COHRED’s mission is to strengthen research system capacity in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) and to enable governments, research institutions and researchers to find solutions for their health, equity, and development challenges through research. COHRED does this through several initiatives, including the strengthening of the capacity of research ethics committees by enabling administrators, researchers, and reviewers to comprehensively manage the entire review cycle, including protocol submission, reviewing and approving protocols, and facilitating information management of RECs through an on-line platform called RHInnO Ethics. The RHInnO Ethics platform development and implementation in the national research institutions in the African subcontinent are funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP).

To build local capacity and promote efficiency, COHRED supported the establishment of EthiXPERT in May 2018 in Pretoria, SA. COHRED is delighted to announce that it will hand over the overall management and coordination of the RHInnO Ethics project to EthiXPERT from July 1, 2021 onwards. COHRED’s Executive Director and the founder of RHInnO Ethics – Prof Carel IJsselmuiden says – “COHRED acknowledges the establishment of EthiXPERT like universities worldwide would regard the creation of ‘spin-off’ organizations that focuses on managing and improving specific innovation. By entering into a partnership with EthiXPERT in Africa, COHRED would have achieved its objective of enabling an African entity to take over and play its rightful role in strengthening research ethics capacity in Africa; by Africa and for Africa.“

To lead the program and ensure to take the RHInnO Ethics to next level to achieve its vision and mission – COHRED’s RHInnO Ethics project leader – Francis Kombe, has joined the EthiXPERT as a CEO. He says, “EthiXPERT has come to fruition as a result of COHRED’s dream for Africa, namely their desire to build the capacity of African institutions, enabling them to have adequate local knowledge, skills and expertise, and the tools to develop locally relevant solutions. Through this partnership, EthiXPERT will be supported to position itself as a viable entity in Africa with the competence and expertise to support institutions in Africa to strengthen their research ethics capacity.”