Fellowships

The GFBR fellowships provide a unique opportunity for people attending the Forum to work in partnership to further explore issues that have arisen during the course of a GFBR meeting. There are three types of fellowship: travel, project and meeting.

General conditions

The following conditions apply to all three fellowships:

• Applications for each round are only open to people who attended the most recent GFBR meeting.
• Applications should fit in with the goals of the GFBR and be relevant to the subject matter of the most recent GFBR meeting.
• The normal maximum that can be applied for is US$10,000 but a higher amount will be considered on a case-by-case basis in exceptional circumstances if there is a strong justification. Applicants should not automatically request the full normal maximum.
• Applications for conference attendance as a stand-alone activity will not be considered.
• Applicants may only apply for one fellowship in any given year.
• Current and former fellows should wait at least 2 years after the completion of their first fellowship before submitting another application.
• An individual can receive a maximum of two fellowships throughout the lifetime of the scheme.

Travel Fellowships

The GFBR travel fellowships are intended to support visits to a country other than the country where the applicant is based. They are designed to give the applicant the time needed to develop a topic and also learn from being in a different research environment. The length of the visit is usually between 2 weeks and 3 months. One of the key aims of the GFBR is to promote new global South/South or North/South collaborations. The scheme is not designed to support travel from one high income country to another.

As part of your application you will be asked to:

• Detail your career history, education and training and provide a list of your peer-reviewed publications or other academic outputs.
• Detail your current work and the objectives of your visit.
• Identify and explain why you have chosen the host organisation.
• Say when you plan to undertake the visit and what you plan to do during your time (e.g. an itinerary).
• Indicate what outputs you expect to produce (e.g. conference presentations, academic papers, policy document or public engagement activities).
• Explain how this trip fits in with the goals of the GFBR.
• Propose a budget (e.g. travel, accommodation and general living costs).
• Provide a signed letter from your supervisor or management at your current institution (supporting your trip and confirming that it is necessary and relevant).
• Provide a letter from the receiving institution confirming your invitation and explaining who will be available to support/mentor you during your fellowship.

Project Fellowships

The GFBR project fellowships are intended to support specific projects, the outputs of which may be conference presentations, academic papers etc. Please note that one of the key aims of the GFBR is to promote new global South/South or North/South collaborations. It is expected that any academic outputs are not sole-authored pieces or collaborations solely with others from your current institution.

As part of your application you will be asked to:

• Detail your career history, education and training and provide a list of your peer-reviewed publications or other academic outputs.
• Detail your current work and the objectives of your project (including an explanation of why you have chosen the topic).
• Explain what you plan to do during your time on the grant (e.g. meetings, research).
• Indicate what outputs you expect to produce (e.g. conference presentations, academic papers, policy document or public engagement activities).
• Explain how your project fits in with the goals of the GFBR.
• Propose a budget.
• Provide a signed letter from your supervisor or management at your current institution (supporting your trip and confirming that it is necessary and relevant).

Meeting Fellowships

The GFBR meeting fellowships are intended to support the costs of holding an event that builds on the annual GFBR meeting discussion and furthers the GFBR’s aim to promote new global South/South or North/South collaborations.

As part of your application you will be asked to:

• Detail your career history, education and training and provide a list of your peer-reviewed publications or other academic outputs.
• Detail your current work and the objectives of your meeting.
• Say who you plan to invite and what you plan to do in the meeting (e.g. a draft agenda with key topics).
• Indicate what outputs you expect to produce (e.g. reports, publications, network development).
• Explain how this meeting fits in with the goals of the GFBR.
• Propose a budget.
• Provide a signed letter from your supervisor or management at your current institution (supporting your trip and confirming that it is necessary and relevant).

Selection of the applications will be through a competitive process. Applicants must have attended the most recent GFBR meeting.

The GFBR Steering Committee will review the applications and make a selection based on the following criteria:

• Relevance of application to the subject matter of the previous GFBR meeting.
• Appropriateness of fit between applicant and host institution (for travel fellowships only).
• Whether collaboration will help to develop new and valuable connections between countries and institutions.
• Reasonable cost calculations.
• Value of anticipated outputs.

The Steering Committee will make a decision and aim to inform applicants of the outcome within two months of the submission deadline.

The fellowships are administered by Wellcome on behalf of the GFBR. To apply you need to register and create an account on the Wellcome Trust Grant Tracker (WTGT). It is through this portal that you can access and complete the fellowship application form.

Please note that if you are applying via an institution, the institution needs to approve your application on Grant Tracker for it to be submitted. Please complete your application sufficiently in advance of the deadline to allow time for this approval process.

For reference, you can follow this link to view a sample fellowship application form.

If you have any technical questions regarding the WTGT registration process please contact the helpdesk (gtsupport@wellcome.ac.uk or +44(0)20 7611 8383).

If you have any queries about the application process more broadly, please email the GFBR secretariat.

The 2015-16 Fellowships relate to the GFBR meeting theme “Emerging epidemic infections and experimental medical treatments”.

Dr Derrick Aarons – The Caribbean Public Health Agency – for a project entitled “Ethics oversight of research on emerging epidemic infections and experimental medical treatments.”

Outputs:

Dr Julio Canario – Centro Nacional de Investigaciones en Salud Materno Infantil, Dominican Republic – for a project entitled “Ethical challenges for international collaborative research in the context of Zika in the Caribbean.”

Output:

• Publication: ‘Ethical challenges for international collaborative research partnerships in the context of the Zika outbreak in the Dominican Republic: a qualitative case study’ Canario Guzmán et al. Health Research Policy and Systems (2017) 15:82 DOI 10.1186/s12961-017-0246-0

Dr Ama Edwin – Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana – for a project entitled “Development of operational guidance for epidemics ethics.”

Output:

Dr Morenike Ukpong – Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria – for a project entitled “Ethical considerations and community engagement when conducting research during an infectious disease emergency.”

Output:

Mr Aminu Yakubu – Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria – for a project entitled “KAP of RECs and Policy Makers on Research Studies during Epidemic Outbreaks.”

Output:

• Interviews conducted and publication in progress.

The 2016-17 Fellowships relate to the GFBR meeting theme “Ethics of research in pregnancy”.

Dr Ricardo Palacios – Instituto Butantan, Brasil – “Development of reference documents to incorporate pregnant women in vaccine clinical development plans”

Dr Irene Melamed – Latin American School of Social Sciences, Argentina – “Open Educational Resources: a strategy to reduce the know – do gap in “Ethics of Research in Pregnancy”

Output:

Dr Jackeline Alger – Instituto de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Parasitologia Antonio Vidal, Honduras – “Forum on research integrity and ethics of research in pregnancy in Mesoamerica”

Outputs:

Dr Kenneth Ngure – Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya – “Enrolling pregnant adolescents in biomedical research: Ethical considerations for HIV prevention studies”

Output:

• Publication in progress

Dr Mary Kasule – University of Botswana – “Ethical and Scientific complexities in research involving pregnant women affected by HIV and women with the potential to become pregnant during HIV-related research: a case of Botswana”

Outputs:

• Two seminars held in Botswana, one involving 30 people held at the University of Botswana facilitated by Dr Kasule’s collaborator, Dr. Kristen Sullivan from the University of North Carolina Centre for Bioethics. The second seminar was attended by 34 senior management staff at the Ministry of Health Botswana facilitated by Dr Kasule.
• Presentation by Dr Kasule titled “Advancing Responsible Research with Pregnant Women in Botswana: Respecting Bioethics Principles, Human Rights and Culture” at the 13th World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics & Health Law. November 27-29, 2018. Jerusalem, Israel
• Publication in progress.

Dr Titus Divala – University of Malawi – “Ethical implications of the presumption of exclusion of pregnant women in malaria clinical trials”

Outputs:

• Presentation of the outcomes of the fellowship at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) annual meeting in November 2017.
• Presented at host institution, McMaster University, and at home institution, the Blantyre Malaria Project.
• Publication in progress.

Ms Sithembile Ruzario – Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe – “Developing guidelines for promoting inclusion of pregnant women in clinical trials in Zimbabwe”

Output:

• Draft guidelines were prepared during Ms Ruzario’s visit to the National University of Singapore. The guidance has been presented to the Zimbabwean Medical Research Council and has been further developed and adopted by the National Ethics Committee.

Mrs Jennyfer Ambe – “Dependence or Culture: Examining the impact of socio-cultural practices and the effects of pregnant women’s participation on clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa”

Ms Haihong Zhang – Peking University Health Science Center, China – “Empowering ethical review of research involving pregnant women in China: challenges and possible strategies at the institutional level”

Outputs:

• Presentation:“Vulnerable or Special? Understanding and Contextualizing Pregnant Women Subject Protection in China” at the 14^th World Congress of Bioethics, in India, December 2018.
• Forthcoming: Two papers (one in English and one in Chinese); draft/update ethical review policy on pregnant women for the Peking University Institutional Review Board and a one-hour ethical training for researchers at Ms Zhang’s home institute, Peking University.

The 2017-18 Fellowships relate to the GFBR meeting theme “Ethics of alternative clinical trial designs and methods in LMIC research”.

Miss Jackeline Bravo Chamorro – Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Medicas, Colombia – Regional meeting on “Ethical considerations of alternative clinical trial methods and designs: Challenges and opportunities”

Mrs Tiwonge Mtande – University of North Carolina Project-Malawi, Malawi – “Understanding ethical issues involved in HIV implementation research that have used cluster randomisation trial design and step wedge trial design in Malawi”

Output:

• Publication: Mtande TK, Weijer C, Hosseinipour MC, et al ‘Ethical issues raised by cluster randomised trials conducted in low-resource settings: identifying gaps in the Ottawa Statement through an analysis of the PURE Malawi trial‘ Journal of Medical Ethics 2019;45:388-393.

Dr Vina Vaswani – Yenepoya University, India – “A white paper on ‘Developing ethical guidelines for Controlled Human Infection Model (CHIM) studies for India’”

Output:

• Draft guidance developed during Dr Vaswani’s visit to the John Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. Final guidance forthcoming.

Dr Cristina Torres – Forum For Ethical Review Committees in Asia and The Western Pacific, Thailand – “Asian regional workshop on ethical issues in innovative designs in health research”

Output:

• A half day, region meeting, arranged as a pre-conference to the annual FERCAP meeting in 2018.

The 2018-19 Fellowships relate to the GFBR meeting theme “Ethics of data sharing and biobanking in health research”.

Ms Syntia Nchangwi Munung – University of Cape Town, South Africa – “Data sharing in health research in Africa: motivations, barriers and incentives”

Dr Fabiana Arzuaga – Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, Argentina – “Towards the construction of a governance framework for biobanks and data sharing in Argentina”

Dr Manjulika Vaz – St John’s Research Institute, India – “Developing a people-centred governance mechanism for biobanks and genetic research with stored samples and data in India”

Ms Haihong Zhang – Peking University Health Science Center, China  – “Developing ethical guidelines for promoting specimen and data sharing in health research”

Dr Ahmed Abdelhafiz – Cairo University, Egypt – “Developing biobanking ethical guidelines in Egypt”

Ms Hellen Nansumba – Central Public Health Laboratories/ Uganda National Health Laboratory Services, Uganda – “Evaluation of knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of broad consent for bio-specimens and associated data in Uganda”

Prof Ravi Vaswani – Yenepoya University, India – “Gap analysis of perceptions of researchers and lay public on use of stored samples and biobanking in India”

Mr David Wanjeri – Egerton University, Kenya – “The cultural value of human tissues for select indigenous African communities and its implications for bio-banking”

Mr Julio Canario – Etikos, Dominican Republic – “Comparative analysis of regulatory framework on data sharing and biobanking to inform policy makers in the Dominican Republic”

The 2019-20 Fellowships relate to the GFBR meeting theme “Genome editing for human benefit: ethics, engagement and governance“

Mr Marlyn Faure – University of Cape Town University – “A Critical Investigation of Gene Drive Technology”

Mr Sebastian Barbosa – Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation – “Outreach event of gene editing aimed at the general public in two main cities of Argentina”

Prof Simisola Akintola – University of Ibadan – “Genome editing in Africa: Issues arising from ethics, governance and engagement”

Dr Ana Palmero – Center for the Study of State and Society – “Community and stakeholders perceptions towards human gene editing. An explorative study in Argentina”

Dr Noor Munirah Isa – University of Malaya – “Ethics of human genome editing from Islamic and Confucian perspectives”

Dr Setlhomo Koloi-Keaikitse – University of Botswana – “Engaging with Local Communities in Botswana: Understanding Cultural Values, Norms and Beliefs that may impact Genome-Editing Research in Botswana”

Dr Natasha Anwar – The Aga Khan University – “Decoding Genetic Studies from Pakistan – A Review of International, Regional and Local Guidelines and Compliance”

Dr Gerald Ssebunnya – Africa Institute for Human Dignity – “Towards an Appropriate African Framework for Public Engagement with Human Genome Editing”

Mrs Ruby Ng’ong’ola – Center for Bioethics in Eastern and Southern Africa (CEBESA) – “The governance framework of genome research in Malawi”