The Francis Crick Institute and five partner institutes in Africa have today 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.

This winter, the Crick and African partners will hold workshops in each of the African countries to promote the fellowship scheme and help potential applicants develop strong proposals. Applications will then open for the first round of fellows in July 2018, and we hope to welcome the first six African researchers in Autumn 2018. An additional 12 researchers will be recruited in two further calls.

Paul Nurse, Director of the Francis Crick Institute, says: “We are delighted to receive such promising talent from our partner institutes, and welcome their contributions to our existing research into infectious diseases.”

The Crick African Network aims to promote economic development and healthcare in partner countries by sharing the Crick’s extensive experience researching diseases including HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria.

This UK-Africa collaboration will provide successful African post-doctoral scientists with two years of intensive training and mentorship – the first year at the Crick, 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 between the Crick and leading research centres throughout Africa. These are the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town, South Africa, the MRC (Medical Research Council) Uganda Virus Research Institute, the University of Ghana, and the MRC Unit in The Gambia who are also representing the West African Global Health Alliance.

The Crick will provide advanced training opportunities for the incoming fellows, as well as access to the Crick’s state-of-the-art facilities to carry out pioneering research on HIV, TB and malaria.

“We are now in an exciting position to offer significant career development opportunities to high-flying African health scientists of promise,” says Robert Wilkinson, Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute and Director of the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa at the University of Cape Town, who led the proposal and will direct the programme.

Dr. Stephen Cose, who is coordinating the MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit’s involvement, says: “This is a fantastic opportunity to support our brilliant young postdoctoral researchers in Uganda. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to train at one of the UK’s leading research institutes, The Crick Institute, and to set up a network of African researchers to help propel them into a successful research career, and to help set the research agenda for Africa.”