Press Release: Europe and Africa double research efforts to tackle AIDS, Ebola and other infectious diseases

The EU and Africa announced on the 2 December 2014 that they were doubling the research efforts to develop new and better medicines for poverty-related diseases affecting sub-Saharan Africa such as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, hookworms and Ebola.

Building on the success of the first programme, the second European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership programme(EDCTP2) would work with a budget of €2 billion over the next ten years to fight infectious diseases in developing countries. For this, the EU would contribute €683 million from Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme, and around €1.5 billion would come from European countries. EDCTP2 heralded a new era of cooperation between Europe and Africa in medical research with countries from both continents working as equal partners.