SSACAB brings together African and Northern academic and research institutions to develop and improve biostatistical skills among researchers. The ultimate goal is to create research nodes of excellence to grow the discipline and a biostatistical network to nurture researchers with advanced skills and expertise. SSACAB will support the development of a network of statisticians to deliver statistical courses for biomedical researchers, develop and implement statistical theory to analyse health data, and create the framework for improved biostatistical skills among health researchers and academics in nine African countries. This network will be integrated within the existing Sub-Saharan Africa Network (SUSAN) under the International Biometric Society (IBS).

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is one of the four Northern partners in the SSACAB consortium. Within LSHTM there are already many members of staff collaborating with the 11 academic partners in SSACAB.  LSHTM staff members will be involved in the development of new modules for the teaching of Biostatistics, the co-supervision of Biostatistics PhD students, and collaboration with the research institutions in SSACAB. We also hope that LSHTM staff will help encourage and facilitate membership of the statistical societies and networks, such as the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and IBS, as well as the national statistical societies in the African countries.