AAS Call for Proposals: 2nd Drug Discovery Call
The African Academy of Sciences (AAS), through its Grand Challenges Africa (GCA) programme, The Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3D) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) came together in 2018 to expand and strengthen the drug discovery community in Africa and they extended an invitation to be part of the second next phase of support for the drug discovery call 2020 as part of the Grand Challenges Africa Round 10.
The objectives of this call are to support exciting new drug discovery projects in Africa and to strengthen drug discovery capabilities in Africa and create a project-driven African drug discovery network. More precisely:
- Identify new chemical entities (NCEs) with potential for drug development in diseases of local relevance for Africa, starting with small molecule hits for subsequent hit-to-lead and lead optimization campaigns.
- Expand research capacity for drug discovery within qualifying institutions.
- Strengthen the drug discovery network by building intra-Africa and global links including those identified as having basic and translational science capacities.
Eligibility:
- Be a citizen or a resident of an African country with tenure during the period of the project.
- Have a creative idea for a drug discovery project based on one or more of the following:
- biological targets
- biological screens or assays
- small molecule starting points (hits or leads including purified and characterized natural products)
- in-vitro and in vivo DMPK | ADME assays and related technologies
- Work in drug discovery on the African continent
- Be willing, interested, and able to collaborate with experts across the continent to share and develop best practices and approaches for drug discovery
- Not have received funding from this scheme before.
- Current grantees from cohort 1 are not eligible to apply
Read more here.
Proposals deadline July 7, 2020.
