IDEA is a large-scale integrated project funded by the European Commission 7th Framework program. It involves 21 partner institutions from 6 European (Swtizerland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and UK) and 5 African (Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania) countries. The primary objective of IDEA is to determine whether and how the presence of worm infections modulate:

• immune responses specific to HIV, TB and Malaria;
• the clinical course of these diseases;
• and vaccination and vaccine-induced immune responses.

To achieve these objectives, IDEA has developed a global and innovative strategy which includes:

• the alliance between African and European leading scientists in the field of worms, HIV, TB and malaria;
• the multidisciplinary expertise involving immunologists, parasitologists, epidemiologists, clinicians, and experts in vaccines;
• cutting edge immunology and the most innovative technologies to profile immune response;
• the access to large cohort studies bringing a number of centres working on worms and PRDs in Africa together;
• the access to experimental HIV, TB and malaria vaccine candidates under clinical development in Africa.

IDEA creates an unique opportunity and a critical mass to tackle a series of complex and challenging scientific issues that have never been addressed previously in a systematic fashion.