ETATMBA Teleconference
Thursday 17th July 2014 at 08:30hrs BST
NOTES
Present: David Davies (Chair), David Ellard, Francis Kamwendo, Godfrey Mbaruku, Staffan
Bergström, Anne-Marie Brennan
Unable to contact: Chimwemwe Mvula
1.
Apologies
Paul O’Hare, Chisale Mhango, Senga Pemba, Siobhan Quenby, Doug Simkiss, Ed Peile
2.
Minutes of last teleconference held on 19th June 2014
Note on action points:
a)
SB asked if there were any outstanding queries from the finance office Karolinska; AMB
confirmed that all matters have been resolved.
b)
Audit certificate for College of Medicine – see below
c)
Ed Peile currently on holiday but will have capacity to work on papers
3.
EC update
AMB reported that the formal letter requesting the amendment to the Description of Work has
been delayed due to sign-off by GE Healthcare now that Alan Davies is no longer employed
there. This has now been resolved and the formal letter is currently with the Research Office
for signature and posting to Brussels.
4.
Periodic report
This is ready to go apart from the two outstanding matters:
a)
An audit report from the College of Medicine. Initially, the CoM stated that the audit would
not be carried out due to lack of funds, but a recent communication from them indicates that the
audit is in fact underway.
b)
Warwick is currently considering whether to add some staff costs, which would take the
claim over the threshold and thus require and audit.
Action: AMB to ask the EC about the timeline for submitting the Period 2 report, once the formal
amendment letter has been sent.
5.
Research
a)
DE reported that the Malawi data is currently being analysed; there should be some
results in the next 2 weeks.
b)
DE has sufficient data from Tanzania to analyse. Will be able to discuss further when the
SCRF Mselenge Mdegela visits Warwick on 29th July.
c)
The Tanzanian students were intending to visit Warwick in July to fulfil their Masters
obligation for a campus visit. However they have had visa problems which they are currently
trying to resolve. GM and AMB have provided additional documents to verify their application.
d)
FK reported that Wanangwa is continuing to progress in her PhD studies and Chicco in
his Masters programme.
e)
DE reported that the corrections to the BMJ Open paper have been submitted and a final
decision is awaited.
DD suggested that a similar process paper focusing on Tanzania could be developed with
Mselenge.
6.
Senior Clinical Research Fellow
The draft contract between the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Ifakara has been
sent. There is a query about the amount of funding which is being followed up by AMB
Action: GM to check that the contract is being reviewed by Ifakara’s legal team.
AMB to follow up the funding query with Warwick’s contract officer.
7.
Dissemination
a)
FK will present the study at the annual COMREC research meeting.
b)
DE attended the Health Services Research Conference in London and presented the
study.
No further conferences planned by SB.
DD reminded partners to notify AMB regarding any dissemination activities they undertake.
Action: DE to send AMB the published abstract of the conference presentation to put on the
project.
8.
Period 3 claims
AMB reminded partners that all claims for the project will need to be posted or invoiced before
the deadline of 31st July.
The deadline for submission of financial reporting was discussed by all partners; it was agreed
that the end of August would be an appropriate deadline.
Action: All partners to submit their draft Form C by 31st August.
AMB to notify all finance officers of this deadline.
9.
Final report
DD suggested that we follow our previous method of asking WP leads to submit their summary
of activities undertaken, which will then be collated into a full document by Warwick and
circulated for comment. The final report has to be submitted within 60 days of the end date of
the project.
Given this information, all partners agreed that the end of August would be a suitable deadline
for WP leads to return their drafts.
Reporting timetable is therefore as follows:
31st July – close of project
31st August – Period 3 draft Form Cs submitted to co-ordinator
31st August – First draft of WP activities for final project report completed by WP leaders
14th September – First draft of collated report circulated
Action: WP leaders to submit their draft reports by 31st August.
AMB to circulate the EC’s template for the final report.
10.
Date of next teleconference
The steering committee teleconference today is the last one to take place in the timeframe of
the grant. As agreed, partners will continue to meet while the final report is in preparation.
The next teleconference will be on Thursday 14th July 2014 at 8.30am UK, 9.30am Malawi,
10.30am Tanzania.