Palmer appointed new EDCTP chair

Dr Mark Palmer from the UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC) has been appointed the new chairperson of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) General Assembly. He takes over from Professor Hannah Akuffo of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

Palmer said: “It is an honour to have been elected by the members of the General Assembly to be their chair as we move into the next phase of EDCTP under Horizon 2020. EDCTP has developed, under the directorship of Professor Charles Mgone, into an internationally recognised platform of collaboration between researchers in Europe and Africa.”

He added: “With the strong support of the European Commission, EDCTP2 will be able to build on this platform to deliver the objective of developing new and improved drugs, vaccines, microbicides and diagnostics against HIV, TB malaria and the most neglected infectious diseases.”

Palmer joined the MRC’s Research Management Group in 1999, and in 2002 became the programme manager responsible for global infections research, managing the MRC’s units in The Gambia and Uganda. In 2006 he was appointed director of international strategy where he was responsible for MRC’s international policy and co-ordination of global health strategy. He is chairman of the Governing Council of the International Agency for Research in Cancer and has been the UK lead for the health theme of FP7 and will be the lead for health in Horizon 2020.

Dr Stefano Vella, of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Italy, and Dr Detlef Böcking, from the German institute Projektträger im Deutschen Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt, were elected as the new vice chairpersons.