A specialist postgraduate medical specialist and research training centre in Malawi, designed by leading African architecture and engineering practice FBW Group, has been officially opened.
The new Clinical Research Excellence And Training Open Resource (CREATOR) at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHes), in the city of Blantyre, was officially opened by the President of Malawi, Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, and FBW says, ‘will provide the most sophisticated clinical research training environment in the region’.
FBW Group was appointed to lead the design and technical team on the ‘life-changing project’ to deliver Malawi’s first specialist postgraduate medical training centre.
CREATOR is a partnership between KUHes (previously the College of Medicine), Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), the University of Liverpool. and the medical research charity, Wellcome.
It will significantly enhance the work of The Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Research Programme (MLW).
FBW explained: “The multi-million-pound investment will support MLW with additional research facilities and space for postgraduate medical training, helping to retain talent and expertise in the region, and scaling up research capacity by 30 per cent over the next decade.
The FBW-designed building houses an innovation hub, a new laboratory allowing for single-cell transcriptomics, modern imaging and rapid pathogen sequencing, modern teaching spaces, a postgraduate resource centre for 200 clinical trainees, library space, and offices to support advanced epidemiology and clinical trials.
Professor Henry Mwandumba, director of MLW, said: “CREATOR is extremely important because it creates the infrastructure and support that will enable clinicians to conduct high- quality research that can promote the health and wellbeing of people in Malawi and beyond. It is a significant milestone in health research in Malawi.”
CREATOR is one of a number of ‘ground-breaking, high-profile’ medical developments that planning, design, architecture, and engineering group, FBW, is working on in collaboration with major international organisations.
FBW has been delivering medical projects in Africa since its foundation over 25 years ago, including clinics and hospitals serving remote rural areas – developments that have made a real difference to people’s health and lives.
FBW Group managing director, Paul Moores, said: “We are very proud and honoured to have played our part in the development of CREATOR. It is an important facility that will transform the future of medical research and training in Malawi and the wider region. CREATOR will meet a critical need.”
Medical projects have been a cornerstone of FBW’s work since it began work in East Africa more than a quarter of a century ago. The business also has a strong track record in supporting organisations delivering international standards in the region.
Its recent work includes the first phase of a $1m state-of-the-art research clinic in Entebbe – a joint project involving the UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC), The Wellcome Trust, the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). FBW was also involved in helping deliver a ground-breaking women’s health project in Kigutu in Burundi.
