Quantifying the cost of in-kind contributions to a multidonor-funded health research capacity-building programme: the case of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa.

The consortium's institutions and academic and non-academic staff make significant contributions to ensure the effective implementation of donor-funded programmes. This is not unique to CARTA. These contributions are usually not counted, often not recognised at institutional level nor remunerated through grants. Knowing these costs would allow for sustainability appraisals and cost-benefit assessments. This paper offers a method of how to measure these contributions and begins a discussion around this.