ACCRA, GHANA, 09 TO 13 MARCH 2009 -- Ghana is to host an MIM/TDR Task Force Meeting which will be held at the African Regent Hotel, Airport West, Accra from 09 to 13 March 2009. Thirty (30) participants comprising 12 Task Force members, 10 Principal Investigators, 4 Observers and 4 staff members from WHO Headquarters are expected to participate in the meeting.

The MIM/TDR Task Force is an international scientific review committee for malaria research capacity strengthening. It meets once a year during the month of March, at a venue in Africa, to discuss hands-on strengthening of capacity for malaria research in the region and review proposals for new and reports of ongoing projects.

The 2009 meeting will be the first to be held in Anglophone West Africa. Previous meetings were held in Addis Ababa, Bamako, Brazzaville, Durban, Entebbe, Harare, Maputo, Nairobi and Ouagadougou. The committee is coordinated by the Tropical Diseases Research programme (TDR) at the headquarters. It funds research projects that promote development of varied expertise, key research skills, and generate data relevant to malaria control.

The meeting which will be in two parts will include a mini-scientific conference involving the grant recipient on the first two days from 09 and 10 March. The rest of the week from 11 to 13 March will be for the closed meeting of the Task Force during which the plans for the next 12 months, review of grant applications and reports of funded activities will be discussed.