The AREF Excell Malaria Researcher & Leadership Development Programme
Programme Overview
This notice invites applications from high-achieving Malaria researchers to be considered by their institution for nomination to the Excell Malaria Programme.
AREF’s mission is to support a community of health researchers across Africa in cultivating their knowledge and skills to become research leaders who can tackle African and global health challenges. For the AREF Excell programme, we will provide capacity building needed to equip African post-doctoral malaria researchers with the research leadership skills they need to progress and lead malaria research throughout their careers.
AREF’s Excell malaria programme will enable 18 individual researchers from three participating institutions to build strong research careers, empower excellent teams, win research funds, work collaboratively, engage with research users – and so make an even bigger impact on improving health and saving lives. We will support partner institutions to embed structural changes that will enhance their long-term ability to support emerging health research leaders, with up to 50,000 USD over two years available to support proposed capacity-building projects.
Learning themes
1. The Researcher as Leader
2. The Effective Researcher
3. The Compelling Applicant
4. The Researcher as Manager
5. The Responsible Researcher
Programme outline
In the two years from January 2026 to January 2028, the programme will include:
- Opening and closing conferences
- Project funding up to 50,000 USD to embed policy and practice
- Three experiential workshops
- Coaching and mentorship for institutional leads
- Supplementary webinars and on-line resources
- Monitoring and Evaluation of projects to include baseline and end-of-programme assessments
- Collaborative projects and networking
Essential eligibility criteria for individual nomination by the institution to AREF
- An employee of an African institution with a significant and specific role in Malaria research.
- A national of an African state
- 2-8 full years of active post-PhD research experience; or a clinician without a PhD with both an MD and research master’s and 4-8 years of active research experience.
- Not already having participated in previous Excell programme.
- AREF is keen to recruit talented researchers focusing on malaria research from a broad range of approaches, including laboratory, clinical, behavioural, social, public health, health systems, and environmental and mathematical sciences. Their research must be directed towards achieving better health outcomes in Africa and show alignment with their national Malaria research strategy, where applicable.
Overview of the application process
Each application will be led by an Institutional Lead (IL), who will ideally be a mid to senior level malaria researcher. Within the institution, the IL will coordinate the competitive selection of five talented early career malaria researchers (the nominees) to participate in the AREF Excell malaria programme. We estimate that the entire application process, including the competitive nomination of ECRs, will take about 6 to 8 weeks. We therefore encourage interested applicants to start the process early.
How to apply
Read more about AREF Excell Malaria programme and information on how to apply here
Apply Here: programmes.aref-africa.org.uk
Deadline for application: 15th October, 2025