The Sixth European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials (EDCTP) Forum was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 9-12 October 2011. The theme of the forum was ‘Strengthening Research Partnerships for Better Health and Sustainable Development’. The event was attended by 535 participants from 32 African countries and 22 other nations worldwide.

The Forum clearly showed the maturation of the EDCTP programme as evidenced by 265 presentations, including 138 posters among which more than 60% were from EDCTP-funded projects. The majority of the presenters were African scientists working in Africa. Since 2003, EDCTP has funded nearly 200 projects including 56 clinical trials that took place or are going on in 29 sub-Saharan countries in partnership with the 16 EDCTP European states. These projects brought together researchers from 148 institutions from Africa and 42 from Europe, many of whom participated at the Forum in Addis Ababa. This clearly shows the importance of EDCTP and the EDCTP forums as platforms for collaborative research and networking. Additionally, twelve global health organisations that are EDCTP partners, presented their work and the areas where they collaborate or wish to collaborate with EDCTP.

While much has changed since the launch of the organisation in 2003, the strong commitment to improving health through partnership remains at the heart of EDCTP’s activities, as is the belief that better health can help achieve sustainable development. Underpinning this, in his speech during the opening ceremony, Robert-Jan Smits, Director-General for Research & Innovation at the European Commission (EC) said what has been achieved provides a fine example of what can be done when there is a “true and equal partnership between stakeholders”. He expressed the hope that the next European Union research funding programme, Horizon 2020, will provide support for EDCTP, allowing it to build on what has been achieved and also to expand its mandate.

The scientific presentations structured by disease, i.e. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, malaria, were connected by three overarching themes with regard to sub-Saharan Africa: clinical research and achievements and findings; developing scientific research capacity; and North-South and South-South partnerships for quality improvement research. These presentations and other Forum activities have been published in the Sixth EDCTP Forum Proceedings and in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and International Health.

Dr Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, Director for Health at the EC’s Directorate-General for Research, delivered the final address at the Forum. She called for the creation of “an unbroken implementation chain, from discovery to better health”. She described EDCTP as a role model for partnering on global health challenges, which was breaking new ground in terms of collaboration, strategy, governance and implementation. Looking at the future, she stressed that the EDCTP Partnership had to move forward in terms of wider participation by European public and private partners.