Investigating Networks of Zoonosis Innovation (INZI)

The ‘Investigating Networks of Zoonosis Innovation’ (INZI) project aims to explore how African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) has been researched, understood and controlled from the Second World War to the present day. Since the colonial period, health care and research for this neglected disease has been under-resourced. Cultural and political aspects surrounding African trypanosomiasis are also poorly understood.

Questions we are asking include: How are new forms of large-scale philanthropy changing disease control tools, infrastructures and health services? Why is it that some ideas spread quickly across the world, while others remain obscure? And by looking at African trypanosomiasis in historical perspective, we are tracing the evolution of research institutions and technological innovations as they interacted with, at first, colonial administrations, and later independent African governments, medical humanitarian organisations and public-private partnerships. More broadly, we are interested in the role that science and technology plays in global health and African development.