Deadline: 12-May-23

The Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) is inviting applications for the AREF-MRC Towards Leadership Programme 2023/24 to empower talented emerging scientists in Africa to become outstanding leaders in the global health research ecosystem.

Together they are investing in talented African scientists in Africa, enhancing their global health research and leadership potential.

The programme will run between Oct 2023 – Oct 2024, consisting of two residential workshops (opening and closing) and one virtual workshop.

The curriculum is designed to support engage and enhance the participants’ own capabilities and to empower talented, emerging scientists in Africa to compete successfully on a level playing field for UKRI MRC and other major funding opportunities in global health research.  The programme is directed towards to winning grant funding, empowering effective teams, collaborating internationally, influencing stakeholders and building rewarding research careers.

Themes

• The Programme has the following themes tailored to meet the needs of each cohort:
  • The Researcher As Leader focusing on learning & leading in a complex world; raising the cohorts self-awareness, mindfulness while also building their coaching, influence, and leadership capabilities.
  • The Effective Researcher developing the individual’s ability to envision, plan and action career goals and development trajectory through personal development planning, time management, and mentorship
  • The Researcher As Communicator augmenting the individual’s leadership, authorship & authority skills through the use of effective presentations, storytelling and messaging while refining their engagement with research users.
  • The Compelling Applicant Understanding funders. Proposal development and writing skills: from formulating a research question; justifying the design / strategy; concept notes and full proposals.  Data sharing. Understanding peer review.  Fellowship interviews.
  • The Researcher As Manager Building a great team. Effective collaboration. Implementation planning.  Working with Research Support and Finance departments. Managing a budget.  Managing intellectual property

Elements

• The Programme comprises the following elements:
  • Three inspiring and practical blended workshops at six-monthly intervals
  • Supplementary webinars, tutorials and on-line resources
  • Baseline and end-of-programme assessments and evaluation
  • Collaboration between participating individuals

Funding Information

• The maximum funding that an applicant may seek for a Fellowship that includes a 9-month placement is £40,000. Further details of the maximum costs for varying lengths of placements are provided in the guidance documents.

Eligibility Criteria

• You are a citizen of a country in Africa
• You are currently employed in Africa by a recognised university and/or specialist research institution.
• You are an early career researcher, having completed your research education and are now at the early stages of leading your own research group.
• You will hold a research doctorate (PhD/DPhil/MD) from a recognised academic institution OR you have a medical/clinical qualification PLUS a research-relevant Master’s degree, both usually within the last 10 years. If it has been longer than 10 years since your last degree, please explain in your application why you should still be considered an early career researcher (i.e. caring responsibilities or career break/change impacting your research career).
• You are currently responsible for managing/supervising one or more research students and/or research staff members and are involved in building research collaborations.
• You demonstrate evidence of being at the early stages of leading a research team or being an active member of a research team conducting Global Health research
• A significant part of your current employee role is to develop and conduct health research.
• You already have experience in obtaining research funding (Combined value of £500,000 or less).

Details

• The timetable for all Towards Leadership participants is as follows:
  • The opening Workshop is planned for 4-6th November 2023.
  • Workshop 2 will be held virtually and is planned for 11 to 15 March 2024.
  • The closing workshop is planned for October 2024

For more information, visit AREF-MRC Towards Leadership Programme.