To Whom It May Concern: As an aspiring member of the Working Group on New TB Drugs (WGND), I fully recognise the importance of accelerating the development of effective and affordable new therapies for TB. Without new drugs for tuberculosis, radical decreases in global prevalence and incidence are unlikely. Current regimens are not only unfavourable for the promotion of adherence, they are also inadequate to tackle drug-resistance and latent infections. The chronic lack of funding for TB research and the resulting meagre pipeline had until recently meant that few TB clinical trial sites were needed. Fortunately, in recent years, there has been a reawakening of interest and investments in TB research, leading to a renewal of the development pipeline. With the surge in promising drug candidates, the attention being paid to research capacity and regulations has increased too. This can in part be explained by the fact that the complexity of the rules and regulations by which TB research is governed continues to grow. More than ever, TB researchers must follow demanding national and regional regulations when planning and implementing clinical studies, a fact that hints at the potential benefits that streamlining and harmonizing TB research regulations could produce. At the same time as efforts must be deployed to minimize hurdles in the development of new TB drugs, research capacity must be built at the international level. There is especially a strong need to build research capacity where the epidemic wreaks havoc most devastatingly. Such efforts should be mindful of issues that have been so far marginalised in TB research, such as paediatric cases and community engagement. As I embark on an educational journey that will lead me to becoming a member of the growing community seeking to discover new TB drugs, I wish to be involved in the development both of effective training resources and empowering interventions to nurture trial capacity. These interests attract me particularly to the work of the Clinical Trials Capacity Subgroup. While my level of experience cannot compare with that of the other members of this Working Group, I believe there might be value in my addition to the membership. First of all, admitting a student will ensure long-term commitment, while offering new human resource opportunities. As a student, I indeed anticipate that I will be able to dedicate more time to the Working Group’s ongoing activities than other members with less flexible and more demanding appointments. At the same time, I think I will be in good position to help ensure that community engagement receives the attention it deserves in the context of the Clinical Trials Capacity Subgroup’s discussions. Having conducted in 2009 ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico to document the community engagement activities of an international consortium involved in clinical and epidemiological TB research, I am particularly sensitive to the impact the human dimension can play in research capacity building. My current, though temporary, involvement with the Stakeholder and Community Engagement Working Group of the Critical Path to TB Regimens (CPTR) initiative will also have put me in a good position to be an active member of the WGND: being in the midst of conducting interviews with several members of the latter, I now have an understanding of the field of TB research that I would expect to be uncommon in people with my level of experience. Finally, recruiting an individual in the course of their academic training will send the positive and crucial message that students, too, must get mobilised for the development of new TB drugs. Overall, I hope you will agree that my background, enthusiasm and shared conviction that the development of effective and affordable new therapies for tuberculosis must be accelerated all position me well to support the Working Group on New TB Drugs and become an active member of the Clinical Trials Capacity Subgroup. I look forward to addressing the bottlenecks and roadblocks faced by those involved in TB drugs clinical trials with the rest of the members of this important initiative. Thank you for your time and interest, Renaud Boulanger renaud.boulanger@alumni.utoronto.ca