Dembo Kanteh is the Coordinator of the West Africa Research Platform at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit at the Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is responsible for building partnerships with research organisations across West Africa. He is also the Assistant Secretary General of the West African Research and Innovation Management Association (WARIMA). Dembo has over 20 years’ experience as a leader in management, developing institutional strategies, operations, and business processes. He has extensive experience as a trainer in research management, providing training at the WARIMA annual meetings, as well as acting as a facilitator for the Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF).

Dembo has managed funding and contracts from all major funders of biomedical research and have considerable experience in policy development and risk management in several organisations. He has expertise in setting up monitoring and evaluation frameworks, performance management and reporting at organisational, departmental and programme levels. Dembo is an economist by training and also holds an MBA Degree from the Open University in the UK.