The World Health Organization (WHO) is opening its call for expression of interest (EOI) to join as a Regional Biomanufacturing Training Centre under the WHO Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative, coordinated and managed by Dr Jicui Dong, Unit Head of the Local Production and Assistance Unit, on behalf of the Access to Medicines and Health Products Division at WHO with close collaboration from the WHO Academy and WHO Science Division. An array of centres is being established to provide access to training for the development of the workforce in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), equipping them with the relevant skills for biomanufacturing.
Background
LMICs are grappling with significant disparities in accessing vaccines and biologics, prompting efforts to establish biological manufacturing capabilities within the countries and for their regions. However, the lack of a trained workforce in biomanufacturing often hinders these endeavours, whether through technology transfer or local research and development initiatives. Recognizing this challenge, the World Health Assembly resolution WHA74.6 on strengthening local production of medicines and other health technologies to improve access underscores the imperative for enhancing local production capacities, prompting the establishment of the Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative by the WHO. This initiative seeks to bolster the capacity of LMICs to produce biologicals and facilitate the absorption of transferred technology, leveraging WHO's existing training resources and expertise while establishing a network of biomanufacturing training centres offering accredited training programs.
In February 2022, WHO designated the Ministry of Health and Welfare in the Republic of Korea as the Global Training Hub for Biomanufacturing (GTH-B). The GTH-B will develop and provide a comprehensive curriculum encompassing hands-on training, lecture-based sessions, and training for trainers.
The current call for expressions of interest seeks to identify regional biomanufacturing training centres specifically tailored to address the needs of audiences across the Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, and the Western Pacific regions. These centres will play an important and complementary role in biomanufacturing workforce skills development in these regions, aligning with WHO's broader mandate to improve global health outcomes and access to quality essential medical products.
Role of Regional Training Centres
Each training centre will be part of a global network of training centres expected to:
- Deliver comprehensive didactic and hands-on courses on biomanufacturing meeting WHO Academy quality standard, including both existing and newly developed training programs with WHO support.
- Utilize innovative pedagogical approaches to foster learning, establish assessment tools, and maintain quality criteria aligned with WHO Academy standards.
- Provide online training to scale up delivery and expand global reach, ensuring wider access to training opportunities.
- Collaborate with universities to attract future talent and integrate new skills into biotechnology curricula, contributing to workforce development.
- Partner with local biotechnology industries to support on-the-job training and provide access to the latest technologies, enhancing practical skills acquisition.
- Serve as a resource centre for WHO capacity-building activities in biomanufacturing, facilitating knowledge sharing and collaboration among stakeholders.
Additionally:
- Operate as separate and independent entities from WHO and be self-financing.
- Establish a legal agreement with WHO prior to commencing activities, outlining terms and conditions for collaboration and accountability.
Selection Criteria
WHO is seeking expressions of interest from institutions supported by Individual Member States, with strong participation from manufacturers, research, and academic institutions, able to provide the necessary know-how, process training, curricula, candidate selection, maintain an interactive ecosystem with target audiences and mobilize the necessary funding for the operation of the Centre. Candidate centres are expected to:
- Be non-for-profit organization
- Be experienced in designing and delivering biomanufacturing training activities adapted to the local and regional context;
- Focus on activities targeting LMICs;
- Offer a full range of accredited courses on biomanufacturing topics
- Have explicit commitment from the head of the institution, as well as the relevant ministry of health and/or ministry of education and/or ministry of industry;
- Have a GMP-like environment to offer trainees a realistic simulated training environment in an industrial type setting;
- Have access to adequate infrastructural conference facilities that are conducive to learning, with technologies including access to high-speed internet, video conferencing, computers, and IT support.
- Have adequate and relevant human resources who can support the training activities and related initiatives such as the mentorship capacity to develop future trainers;
- Have management and technical lead staff proficient in English and technical staff proficient in at least one of the language of greatest needs for the targeted audience (to be justified)
- Be able to assess learning of trainees and to evaluate the effectiveness of the training programme;
- Have a sustainability strategy for promotion of continued education/training, including specific plans for institutionalization of the training programmes;
- Have a strong advocacy and communication strategy for promotion and wider dissemination of training activities;
- Have well-established and adequate governance, accounting and administrative systems for quality assurance of training management and delivery;
- Have a well-established business model ensuring its financial sustainability while ensuring affordability for trainees from LMICs
- Willing to offer a reasonable number of free seats to WHO-selected trainees from LMICs
- Not be part of or have links, financial or otherwise, with the tobacco or arms industries.
Application Procedure
Interested institutions should submit a comprehensive proposal to WHO through Dr Jicui Dong, Unit Head of the Local Production & Assistance (LPA) Unit, dongj@who.int with a copy to localproduction@who.int, mentioning in the subject “EoI – Regional Biomanufacturing Training Centre [Institution name]”, by 18 March 2025.
The proposal should comprise the following components:
- List of participating institutions including Member States, Manufacturers, Universities, or other relevant academic or training institutions, supported by institutional declarations of acceptability by relevant officers.
- Coordinating Institution and coordination focal point: list of key staff with their anticipated role and CV.
- A business plan aiming provisionally at the first 2 years of activities: including training areas pertaining to all or part of the biomanufacturing processes, targeted countries (LMICs), resource allocation, funding strategies, proposed overall budget with high-level break-out for the first 2 years and measures to establish long-term sustainability.
- Number of free seats to selected courses to be offered to WHO-selected trainees from LMICs
- Background and previous training activities of the applicants at national/regional and international levels, including relevant staff involved.
- Application should specify in which language the centre intends to operate and justification for the selected language, beyond English.
- Tentative start date of the Centre’s activities and proposed activities before the start of the proposed training programs.
- Any additional information considered relevant by the applicant.
Timeline
WHO will acknowledge receipt of the application by email within 2 weeks after the submission deadline. Applicants who do not receive an acknowledgement within the specified time should contact localproduction@who.int. Following the submission of proposals, an internal WHO selection committee, supported as appropriate by an external expert panel, will review and recommend proposals for selection.
If you have any questions about this “Call for EOI”, please write to localproduction@who.int well before the applicable deadline.