Press Release

MRC Director welcomed as new Chair of European-African Partnership

Dr Diana Dunstan, Director of Research Management at the Medical Research Council (MRC) is to become the new Chair of the EEIG Assembly of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), an unprecedented partnership between European countries and African partners based on Article 169 of the European Treaty.

The EDCTP is helping to reduce the burden of the main poverty-related diseases, by developing new clinical interventions to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis through European research integration with African partners. 

Dr Diana Dunstan will chair the EEIG-EDCTP Assembly which comprises representatives of fourteen participating European Member States and Norway, with the MRC selected as the UK's representative. The Assembly has broad financial, governance, and legal responsibilities for EDCTP, overseeing these areas, and giving final approval for strategic, operational and financial plans developed by African and European scientists on the Partnership Board.

Dr Diana Dunstan said: "I am honoured to have been chosen as Chair of the EDCTP and am looking forward to all the challenges my new role will bring."

Dr Diana Dunstan originally qualified in chemistry and moved to research management with the Medical Research Council.  Becoming Assistant Director of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge she was then appointed to her current post of Director of Research Management. She is also a trustee of the Gray Cancer Institute, a member of the Caribbean Health Research Council, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and is the UK representative on the Assembly of EDCTP.

For further information contact the MRC Press Office on 020 7637 6011.