International AIDS Society Fellowships 2017

The Growing the Leaders of Tomorrow Fellowship Programme is a mentored, 2-year research training fellowship designed to enable outstanding sub-Saharan African early career researchers with a doctoral degree or a doctor of medicine degree to strengthen their research skills, to learn new research techniques and to further deepen expertise in paediatric HIV.

Awards will be for up to US$ 70,000 in total, including indirect costs and travel expenses. It is expected that the majority of the award will be used for the fellow’s stipend, distributed over the two-year fellowship period. The award will be made available to the mentor’s host institution.

Mentor’s eligibility criteria

The mentor must:

• Be either an Associate or Full Professor or Chief/Principal Research Officer with an established position at a research institute in SSA;
• Submit their CV, including publication record in paediatric HIV clinical research;
• Demonstrate that they are the principal investigator of the proposed research project that the fellow will be contributing to and that direct research expenses and adequate infrastructure for the period of the fellowship will be provided for by other grants or sources of funding;
• Establish a mentorship plan that demonstrates how the fellowship will contribute to skill building and professional development of the fellow, as well as ensuring successful completion of the research project.

Fellow’s eligibility criteria:

• The fellow must be a junior investigator with a doctoral degree (PhD) or a doctor of medicine degree (e.g., MD, MBBS or equivalent) obtained no more than ten years before the application deadline and who has less than five years of relevant research experience.
• The fellow must hold a passport from a country in SSA[1].
• The fellow must fulfil one of the following criteria prior to the application submission deadline:
  • He/she is a clinical/research trainee (e.g., research or clinical fellow, senior medical resident/Registrar) at an SSA academic institute or an SSA institute whose primary mission is research.
  • He/she has a faculty or comparable position (e.g., assistant professor, lecturer, research officer) at an SSA academic institute or an SSA institute whose primary mission is research.
  • He/she is working at an SSA organization with adequate research infrastructure to undertake the proposed research activities.
• The fellow (and mentor) must demonstrate that funding to support the direct costs of the proposed research is available.

The research project should demonstrate the potential to contribute to the optimization of HIV diagnosis, prevention, treatment and care for infants, children and adolescents affected by HIV in sub-Saharan African countries by responding to identified clinical research gaps.

[1] Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, United Republic of, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

HOW TO APPLY:

Applications must be submitted no later than 15 March 2017, 18:00 CET.

Applicants will be asked to provide an application that briefly outlines their proposed projects, including background, specific aims, preliminary data (if any) and research methodology. The Call for Applications is now available on the CIPHER website. The research project must respond to one of the identified research priorities.

The application can only be submitted through the online system and in the format provided. Applications not submitted through the online system will not be accepted. Only applications in English will be considered.

Please note that a) mentor’s curriculum vitae; b) fellow’s latest degree(s) (PhD, MD, MBBS or equivalent); c) fellow’s passport; and d) host institution support letter are required. Applicants will be asked to upload these documents during the submission process.