FHI 360 leads the Regional Prospective Observational Research in Tuberculosis (RePORT) International Coordinating Center (RICC), which manages worldwide research teams. The consortium advances regional tuberculosis (TB) research, enriches the scientific contributions of research in countries with a high burden of TB and expands partnerships with investigators in the United States. Countries that currently participate in the consortium include Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. The Philippines is expected to join the consortium in 2017.
As the leader of the coordinating center, FHI 360 facilitates cross-consortium communication and decisionmaking, plans and hosts an annual scientific meeting, leads the development of a scientific agenda, facilitates sharing of data and biological samples, and maintains a consortium-wide website. We also manage research operations, budgets and administrative support for the center and provide technical leadership and support for supplemental funding that is periodically available for targeted TB focus areas.
The consortium uses data, laboratory standards and a standardized common protocol to promote interoperability and data sharing. Each RePORT network supports local TB-specific data, specimen biorepositories and associated research. Each country’s RePORT network is funded by their local government.
The consortium will improve global clinical research capacity in high-burden settings, as well as increase local access to quality data and specimens for members of each network and their domestic and international collaborators.
