Deadline: January 7, 2019.

CIPHER launched its Growing the Leaders of Tomorrow Fellowship Programme in 2017 to build and support clinical research leadership in paediatric and adolescent HIV in low- and middle-income countries, particularly high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

CIPHER Fellows are medical practitioners from sub-Saharan Africa with clinical research experience and the potential to become the next generation of leaders in paediatric and adolescent HIV clinical science. Each fellow receives $70,000 over two years, and has already linked with a potential mentor. The mentor is an internationally renowned researcher in paediatric and adolescent HIV with an established clinical research collaboration based at an institute of excellence in sub-Saharan Africa.

By supporting this link, the programme strengthens each fellow’s research skills, facilitates their integration into international clinical research networks, and enables them to compete more effectively for international research funding. At the same time, it helps address priority research gaps in paediatric and adolescent HIV clinical science and contributes to building institutional capacity in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

ELIGIBILITY

Mentor’s eligibility criteria
The mentor must:
1. Be either an Associate or Full Professor or Chief/Principal Research Officer with an
established position at a research institute in SSA.
2. Submit their CV, including publication record in paediatric HIV clinical research

3. 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.
4. 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:

1. 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.
2. The fellow must hold a passport from a country in SSA1
3. The fellow must fulfil one of the following criteria prior to the application submission
deadline:
4.  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.
5. 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.
6. He/she is working at an SSA organization with adequate research infrastructure
to undertake the proposed research activities.
7. The fellow (and mentor) must demonstrate that funding to support the direct costs of the proposed research is available.

 

BENEFITS

 

1. Fellow/mentor pairs submit an applications to the Growing the Leaders of Tomorrow
Fellowship Programme.

2. Awardees will be selected to receive a two-year fellowship of up to US$ 70,000 (US$ 35,000 per year).

 

CONDITIONS

1. Duration: Fellowships must be served continuously for the duration of the award. The fellowships must be started between July and November 2019.
2. Reporting: Fellows and mentors must provide narrative and financial progress reports every six months during the fellowship period and a final fellowship report, including a final financial report to the IAS based on a template that they will receive.
3. Terms: All fellows must apply for at least one intermediate fellowship or equivalent career development award or grant by the end of their two-year fellowship.
4. Capacity building component: Awardees must attend the 10th IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2019) in July 2019 where an official awards ceremony will be held and they will be engaged in capacity building events.
5. Additional financial support will be provided for awardees to attend the 23rd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2020) and IAS 2021.

 

OFFICIAL LINK

 

Growing the Leaders of Tomorrow Fellowship Programme