Kenya Medical Research Institute

Kenya Medical Research Institute (doing business as Kemri), headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, is a non-profit research organization that acts as a federal grant sub-recipient, performing applied and basic biomedical and infectious-disease research for U.S. federal agencies as a subordinate partner on grants awarded to U.S. universities and research institutions. Kemri operates almost entirely in a sub-recipient capacity — 84% of its recent federal footprint comprises grant sub-awards — with only 16 prime grants across a five-year window ending September 2026, indicating that Kemri functions as an in-country research execution partner rather than as a prime grantee or contractor.

Kemri's federal customer base concentrates heavily within the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with the top five grantor components — the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, 38 awards), National Cancer Institute (NCI, 19 awards), National Institute of Nursing Research (19 awards), National Institute of Mental Health (17 awards), and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (13 awards) — accounting for 67% of all awards. This concentration reflects Kemri's research focus: infectious disease epidemiology, HIV prevention and treatment, cancer screening and prevention (particularly cervical cancer), tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases including visceral leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis, maternal and child health, and behavioral health interventions. The organization conducts clinical trials, field epidemiology, sample collection and laboratory analysis, data management and biostatistics, and research site management and oversight in Kenya and neighboring East African regions.

Recent representative work illustrates Kemri's research portfolio. As a prime recipient, Kemri accepted a $537,250 Project Grant from the National Cancer Institute in September 2026 (CFDA 93.393) to conduct a cluster-randomized trial evaluating integrated tobacco and alcohol dependence treatment within HIV primary care in Kisumu County, Kenya — work that runs through August 2031. As a sub-recipient, Kemri partners with Washington University on an Adaptive Strategies for Preventing and Treating Lapses of Retention in HIV Care for Adolescents (A4A) study, with University of Washington on PrEP delivery optimization and tuberculosis co-infection training, with the University of California San Francisco on HIV prevention behavioral economics interventions and SEARCH longitudinal studies in western Kenya, with Emory University on cervical cancer screening and treatment for women living with HIV, with the Ohio State University on visceral leishmaniasis ecoepidemiology in Marsabit and Kajiado counties, and with Brown University and the University of Massachusetts on Plasmodium falciparum and Burkitt lymphoma research leveraging Kenya's high malaria transmission and cancer case density. Kemri also receives recurring sub-awards from the Association of Public Health Laboratories to support the CDC Diagnostic Laboratory System Program complex in Kisumu, covering personnel and operational costs.

Activity has grown from 10 awards in 2022 to a peak of 41 in 2024, followed by a slight decline to 38 in 2025 and 13 awards (year-to-date) in 2026 — a trajectory reflecting new grants entering the portfolio rather than recompete risk. Only 2 awards (combined ultimate completion date in the next twenty-four months) face recompete or expiration in the near term, positioning Kemri's sub-recipient footprint as stable and forward-committed through the five-year grant windows typical of NIH research awards.

Kemri's work is performed in Kenya with research sites in Kisumu, western Kenya counties (Homa Bay, Migori, Siaya, Kajiado, Marsabit), and Nairobi. The organization provides on-the-ground research infrastructure — recruiting and enrolling study participants, managing field and laboratory operations, ensuring regulatory and ethics compliance with Kenya's institutional review boards, collecting and processing biological specimens, maintaining electronic health and data systems, and training research staff — enabling U.S. academic and research institutions to conduct rigorous, large-scale clinical and epidemiologic investigations in high-disease-burden populations that would be impractical or costly to execute in the United States.