The Capacity Building in Implementation Science education for Non-Communicable Disease prevention and management in Africa (IS4NCDs) project seeks to address the urgent need to train and develop a health and research workforce knowledgeable and competent in implementation science (IS) that can respond to the steady increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Southern African countries.Traditionally, higher education for health professionals in sub-Saharan Africa has been focused on infectious diseases and clinical practice, whereas in-depth knowledge of IS and effective implementation strategies for NCDs, including those beyond the healthcare sector, is often under-represented. This is problematic since these health professionals are often tasked with the implementation of new programs, while having had little education on how to do this successfully. IS4NCDs will build capacity at the participating higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop and deliver NCD-focussed IS teaching in South Africa and Zambia targeting diverse workforce engaged in NCD prevention and management.Capacity building will primarily take place through:●Co-developing and delivering 9 new NCD-focused IS modules for accredited short courses or embedding in post-grad programs, contributing to an MSc in IS with NCD focus.●Enabling access to IS modules and resources to various target audiences through the development and offering of an executive program for mid-to-senior professionals and an open science eHub for integrated knowledge dissemination, teaching, and networking.●The training of 40 teachers in innovative teaching techniques (e.g., challenge-based learning) and methods (e.g., IS)●The fostering of international connections in health science education and capacity strengthening between South Africa and Zambia, as well as between African and European partner HEIs.Outputs will be disseminated to other HEIs within and outside of the participating non-EU countries.

The CAPacity Strengthening of Transdisciplinary education for nON-communicable disease care in WEst Africa (CAPSTONE) project seeks to address the urgent need to educate and develop a health workforce that can respond to the steady increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in sub-Saharan African countries.This new workforce should contain doctors, nurses, allied and other health professionals who are specialised in screening, treating and referring patients with NCDs at all levels of the health care system. Traditionally higher education for these health care professionals has focused on infectious diseases and takes place in silos with little to no interaction between the different health care workers during their education. CAPSTONE will build capacity at the participating higher education institutions (HEIs) to develop and deliver transdisciplinary challenge-based NCD education in Ghana and The Gambia, targeting the healthcare workforce of the future.Capacity building will take place through:●the collaborative co-development and delivery of 6 new NCD focused courses, that can be offered as accredited short courses for professionals. This will form the basis for two newly accredited Master Degrees in Public Health with a focus on NCDs provided by the participating third country HEIs in Ghana and The Gambia.●the training of up to 50 teachers in innovative teaching methods and techniques.●the bringing together of health care professionals from different disciplines and levels within the healthcare system to learn with and from each other.●active engagement of and outcomes for students and future employers.●the fostering of international connections in health science education and capacity strengthening between Ghana and The Gambia, as well as between African and European partner institutes.At the end of the 3-year programme the developed curriculum will be disseminated to other HEIs within and outside of the participating non-EU countries.