B3Africa

B3Africa is a partnership with two strategic aims: One is to create a harmonised ethical and legal framework between European and African partner institution. The second is to provide an "out-of-the-box" informatics solution for data management, processing and sharing that works with limited Internet access.

B3Africa is co-ordinated by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Partners include BBMRI-ERIC, Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University, University of the Western Cape, Makerere University, Stellenbosch Universitt, International Agency for Research on Cancer , International Live Stock Research Institute, Medizinische Universitat Graz and the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria.

CRB's role in B3Africa

Work package 1, led by Jane Reichel, is tasked with drafting the ethical and legal framework. The framework is built on two pillars; the first sets out common ethical and legal threshold rules for all partners to abide by in order to use the informatics solution, based on the informed consent and ethical approval. This part will build on previous work conducted within European and international research collaborations, for example BBMRI-ERIC, H3Africa and Global Alliance for Genomics and Health. The second pillar focuses on cross-border sharing of data and samples, where Council of Europe and EU law requirements for transfer of data and sample will play an important role.

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme. It is a CSA Action to bridge European and African biobanking and biomedical research.

contact

Contact at CRB: Jane Reichel and Deborah Mascalzoni at CRB are responsible for the ethical and legal framework.

• Jane Reichel, Professor of Administrative Law is leading the ethical and legal work.
• Deborah Mascalzoni, PhD Bioethics, Senior Researcher.