EDCTP Career Development Fellowships in poverty-related diseases and child and adolescent health

The purpose of this Call for Proposals is to support early- to mid-career researchers (“fellows”) by providing them with opportunities to train and develop their clinical research skills.
The objectives are:
to promote retention of postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate medical researchers in the clinical or field research areas of sub-Saharan Africa
to equip the fellows to establish themselves as independent researchers with ability to establish their own research teams at host institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.
Proposals should enhance the ability of the fellow to design, plan and execute clinical biomedical and/or social science/ethics research projects within the scope of the EDCTP2 programme.
Due to the extraordinary global crisis of COVID-19 that is also affecting African countries, this topic should also be considered by applicants.
Fondation Botnar[1] will co-fund this call with a contribution of € 1,500,000 for proposals conducting research in the area of child and adolescent health and wellbeing. Fondation Botnar’s contribution to this call aims to address the shortage of suitably trained early- to mid-career paediatric researchers in sub-Saharan Africa. In the frame of this call, Fondation Botnar encourages research proposals aimed at improving the wellbeing of adolescents suffering from PRDs (e.g. mental health, malnutrition) through the development, validation and/or implementation of new solutions. In keeping with its strategy and approach, Fondation Botnar wishes to support applications aiming to exploit scalable and sustainable Artificial Intelligence and digital technologies in urban environments.
Novartis International AG[2] aims to co-fund this call with at least five additional fellowships (to a maximum value of € 750,000) for proposals conducting research in the area of maternal and child health on the interaction between PRDs and non-communicable diseases (NCDs, including e.g. sickle cell disease). The contribution from Novartis aims to address a shortage of suitably trained mid-career researchers in sub-Saharan Africa working on maternal and child health in the context of a growing double burden of infectious diseases, malnutrition, and child and maternal mortality, in addition to emerging challenges of NCDs.
Proposals should include an independent research activity to be conducted by the fellow and a clear description of the skills that will be acquired by carrying out the research. Fellows with training activities involving clinical trials and related studies must ensure that studies are appropriately designed and ICH-GCP-compliant. Individuals targeted by this Call for Proposals should have a track record of publications in peer-reviewed journals in their chosen area of research; a mentor at their host organisation who is an internationally recognised scientific leader working in sub-Saharan Africa; and a career development plan as part of the research proposal. Applicants must also show how their proposals will address geographical and gender imbalances in areas of sub-Saharan Africa that are highly burdened with MCAH problems but are still weak in attracting research grants.