-reliance across Africa and in many parts of the developing world, the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) will collaborate with SPARK GLOBAL to train and educate local African scientists to directly address the health needs of the continent. Leveraging the respective institutional experience and cognate expertise, NIPRD in partnership with SPARK GLOBAL will host the annual SPARK Translational Research Bootcamp and Conference in Abuja, Nigeria on 2nd – 6th February 2026, including the launch of the SPARK Nigeria program.
The bootcamp and conference will bring together scientists from across African universities and research institutes for training and collaboration using the SPARK translational research model, offering opportunities for education, interaction and collaboration to enable and empower local researchers to develop local capacity leveraging translational research principles. Development of a SPARK program in Nigeria will highlight the Government’s current priorities on research and development to build respective value chains in life sciences, pharmaceutical and other relevant contributory sectors for effective healthcare delivery.
The initiative’s goal of developing a local, self-driven discovery and development ecosystem is particularly important in the African setting where health and socioeconomic challenges provide commensurate opportunities for robust collaboration and more impactful interventions.
The SPARK Translational Research Bootcamp and Conference aims to achieve the following objectives;
a. Educating African scientists and researchers through an intensive translational research bootcamp.
b. Working to close gaps between basic scientific discoveries and their practical applications by building research capacity and collaboration in the Continent.
c. Facilitating opportunities for networking and collaboration amongst stakeholders, scientists, and other key facilitators within the innovation cycle.
d. Training SPARK Africa Directors to help establish SPARK centres in host institutions.
e. Leveraging the emergent policies to promote the prioritisation of science, research and development in Africa.
According to Dr. Obi Peter Adigwe, the Director-General of NIPRD, this initiative will enhance R&D and innovation capacity to address prevalent diseases across Africa, whilst also catalysing Pan-African collaboration in the development of socioeconomic objectives embedded in respective value chains. The output, structures, and networks that will emerge will enable a template for more impactful knowledge sharing to aid development of evidence-based interventions that address local challenges.