Burkina Faso's national health authority — field partner for vector-borne disease research including malaria, dengue, Zika, and leishmaniasis in West Africa.
The Ministry of Health of Burkina Faso is the national public authority responsible for healthcare policy, disease surveillance, and public health program delivery across the country. Situated in one of West Africa's highest-burden vector-disease regions, the ministry contributes field access, epidemiological grounding, and national health infrastructure to EU research partnerships — things no European institute can replicate. In H2020 projects, they have served as a ground-level implementation partner, providing access to endemic disease populations, entomological surveillance data, and operational capacity for research on malaria, dengue, leishmaniasis, and other vector-borne diseases. Their participation connects European research with African field realities, giving consortia legitimate in-country authority and real-world disease context.
INFRAVEC2 (2017–2022) placed the ministry within a major EU research infrastructure network spanning mosquitoes, sandflies, tsetse flies, and 10+ pathogens including malaria, Zika, dengue, and Rift Valley Fever.
Vaccinesurvey (2015–2019) engaged the ministry to monitor population immunity against vaccine-preventable diseases in a sub-Saharan field context.
As a national ministry, both projects relied on the organization's institutional mandate and in-country authority to access health data and implement research activities.
Their first H2020 engagement (Vaccinesurvey, 2015) focused on immunization program evaluation and population-level immunity monitoring — classic public health ministry territory. The second project (INFRAVEC2, 2017) shifted decisively toward vector biology and disease transmission infrastructure, generating a dense keyword footprint across mosquito genera, sandflies, tsetse flies, and at least ten arboviral and parasitic pathogens. With only two projects the sample is small, but the trajectory is clear: from vaccine surveillance toward vector control research infrastructure, reflecting both global health priorities (Zika emerged in 2015–2016) and Burkina Faso's growing profile as a field site for tropical disease research.
The ministry is positioning itself as a field partner for vector biology and tropical disease research infrastructure, with INFRAVEC2 embedding it in a multi-country EU network — suggesting future collaborations are likely to center on insect vector monitoring, arboviral surveillance, and field trial capacity in West Africa.
The Ministry of Health has never led an H2020 project, participating either as a third party or standard partner, which is typical for a national government body engaging with EU research as a field access provider rather than a scientific lead. Despite only two projects, they have accumulated 28 unique consortium partners across 14 countries — a wide network that reflects the large, geographically distributed consortia typical of MSCA-RISE and RIA funding schemes. This tells prospective partners that the ministry is well-connected within the EU research ecosystem for tropical health and accustomed to operating within complex multi-partner structures.
With 28 unique consortium partners across 14 countries from just two projects, the ministry has a broad international network disproportionate to its EU project count — a direct result of participating in large infrastructure and MSCA-RISE consortia. The network is predominantly European-led but anchored in West African field reality.
As the national public health authority of Burkina Faso, the ministry offers something no research institute can provide: legitimate government access to a high-burden, year-round tropical disease country with diverse insect vector populations, national surveillance infrastructure, and the authority to translate research findings into policy. For consortia working on malaria, arboviral diseases, or vector control, Burkina Faso's epidemiological profile makes this ministry a rare and strategically valuable partner. No amount of European laboratory capacity substitutes for what this organization enables on the ground.
