# Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Partnership (SHARP) for Mental Health Capacity Building - Admin Core

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2020 · $413,441

## Abstract

ADMINISTRATIVE CORE – ABSTRACT
 SHARP sets forth an ambitious agenda to influence national mental health policy in Malawi and Tanzania
through establishment and reinforcement of relationships, high-quality implementation science research, and
capacity-building among researchers and policymakers. Such a complex undertaking involving multiple
partners requires a strong administrative structure and dedicated personnel with clear roles and responsibilities
in order to function effectively and achieve its objectives.
 The Admin Core will play a central role in achieving SHARP objectives. The Admin Core will oversee
operation, coordination, management, and evaluation of the Scale-Up Study and Capacity-Building Cores as
well as the SHARP partnership as a whole. The Admin Core will enhance the partnership effort by establishing
effective communication platforms and shared decision-making structures, including a Steering Committee, an
Executive Committee, and an External Advisory Board. The Admin core will develop and maintain shared,
dedicated administrative infrastructure to ensure timely and accurate monitoring, reporting, and regulatory
compliance of all SHARP activities, including creating a progress report structure, managing all communication
with NIMH, and ensuring human subjects approval at all necessary institutions. Finally, the Admin Core will
provide administrative support to strengthen existing and build new relationships between partners in Malawi,
Tanzania and other sub-Saharan African countries, including co-organizing an annual mental health
conference in Malawi, providing logistical support for Capacity-Building Core activities, and providing oversight
for resource sharing plans to facilitate collaboration.
 To achieve these aims and support overall success of the consortium as a whole, the Admin Core will build
on the strong, independent administrative unit at UNC Project-Malawi. This administrative unit has been the
backbone of UNC Project-Malawi over the past 25 years. UNC Project-Malawi has a proven record of
successfully administering US federal grants to support clinical care improvement and research activities in
Malawi and engaging in the development of national health policy. By expanding and strengthening ties
between the SHARP partners and streamlining and augmenting the available administrative resources for the
scale-up study and capacity building activities in implementation science and mental health, the Admin Core
will provide robust support to achieve overall SHARP goals.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9981503
- **Project number:** 5U19MH113202-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Brian W Pence
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $413,441
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-12 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9981503

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9981503, Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Partnership (SHARP) for Mental Health Capacity Building - Admin Core (5U19MH113202-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9981503. Licensed CC0.

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