On 16 March 2026, the Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) had the honour of welcoming Mr Jack Chambers, Ireland’s Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, during his official visit to Senegal. This meeting marked a new milestone in the growing partnership between Ireland and IPD around bioproduction capacity building and health workforce development in Africa.
A tour of IPD’s flagship infrastructure
The Irish delegation visited several key facilities and platforms on the IPD campus. These included the Vaccine Research Center (VRC), dedicated to vaccine candidate production, as well as Diatropix, the industrial platform for rapid diagnostic test manufacturing. The delegation also toured the mobile laboratories, the CARE (Centre for Africa’s Resilience to Epidemics), and the research and training laboratories.
These exchanges underscored the critical importance of strengthening local scientific capacity as an essential condition for durable regional health security.
A strategic partnership with NIBRT and the MADIBA Initiative
The collaboration between Ireland and IPD is part of a broader partnership with the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT), Ireland’s world-class institution in biotechnology. This partnership aims to develop bioproduction expertise and train the next generation of African health professionals.
This ambition is taking shape through the MADIBA Workforce Development Initiative, co-implemented with the Mastercard Foundation. The goal is to equip Africa with the human resources needed to locally produce the medicines, vaccines and diagnostics its populations require.
Science, innovation and equitable access: a shared commitment
This visit further strengthens a well-established cooperation between Ireland and Senegal, grounded in a shared vision: advancing science, health security and equitable access to life-saving technologies. For the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Ireland’s engagement is part of an international network of partnerships whose ultimate goal remains Africa’s health sovereignty.
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