Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
Coordinating partner. KEMRI hosts the consortium coordination and leads the ethnopharmacology, policy and integration workstream.
Partners & collaborators
Five universities and a national research institute — coordinated by KEMRI and funded by the National Research Fund — working alongside Kenya's traditional medicine community.
Consortium institutions
Six partner institutions
Kenyatta University
Leads research on the safety, efficacy and standardisation of herbal formulations, and hosts the National Phytotherapeutic Centre.
Mount Kenya University
Leads development of immune-regulatory supplements from indigenous edible herbs and vegetables.
Egerton University
Leads discovery of herbal COVID-19 antiviral interventions from local medicinal plants and their endophytes.
Multimedia University of Kenya
Leads antimicrobial spray formulations and biocidal binding agents for personal protective equipment.
Pwani University
Leads functional food products from activated edible mushrooms to mitigate SARS-like conditions.
Funder
National Research Fund (NRF)
The National Research Fund, under the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kenya, provides the seed funding for this consortium. An initial grant of over Ksh 50.6 million supports the three-year programme to develop natural medicinal products for mitigating COVID-19 and other respiratory infections.
NRF's mission is to promote and finance scientific research and innovation for sustainable national development.
Collaborators
Working with the wider ecosystem
Beyond the partner institutions, the consortium works with regulators, technology institutions and the representatives of traditional medicine practitioners.
Herbalists Society of Kenya
Custodians of indigenous knowledge who partner in the survey, mapping and validation of medicinal plants, vegetables and mushrooms.
NACOSTI
The National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation supports and regulates research, and challenged the consortium to become a national platform.
ACTS
The Africa Centre for Technology Studies has engaged with the consortium on natural products development as a national priority research area.
National Phytotherapeutic Centre
Based at Kenyatta University, supporting natural products research and standardisation.
Regulatory bodies
Statutory agencies and KIPI supporting registration and intellectual property protection of developed products.
Communities & counties
Local communities in Kisii, Kilifi, Kirinyaga, Bungoma and beyond who participate in surveys and benefit from the research.
Become a partner
We welcome institutions working on natural products, health innovation, technology and policy to join us.