Organisational Structure

Possible Eritrean Road Map for Research strategy

A National Research Strategic plan to update and develop a centralized, effective, and functioning research in Eritrea that helps meet actual challenges at a national, regional, and community level is crucial.

The strategic plan will facilitate effective and efficient advancement in research and help in solving domestic, regional, and even international challenges. To achieve this, coordinating the existing research concerning human material and infrastructure resource capacity is essential. The first step in the strategic plan should be to develop an integrated approach by organizing a Eritrean Interagency Research Committee (NIRC). This interagency committee should include representatives from all Ministries, academia, and PFDJ members from nations in Eritrea and abroad. Academia representatives should be selected based on their interest and capacity in research and should have expertise in different academic disciplines to have a holistic and comprehensive approach.

The task of the National Interagency Research Committee is:

To identify short-term and long-term challenges through research-based solutions
To plan, coordinate, and improve inter and intra-disciplinary research
To set clear rules and regulations on research ethics, funding criteria for internal and external funds
To secure funds (Governmental or international) for the identified and selected research areas
To set guidelines on linkage and collaborative programs at the national and international level
To form subcommittees for the different research areas, where the subcommittee includes representatives from each participating department

Each subcommittee should:

Elect a chairperson, a chief scientist, a secretary, economy personnel, and information personnel
To put forth recommendations for developing a diverse, interdisciplinary workforce able to advance research
To identify critical research gaps and opportunities within their discipline of expertise
Develop tangible and measurable sub-goals and goals
Have a clear and reasonable timeline for the research
Announce relevant research areas on a yearly or six-month basis for researchers to compete by writing proposals
Have a preset controlling mechanism for the selection of proposals to be founded and on the efficiency, productivity, and performance of the researchers
Develop a research strategic plan, the Eritrean Strategic Plan (NESP)

To regularly inform the NEIRC of their findings and disseminate research findings through publications in international journals and popular science articles in local languages.

Different research settings and their functions

Percent National laboratory settings and work divisions

Table 1 present arrangement of governmental laboratory facilities and services provided by the laboratories.

The yellow marked laboratories deal with human and animal disease prevention and control
The green marked laboratories deal with food and feed control
The red marked deal with plant health
The blue marked is laboratory with instruments specifically used for drug control

National Laboratories	NAPH (MoA)	NARI (MoA)	Central Laboratory (MoH)	Food and Drinks (MoH)	DRUG (MoH)	Marine (MoM)	ESI
Serology	X	X	X
Virology	X
Bacteriology	X	X	X	X	X		X
TB	X
Seed Lab	X	X
Food/Feed (Nutrition)	X	X		X		X	X
Animal Health	X	X
Plant Protection	X	X
Soil Laboratory		X
Forestry		X
Pharmacology					X
Tissue Culture Center	X	X

Below is a scheme and proposed arrangement for the optimal utilization of human, material, and infrastructural resources.

The logic behind the arrangement is that many diseases are caused by zoonotic microorganisms that can be transmitted between humans and animals, causing zoonotic diseases. Accordingly, human expertise, analytical methods, chemicals, and instrumental infrastructure needed for controlling these diseases are the same. Hence, by merging the laboratory for human and animal disease control, the utilization of resources can be optimized.

At present, there are several food laboratories under different ministries, none of which is complete concerning expertise, human power, and instrumentation. Thus, merging all the food laboratories in a central food laboratory can help optimize resources and expertise. The laboratory will function for marine and terrestrial food products. These laboratories are standard laboratories designated for routine control work, which is different from a research laboratory.

A strategy for the National Research Laboratory is different from the standard laboratory. A concept note/proposal for a national research laboratory "Nutrition, Food, and Health Science Research Center (NFHSRC)" is drafted.

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The proposed central research laboratory should work with state-of-the-art instrumentation and leading research topics to feed the above-mentioned laboratories with new ideas and discoveries.