In response to the World Bank’s call for proposals for African Centres of Excellence, the University of Ghana proposed the establishment of the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) at Legon. The proposal was led by faculty from the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology (BCMB), and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), with support from staff of the University of Ghana Computing Systems (UGCS).

After two rounds of evaluation, including review of the written proposal and a site visit to evaluate existing infrastructure and interview the project leader, the World Bank accepted the proposal for the establishment of WACCBIP in November 2013. Subsequently, the World Bank committed $8 million to support WACCBIP through a financing agreement with the Government of Ghana.

Since 2013, WACCBIP has grown into a leading centre of excellence, building global partnerships with world-class research institutions and funding organisations. Expanding our primary source of funding from the World Bank ACE project, we ensured prolonged sustainability of our programmes by securing additional funding from the Wellcome Trust DELTAS grant and additional grants mobilised by our faculty and collaborators.