The last Ebola epidemic originated from Guinea, expanded to the neighboring countries and led to one of the most challenging public health crisis of history. World Health organization reported that it took nearly three months for Guinea health officials and their international partners to identify the Ebola virus as the causative agent. By that time, the virus was firmly entrenched and spread was primed to explode. This planning grant will develop a research training program on emerging viral diseases (EVD) to address the needs in Guinea where the last epidemic originated in collaboration with NIAID-University of Bamako (USTTB) research centers in Mali, Northwestern University (NU) and Johns Hopkins University (JHU). This planning of training program will develop a curriculum for training doctoral and master degrees as well as non-degree certifications (professional skill enhancement), which will prepare Guinea to better handle potential future epidemics. Dissertation of Doctoral and Master thesis researches will include clinical and operational research questions related or applicable to Ebola and other EVDs. This program is a sub- regional effort between Guinea and Mali to have researchers from both sides to collaborate more closely on these cross-border diseases for a more coordinated and much efficient public health responses. In the final training grant that we will be developing on emerging viral diseases, Doctoral and Master degree students will have courses and supervision from faculty from the University of Conakry, USTTB-Mali, JHU and Northwestern University. The planning process for the training grant will address three fundamental questions: 1) What types of clinical research and health service research are needed in Guinea to support an effective prevention and control of emerging viral diseases? 2) Who should be targeted, and what kind of trainings are needed to conduct cutting-edge clinical and health service researches related to emerging viral diseases; and 3) how should a training program be organized regarding length, number of participants, venue, facilitators etc. to improve the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct clinical research or health service research related to EVD. The planning process will be organized as follows: 1] A planning meeting that will involve multidisciplinary investigators of consortium institutions (University of Conakry, USTTB, JHU and Northwestern University). At that meeting, the team will evaluate ways of building capacity in Guinea by leverage on experience, expertise and support from NIAID supported research programs at USTTB in Mali and its collaborators of JHU and NU, as well as designing surveys to assess the existing capacity and the additional training that needs to be provided in order to upgrade the country capacity in research on EVDs; 2] Conduct a survey to collect data on existing capacity to help identifying gaps and determining the needs for Guinea; 3] A dissemination meeting to share findings from the need assessment survey and provide detail plans for future training grant activities 4] Develop a research training grant.

The recent epidemic of Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa highlights the need for a critical mass of well-trained scientists and health research professionals capable to study and respond appropriately in timely manner to emerging viral diseases. This planning grant will develop a research training program on these diseases to build capacity and training in Guinea where the last epidemic started, and foster international collaborations. This proposed project is a collaboration between the University of Conakry and the NIAID-funded Research Centers of the University of Bamako (USTTB), Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University.