The feasibility of canine rabies control and elimination has been demonstrated (Lankester et al. 2014). The canine rabies elimination Thematic Training Program (TTP) will carry out research gaps in the understanding of epidemiological, social, political and cultural factors influencing the effectiveness of interventions for the prevention, control and elimination of rabies.

There is still a need for:

• Greater understanding of the social, economic and political factors that affect motivation, awareness and responses towards rabies interventions
• Operational research to improve delivery of and participation in rabies intervention strategies
• Research to support the elimination process (Bardosh et al. 2014, Zinsstag 2013)

The canine rabies elimination Thematic Training Program (TTP) is led by Ifakara Health Institute (IHI, Tanzania) with Ecole Inter Etats des Sciences et Médécine Vétérinaires de Dakar (EISMV, Senegal) and partnerships involving Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA, Tanzania), Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS), and NMIMR (Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Ghana) and northern partners (University of Glasgow and Swiss-TPH).

• IHI: contribute to the transfer of essential knowledge and expertise arising from direct experience on canine rabies in East Africa to West Africa in the first instance
• EISMV: will be central to the training of veterinarians in One-Health approaches in francophone Africa
• SUA: experience in zoonotic diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, with particular expertise in diagnostic and molecular analyses. SUA will provide essential training and infrastructure support
• CSRS: Focus on fundamental and applied research addressing national and regional sustainable development priorities. Contributing to all TTPs, The CSRS’ well developed infrastructure and resource centre is an important asset for the consortium for training and remote communication.
• NMIMR: high-standard laboratory diagnostic and research infrastructure in support of public health programmes
• UG: provides access to scientifically vibrant interdisciplinary environments integrating research in epidemiology, public health, evolutionary biology, virology, ecology, mathematics, physics, computing science and statistics. It has long-running research programmes in rabies epidemiology.
• Swiss-TPH: contribution to research on rabies epidemiology and economics, links with guinea worm eradication