PROJECT SUMMARY
Centro de Investigaçao em Saude de Manhiça (CISM) – Fundaçao Manhiça is one of the leading research
centers in southern Africa. Created in 1996 and established as an independent Mozambican institution in
2006, CISM promotes and conducts biomedical research in priority health areas such as malaria,
tuberculosis, HIV, and respiratory disease. Demonstrating CISM's commitment to biomedical research, the
institution served as a RTS Phase III Clinical Trial site for the malaria vaccine.
For two decades, CISM has demonstrated the capacity to develop proposals, raise funding, and establish
collaborative partnerships. In 2016, CISM obtained National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 funding for the
first time as prime awardee. For this study, CISM led a consortium of three international collaborators from
low- and middle-income country institutions. Additional, within the last year, CISM received a second R01 as
a prime awardee and built a collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) as an R01 sub-awardee.
While CISM has been effective in implementing the aforementioned NIH projects, administrative support
flaws were highlighted in daily operations and grants management. This serves as a challenge and learning
opportunity for the CISM grants management team. As a sub-awardee to BCM, this presents an opportunity
for CISM grants management administrators to be trained by BCM grants management staff to reinforce the
skills necessary to ensure CISM is in full compliance with US federal funding rules and regulations. The
project, “CAP-LUSO”, will provide the opportunity for BCM CISM trainees to share learned best practices
with CISM program teams and other Portuguese-speaking African countries – in a “train the trainer” format.
Experienced grants manager, Carole Amroune, will serve as the principle investigator and lead the CAP-
LUSO project. She has nine years' experience working at CISM parent entity, ISGlobal, and will be based in
Manhiça to ensure an appropriate training plan that is aligned with CISM administrative grants management
needs. She will also support reorganization of the CISM Projects Unit. Her experience managing United
States federal funds in foreign contexts and institutions will provide additional knowledge sharing
opportunities.
The two CISM senior administrative staff to receive training from BCM will organize internal training
sessions to transfer knowledge to the CISM Projects Unit, administrative assistants, and principal
investigators. Further, to broaden the impact of CAP-LUSO and share best practices beyond the G11 grant
funded training opportunity, CISM will organize a United States federal funding grants management
workshop for Portuguese-speaking African country institutions. The training imparted will enable
Portuguese-speaking African country institutions to confidently pursue NIH funding in their respective
countries and impact the health of their beneficiaries.
