In parallel with the establishment of partner research sites and major research projects funded and/or promoted by the agency, the international network has grown in density and has been developed from ad hoc collaborations, leading more recently to the emergence of a new partnership modality: the Platform for International Global Health Research (PRISME).
Historically, this network has been built up since the 1990s, when the agency was committed to consolidating and forging numerous collaborations with its international partners in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where French and national research teams worked together on research projects.
The agency allocated annual budgets – excluding recurring projects – to support research development and help train and build teams over the long term. Supplemented by the signing of framework partnership agreements between ANRS and the various local health and/or research authorities and institutions, this financial support led to the creation of ANRS partner sites.
Place-based partnerships typically involve national structures or institutions. The partnerships are jointly managed by a pair of local and French coordinators. They establish research priorities and ensure the dynamics of scientific activities of the facility by bringing together major national and international, institutional and scientific players.
In 2022 ANRS Emerging Infectious Diseases created an innovative partnership model: the Platforms for International Global Health Research (PRISME for les Plateformes de Recherche Internationale en Santé MondialE), with the aim of making emerging infectious diseases a central focus of its international scientific partnerships. This new, inclusive and collaborative model, which is adaptable to the needs of each partnership, gathers various French and local institutions around a common scientific, technical and academic cooperation project.
This international partnership, hosted by a local research institution responsible for implementing research activities, aims to:
PRISME is under the responsibility of a local platform manager, in liaison with a referent from one of the French partner research institutions.
In this context, special support is given to the training of young researchers, in particular by awarding Master’s and other training grants.
ANRS MIE also has ad hoc partnerships with various structures in other LMICs, initiated and perpetuated as part of research projects.
Most of the projects funded and/or promoted by ANRS MIE involve players from this international network. These partners are also involved in many other large-scale research projects supported by other research institutions and donors.