On Wednesday 19th of October, 2022, our Directorate of Research conducted the first meeting with stakeholders for the development of a Research Ethical and Regulatory Framework to be used as a benchmark for the conduct of research in The Gambia.
This is following the three-day Ethic and Regulatory Capacity (ERC) project consultative workshop, which was followed by another three days of training on research ethics and regulatory capacity.
The ERC Project, initiated by the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (MRC at LSHTM) and funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trails Partnership (EDCTP), aims to build robust ethics and regulatory governing framework to enhance the ethics and regulatory capacity of The Gambia, establish institutional research ethic committees, and ensuring optimum protection and research participants.
The Director of Research, James Gomez urged members to work together in developing a National Research Ethics Framework, which he said is crucial for the coordination and advancement of Research in the country.
The Framework being developed is guided by the recently validated National Research Policy by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research Science and Technology in which, pronouncements were made in setting up a National Research Ethics Committee in The Gambia while encouraging the existence of international or local ethic committees.
