Call budget : € 400 000
Funding level : 100% of eligible costs
Open date : 1 September 2021, 17:00 CAT
Close date : 30 October 2021, 17:00 CAT
Starting date for the selected applicant : between 01 January and 30 March 2022

One-stage application procedure

The purpose of this Call for Proposals for CANTAM Career Development Fellowships (CDF) for Research within Central Africa is to support up to 4 Emerging Career Researchers (ECR) and key trainees, preferably from the previous CANTAM program or otherwise (wishing to establish in central Africa and collaborate with one or multiple CANTAM PIs). This funding is geared towards the conduct of post-­‐ doctoral research on poverty‐related diseases (PRDs) and re-emerging diseases with focus on COVID-19 in the home country of CDFs in collaboration with one or multiple institutions in which CANTAM PIs are based. The aim of the collaboration is to acquire specific skills in clinical research and development and get adequate mentoring that will guarantee success.

Description

Background

The Central Africa Clinical Research Network (CANTAM) was established in January 2009 for strengthening/developing capacities for the conduct of clinical trials on poverty related diseases in Central Africa. The network is currently made up of 12 institutions, 9 in Africa (Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, DRC and Zambia) and 3 in Europe (Germany, Netherlands and United Kingdom).
Over the past three years, CANTAM significantly strengthen its clinical research capacities, with the first multicenter clinical trial on malaria conducted successfully, the large number of trainees and high level impact factor publications, as well as more emphasis on gender balance in research. The success of CANTAM activities led to further funding by the European Union (EU) through EDCTP.

For this third phase, the network envisage to support more young scientists in development of their career in the science field by attributing four (4) post-doctoral research grant. In this case, four countries within the Central Africa network (Cameroon, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Republic of Congo) will be awarded at least one Career Development Fellowship (CDF) with the objective to support four post-­‐doctoral researchers / Emerging Career Research(ECR) fellow and key members of clinical trial research teams from Cameroon, Gabon, DRC, and Republic of Congo to establish their research within their home institutions. While preference will be given to CANTAM trainees, the scope of this scheme will also include ECR fellows who have acquired a PhD and/or post-doctoral training and wish to establish their research these Central Africa sub-region, and collaborating with a PI from any of the CANTAM institutions.

The scheme targets early to mid‐career clinical researchers or staff (clinicians, pharmacists, medical statisticians, data managers, and other health researchers) who are employed by a legal institution in Cameroon, Gabon, DRC, or Republic of Congo, and who are currently working on activities in the scope of the EDCTP2 programme. Fellows can only be funded once under this grant scheme. Grants awarded are not transferrable from one individual to another. Fellows must be committed to stay in their home organization for a minimum of two years after completion of the fellowship.

Post doc/ Emerging Career Research fellowship

Independent; can handle multiple projects training and supervision of students, writing manuscripts, proposals \ small grants, teaching activities, should be able to run lab independently; troubleshoot day to day activities, should have at least two publications in peer-reveiwedt journals (one first author), be recommended by earlier supervisors.

Expected impact

This CDF Call for Proposals will result in the development of additional human resources that will increase high quality research and development of required interventions against PRDs, epidemiology andCOVID-19 related topics in the target countries. Fellowships are expected to add significantly to the development of the best and most promising researchers from the Central Africa sub-region. Apart from serving to establish ECR in Central Africa, this scheme will strengthen collaboration between research institutions, clinical researchers and staff within CANTAM 3.

Eligibility

Candidate must be from Central Africa Region. At the deadline for the submission of proposals, the fellow must :

• Be holder of a PhD or medical graduate with clinical and/or research experience in infectious diseases.
• Have been a researcher or clinical staff member employed for the last 3 months in an organization with a registered legal entity in the sub-region, conducting clinical research activities in the scope of the EDCTP2 programme.
• Funding requested shall be for a minimum period of 12 months up to a maximum period of 36 months, followed by a two-­‐year research stay at the home institution with satisfactory research conduct.
• The fellow must be a national or citizen, and resident in Cameroon, Gabon, DRC, or Republic of Congo.

Female applications are strongly encouraged.

Notes :

1. This is an intra‐network, country specific funding scheme and targets past trainees of the CANTAM Network. Preference will be given to applications from former CANTAM trainees from the network institutions. However, applications will be accepted from ECR willing to establish their research /lab in Cameroon, Gabon, DRC, or the Republic of Congo.
2. In the EDCTP2 programme, “poverty-related diseases (PRDs)” include HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and the following neglected infectious diseases (NIDs): dengue/severe dengue; rabies; human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness); Leishmaniases; cysticercosis/taeniasis; dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease); echinococcosise; foodborne trematodiases; lymphatic filariasis; onchocerciasis (river blindness); schistosomiasis; soil-transmitted helminthiases; Buruli ulcer; leprosy (Hansen disease); trachoma; yaws; diarrhoeal infections; lower respiratory infections; as well as emerging infectious diseases of particular relevance for Africa, such as Ebola, with the recent world pandemic COVID-19.

Procedure and application process

1. Full CV
2. List of publications
3. Title of the project
4. Background (justification)
5. Proposed study
6. Analysis/statistics: methods
7. Bibliography
8. Project plans: milestones and deliverables
9. Training activities
10. Networking activities
11. Budget
12. 3 contacts (names, institution and phone number and email), serving as references for the applicant.
13. Home organization has to show a strong support to candidate application for this grant.

The full application must be submitted to the secretariat of the CANTAM selection committee via email to info@fcrm-congo.com, copy nkahleo@gmail.com and jolivet.mayela@fcrm-congo.com

More information

Award criteria

CANTAM will be very careful in the selection process of individuals who are unstable and who are not in line with CANTAM vision to build local health research capacities. CANTAM will set up a selection committee for this award. The role of the selection committee will be crucial to advise the steering committee. The latter has to endorse the decision of the selection committee. The Selection committee will assess and score proposals against the following three criteria:

Excellence

1. Alignment with the scope and objectives of the EDCTP2 program and the CANTAM business plan.
2. Importance, relevance and clarity of the objectives
3. Reliability of the proposed approach.
4. Suitability of the candidate, considering their track record, degree of independence and/or potential, and how the fellowship will further the individual’s career
5. Quality of the project and it’s fit with the fellow’s expertise and career development plan, including acquired competencies and skills to be developed further through adequate mentoring.

Impact: The evaluation committee will examine the expected impacts listed in the work plan under the relevant topic.

1. Contribution to strengthening clinical research capacity in the target country
2. Contribution of the fellowship to the fellow’s clinical research skills and career development.
3. Effectiveness of the proposed measures to exploit and disseminate the project results (including management of IPR), to communicate the project, and to manage research data, where relevant
4. Sustainability and retention of capacity post‐award.

Quality and efficiency of the implementation

1. Effectiveness and coherence of the proposed work, including appropriateness of the allocation of tasks and resources.
2. Feasibility and appropriateness of the methods and project management to achieve the objectives within the timeframe of the grant.
3. Appropriateness of the management structures and procedures, including risk and innovation management, and how responsibilities for research data quality and sharing, and security will be met.
4. Compliance with national and international standards of research, Good Clinical Practice, ethics and safety related issues.
5. Complementarity of the participants within the consortium and gender balance among consortium members (when relevant).
6. Participants have the operational capacity, to carry out the proposed work, based on the competence and experience of the individual participant(s).
7. Suitability of the fellow’s home organization to support the fellowship project
8. Intention of the fellow’s home organization to develop and commit to a career post-­‐fellowship or re-­‐integration plan.

For full applications involving projects with human participants, and/or human tissues, cells or personal data, the evaluation process will include an assessment of ethical issues