# Educating and Developing Bioethicists in Tanzania (ENGAGE)

> **NIH NIH D43** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2021 · $251,752

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
This application responds to PAR-16-454:
International Bioethics Research Training Program (D43) with a
focus on bioethics research training in Tanzania.
The need for doctoral-trained bioethics scholars and
bioethics scholarship in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) is urgent. With the recent emergence of
the coronavirus public health pandemic and concerns about the allocation of finite resources, LMICs face
daunting challenges when making ethical decisions that affect their citizens. They also face other day-to-
day ethical issues in clinical care and clinical research, including informed consent from vulnerable patients,
HIV incidence and prevalence, cultural views about decision-making roles, truth-telling to patients and
families, and many others. All these areas require educating and developing bioethicists in Tanzania
(ENGAGE). We capitalize on nine years of successful interdisciplinary collaboration between Muhimbili
University of Health and Allied Services (MUHAS), Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania to
prepare a cadre of doctoral prepared bioethics scholars in Tanzania. The collaboration has facilitated the
creation, staffing, and demonstrated sustainability and successes of the Department of Bioethics and
Health Professionalism in the School of Public Health and Social Sciences. The Department offers the
Masters of Bioethics and teaches bioethics across the broad spectrum of degree programs offered at
MUHAS. The purpose of this application is to build on this accomplishment and address the need to
develop bioethics scholars who can integrate theory, research, and public-health policy and become
intellectual and academic leaders in the field of bioethics relevant to the country. To achieve this aim, we
propose to: (1) recruit and train six individuals at the doctoral level; (2) prepare the next generation of
bioethics scholars who will be at the forefront of scientific inquiry and advancement of the public's health in
Tanzania, and (3) develop a sustainable research capacity for bioethics in the region. There is no institution
in Tanzania that offers formal bioethics training at the doctoral level. Thus, the country and the region will
benefit from doctoral prepared bioethicists who have the skills to address the country's most pressing
bioethics and public health-related problems.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10229239
- **Project number:** 1D43TW011809-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** CONNIE Marie ULRICH
- **Activity code:** D43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $251,752
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-04-01 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10229239

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10229239, Educating and Developing Bioethicists in Tanzania (ENGAGE) (1D43TW011809-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10229239. Licensed CC0.

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