Science shop in North Africa: Preliminary experience at the Institut Pasteur de Tunis in the context of the InSPIRES project

1. CSO ATIOST
IPT
P
PERSPECTIVES
Pilot
Project
Since the revolution in 2011, Tunisia witnessed the rise of a very active civil society involved in the
decision-making processes. In 2015 Tunisia has become a country associated to H2020. This drove
a new dynamic in international cooperation activities.
InstitutPasteurdeTunis(IPT)ismorecenturypublichealthandresearchinstitutionwhoiscommittedto
answering to public health needs. Consequently, for IPT community, adopting Responsible Research
and Innovation principles in their activities has become a must. In the context of the H2020 project
InSPIRES (Ingenious Science shops to promote Participatory Innovation, Research and Equity
in Science) the first Science Shop in North African named «Science ensemble ‫ﺑﻌﻀﻨﺎ‬ ‫ﻣﻊ‬ ‫ﺍﻟﻌﻠﻢ‬» was
created in 2017 at the Institut Pasteur de Tunis (IPT). «Science Ensemble» enables an effective
colaboration between science and Society through scienfic project inspired by social needs.
STUDENT
ATIOST
IPT
SCIENCE
SHOP
LABORATORY
OF CLINICAL
VIROLOGY
OTHER
STAKEHOLDERS
In order to ensure real involvement of all the stakeholders, we adopted a co-creation process
conducted by representative research centers, CSO’s and universities. We have launched
a call to collect needs from the civil society. 36 social needs were submitted by different
CSO’s. The selection committee included CSO representatives as well as local experts.
It is a very strong signal that Tunisian CSO’s are ready to co-create with scientific laboratories
to tackle their societal challenges.
For the first year, we decided to perform one pilot project. This pilot project was born from a
demand formulated by a local CSO : the Tunisian Association for Information and Orientation on
HIV/AIDS and Toxicomania (ATIOST) who proposed to work on the “Genetic characterization
of circulating Hepatitis C (HCV) virus strains among injecting drug users in Tunisia”.
The knowledge of hepatitis C genotypes among (IDU) is an important step in
the diagnosis of HCV infection and a key component of therapeutic decision.
The results of this collaborative project will give a scientific contribution to the design of effective
national strategie for the control and the eradication of hepatitis C in Tunisia.
CO-CREATION PROCESS OF THE PILOT PROJECT
FIRST IMPACTS OF THE PILOT PROJECT
CONTEXT
Science shop in North Africa: Preliminary experience
at the Institut Pasteur de Tunis
in the context of the InSPIRES project
BENSAOUD Chayma, GHRABI Amine, CHOUIKHA Anissa, GHODHBANE Amira, MAATOUG Sonia, HADHRI Najet, BOUSSELMI Latifa, ZAKRAOUI
Lobna, GAMMAR Zeineb, BOUZWIDA Aly, BOUABID Cyrine, ABDELHAK Sonia, BENHASSINE Hichem
Involvement
of the patients
in the project
A very promising project
to build on and to
identify new opportunities
An interest
from decision makersGreat enthousiasm from
all the stakeholders
involved in the project
Knowledge and expertise
shared between CSO,
laboratory and Science Shop
Technician from the laboratory taking sample
from a patient at the CSO office
Members of ATIOST with the Master student