---------- Wellcome Trust: Sharing Research Data to Improve Public Health ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------- **South Africa: March 29th - 31st 2015** The workshop explored how to unlock the huge potential benefits for research and health across Africa that could flow from increasing the availability and use of health research data, while addressing the associated challenges and concerns. It will seek to identify key priorities for both the Public Health Research Data Forum partners and the broader international research community in advancing data sharing in an equitable, ethical, efficient and sustainable manner. Specific objectives of the workshop: - Articulate the opportunities and challenges in relation to increasing the availability of health research data in the African context - Disseminate and gain feedback on the findings of previous and on-going work initiated by the Public Health Research Data Forum - Discuss existing data sharing initiatives in the African context – including factors for success and lessons learned - Raise the profile of the issues around data sharing among key African and international research stakeholders - Build consensus around key priorities and identify practical next steps for key communities – including Forum partners, scientific academies and the broader research community. Additional details can be found on the workshop [website][1] and a [blog post][2] by David Carr, Policy Adviser at the Wellcome Trust. The presentations of all the speakers at the workshop are available to view [here][3]. [1]: https://www.wellcometrustevents.org/wellcome/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=104913&ef_sel_menu=3090&eventID=343&eventID=343 [2]: http://blog.wellcome.ac.uk/2015/04/08/sharing-research-data-to-improve-public-health/ [3]: https://www.wellcometrustevents.org/wellcome/frontend/reg/tOtherPage.csp?pageID=112984&ef_sel_menu=3356&eventID=343&eventID=343