Crick African Network to train top African scientists

24 Jul 2017
24 Jul 2017

Adapted from Faculty of Health Sciences news 24 July 2017

Crick grant group

Prof Robert Wilkinson (left), director of CIDRI-Africa, IDM; Prof Graeme Meintjes (right); and colleagues at UCT

 

The Francis Crick Institute and five partner institutes in Africa have announced a fellowship programme to train African researchers to tackle infectious diseases in their home countries.

The programme, called the Crick African Network, is supported by a £6 million grant from the Global Challenges Research Fund, a five-year initiative led by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to address problems faced by developing countries. The Crick African Network aims to promote economic development and healthcare in partner countries by sharing the Crick Institute’s extensive experience researching diseases including HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

After promoting the programme in each of the partner African countries, with assistance towards helping potential applicants develop strong proposals, applications will then open in July 2018. The Crick Institute hopes to welcome the first six African researchers in 2018; an additional 12 researchers will be recruited in two further calls. Two years of intensive training and mentorship – the first year at the Crick Institute and the second year at their African partner institute – to foster the next generation of research leaders in Africa.

The network will build on partnerships already established between the Crick Institute and the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town, South Africa; the MRC Uganda Virus Research Institute; the University of Ghana; and the MRC Unit in The Gambia, which is also representing the West African Global Health Alliance.

The original proposal was led by Professor Robert Wilkinson, group leader at the Francis Crick Institute and Director of the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa; based in the IDM) and he will also be directing the Crick African Network programme.