PEER/Liberia

Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research Liberia (PEER/Liberia) was a sub-program under PEER funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The PEER/Liberia program consortium included the A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine (AMD) of the University of Liberia College of Health Sciences (ULCHS), the Liberia College of Physicians and Surgeons (LCPS), University of Massachusetts Medical School, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Yale University. Working together, the consortium aimed to strengthen medical training and build specialty/subspecialty medical capacity in Liberia; improve the ability of Liberia to conduct clinical research; and increase access to specialty care for Ebola survivors and the broader population. 

This $6 million program was established in 2016 and completed in October 2023. The consortium members faced many challenges in implementing the planned activities due to the many problems facing the Liberian academic and clinical sectors, including shortages of trained staff, equipment, and research management infrastructure. Thanks to the extraordinary commitment and dedicated efforts of the Liberian and U.S. partners, however, great progress was made by the time the program was completed. PEER/Liberia funding facilitated a major curriculum restructuring at AMD, training for clinical and preclinical faculty, graduate fellowships for students, development of a new clinical research training program and a new family medicine residency program, upgrades of the lab infrastructure, and creation of a dedicated grants management office at ULCHS. Although PEER/Liberia has ended, related collaborative activities are continuing thanks to USAID's direct support of the program BRIDGE-U: Liberia - Applying Research for a Health Liberia, a $15 million activity running from 2021 through 2026.

List of PEER/Liberia Consortium Partners and Project Summaries