EC Calls for Applications: Global Health EDCTP3 Training Networks – Clinical Research Fellowships

The EC is inviting applications for the Global Health EDCTP3 Training Networks – Clinical Research Fellowships.

Poverty-related diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, and neglected tropical diseases (PRNDs) continue to pose a heavy burden on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and remain a major cause of death, disease and disability worldwide. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that, with the increased connectivity of different regions in the world, infectious diseases can rapidly spread. Developing health technologies is therefore crucial to limit the spread of such diseases, as well as to fight them once they have spread to protect the health of all citizens.

Fellowship types:

Early-Stage Career Fellowships 

• To support researchers and other members of clinical research teams from SSA to acquire specific skills in clinical research through placements in pharmaceutical companies, contract research organisations (CROs), clinical or academic affiliated research organisations and/or product development partnerships (PDPs). This category covers both hands-on-training apprenticeship and Master and PhD training arrangements where the candidates can spend part of their training and supervision at a more established or complementary institution with skill sets, expertise and or competences not available at the fellows’ host African institution(s).
• Target individuals should meet all the following criteria:

1. Citizens or residents from a SSA country with a higher infectious disease burden than the country of the host organisation;
2. Exceptionally, be citizens from non-SSA country willing to relocate to a SSA country with higher infectious disease burden;
3. Preference to citizens or residents from a SSA low-income countries with lower clinical research capacity;
4. Be either postgraduate MD, MSc, or PhD candidate, in an area relevant to infectious diseases or clinical staff with experience in infectious diseases employed for the last 12 months in an organisation with a registered legal entity in SSA;

• Duration of a single fellowship: between a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 36 months with the possibility of secondments up to a third of the single fellowship duration.
• Expected minimum number of Early-Stage Career fellowships per proposal: 4, expected maximum number of Early-Stage Career fellowships per proposal: 10.

Mid-Career Fellowships 

• To support researchers and key members of clinical research teams from SSA in their mid-career to develop their clinical research skills. The objective is to promote career development and retention of post-doctoral clinical researchers in SSA, to equip the fellows with the ability to establish themselves as independent researchers and with the skills to initiate and manage their own research at host organisations in the SSA countries with the highest disease burden.
• Target individuals should meet all the following criteria:

1. Be citizens or residents from a SSA country with higher infectious disease burden;
2. Exceptionally, be citizens from non-SSA country willing to relocate to a SSA country with higher infectious disease burden;
3. Preference to citizens or residents from a SSA low-income country with lower clinical research capacity;
4. MD/PhD related to infectious diseases or clinical research or a medical graduate with at least five years’ relevant research experience;
5. At least one publication in an international peer-reviewed journal.

• Duration of a single fellowship: between a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 24 months and can have secondments up to a third of the fellowship duration.
• Expected minimum number of Mid-Career fellowships per proposal: 2, expected maximum number of Mid-Career fellowships per proposal: 5.

Funding details: 

• Monthly contributions based on the Marie Skłodowska Curie schemes (MSCA) contributions.
• To the living allowance a country correction coefficient for the recruited researcher will be applied to ensure equal treatment and purchasing power parity for all fellows.
• The mobility allowance will cover additional, private mobility-related costs (e.g., travel and accommodation costs), but not travel for professional or research purposes.
• A family allowance will contribute to mobility-related costs of researchers with family obligations which can be granted during the project.

Read more here.

Application deadline June 29, 2023.