Table 2.

AWI-Gen Study Centres

Centre, country	Brief history	Research focus
Nanoro, Burkina Faso	The Nanoro HDSS was established at the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro (CRUN) in 2009 and covers a population of 63 000 inhabitants in 24 villages and 8 peripheral health facilities. Vital events are collected through household visits carried out every four months	The research focus of the CRUN was traditionally malaria, infectious diseases and community-based interventions. Recently, it's research portfolio has been expanded to include NCDs that are on the rise in SSA. Up until now, the AWI-Gen project is the largest study on NCDs to be conducted by the CRUN
Navrongo, Ghana	The Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) started in 1988 as a field site for the Ghana Vitamin A Supplementation Trial and was upgraded into a Health Research Centre in 1992 by the Ministry of Health of Ghana. Currently the major research areas are in biomedical and the social sciences. In addition, the Centre has a functional Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) which was established in 1993; the Navrongo HDSS does routine monitoring on health and demographic dynamics including pregnancies, births, morbidities, deaths, migrations, marriages and vaccination coverage. Other important support units include clinical trials, research laboratories, data centre and general administration. The Centre has an Ethics Review Board that has Federal Wide Assurance	The biomedical research focuses on clinical trials, maternal and child health, environmental health, mental health, pathogen and vector studies and genomic research. The social science research themes include adolescent and adult health, health systems, community health, health promotion and education, and ethics and behavioural studies
Nairobi, Kenya	The Nairobi Urban Health & Demographic Surveillance System (NUHDSS) was the pioneer urban-based Health and Demographic Surveillance System in SSA established in 2002. The platform was set up by the African Population and Health Research Centre in two informal settlements of Korogocho and Viwandani in Nairobi. Currently the NUHDSS follows a population of about 75 000 individuals in approximately 24 000 households in the two slum communities. The main objective of the site is to provide a longitudinal platform for investigating linkages between urban poverty and wellbeing outcomes including health, demography, and schooling. In addition to the routine data, it has progressively continued to provide a robust platform for nesting several studies examining the challenges of rapid urbanisation in SSA and associated health and poverty dynamics	A robust research program on cardiovascular disease risk factors is nested in the NUHDSS. Participation in AWI-Gen provides an opportunity to build on this work and grow capacity in biomedical approaches to understanding the role of environmental and social factors in health
Agincourt, South Africa	The Agincourt HDSS is a South African Medical Research Council and Wits University research unit. Located in rural northeast South Africa close to the Mozambique border, it was established in 1992 to support decentralised district and sub-district health systems development as South Africa transitioned from the apartheid era to democracy. Work since then has documented and responded to rapid and complex health, population and social transitions	Currently there are major trials and observational studies across key stages of the life course, including HIV and NCD prevention in adolescents and their offspring, interactions of CMDs and HIV in middle-aged and older adults, integrated management of hypertension and other chronic conditions in primary health care facilities, community mobilisation interventions to address gender norms and enhance linkage to care, key aspects of ageing including cognitive function, and social determinants including migration and health
Dikgale, South Africa	The Dikgale HDSS was started in 1996, is situated about 40 km north-east of Polokwane, the capital of the Limpopo Province, and includes approximately 7000 households covering a population of about 36 000. An annual survey of life events, including verbal autopsies to establish cause of death is conducted	The research focus is on chronic diseases in a rural setting with an emphasis on nutrition, physical activity and biochemical markers of disease risk
Soweto, South Africa	MRC Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU) started in 2010 and is based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto. DPHRU builds upon long-term ties with the Soweto community. A flag-ship project of DPHRU is the Birth to Twenty cohort, a birth cohort established in 1990 that has followed over 3000 mothers and babies born in the Soweto-Johannesburg area for 25 years. They are now following three generations from this cohort	The research activities of DPHRU align with two national priorities: improving maternal and child health, and tackling obesity and metabolic disease risk