The Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) works to strengthen the health research capacity of scientists in Africa who are engaged in tackling the sub-region’s significant health challenges. AREF is calling for applications from scientists who are active, emerging biomedical/health researchers in African countries to participate in its Essential Grant Writing Skills Programme.  

This fully on-line programme will be held over eight 3-hour sessions during the weeks of 17^th March 2025 and 5^th May 2025.  There will be a six-week break in between the two-part programme, where you will be expected to write a mini proposal and participate in an activity to review the proposals of your colleagues.  This is an intensive programme that is designed to produce tangible progress towards a grant proposal by the end of the programme series. Your commitment to the entire series and to the additional work outside of sessions will be necessary to achieve these outcomes.

To fully benefit from this programme series, you will be at a stage in your research career where you are actively seeking independent funding, and perhaps have won smaller grants, but have yet to secure that big grant necessary to support your research independence.

The Programme series

Programme aim

The Programme aim is to enable talented early-career health- and health-related researchers from countries in Africa to build skills to develop their own research and fellowship proposals of the quality required to win competitive international, regional and national funding.

What the Programme will cover

1. Developing and expressing your unique research niche
2. Formulating your compelling research question
3. Understanding funders’ requirements
4. Writing in plain English
5. Writing the different sections of a proposal
6. Key parts of a typical Case for Support / Project Description
7. Planning your proposal project plan and budget
8. Principles of managing your collaboration and team
9. Understanding and practicing peer review
10. Preparing for a Fellowship interview.

What the Programme will not cover

The programme will not cover the following: how to get research ethics approval; how to complete individual funders’ application forms; the details of intellectual property management; practice in research communication.

The facilitators will use examples of real funding applications.  However, they will not be assisting participants directly with the participants’ own specific proposals.

Format of the Programme series

The Programme series will be held as

• Monday 17^th to Friday 21^st March 2025: daily 3-hour on-line sessions, 08:30 – 11:30 GMT
• Monday 5^th to Wednesday 7^th May 2025: daily sessions 3-hour on-line sessions, 08:30 – 11:30 GMT
• See the table below for the corresponding time in other zones

Participants will be provided with appropriate learning materials including preparatory exercises before the first session and between sessions.  Each session will be delivered through Zoom.  Participants will work in on-line groups and offline subgroups. All sessions will be conducted in English.

Expenses

AREF does not provide funding for participants to access equipment or internet services with which to participate.  Nor do we reimburse you or your institution for any other expenses associated with the programme or any form of per diem payment.

Our expectations of participants

Inputs

You MUST

• commit to all on-line sessions for the full duration of each session. Attendance to all sessions is mandatory. Participants will not receive a certificate of completion otherwise.
• Participate in all sessions. These sessions are interactive and will require your active participation. You gain the best when you fully participate in all activities and exercises.
• Commit approximately an additional hour each day to prepare for each session through reading and pre-work assignments/reflections.
• Dedicate significant time during the six-week period in between programme sessions to write a draft of your own research proposal, which will then be utilised in the final three sessions.

You SHOULD

• have access to good bandwidth and a computer or laptop that is set up to use the Zoom platform (IT department may control your ability to use online platforms)
• be able to use a smart phone simultaneously with the Zoom platform.

Outputs

You will also be expected to participate in AREF monitoring and evaluation surveys to track outcomes.

Scope

AREF welcomes applications for this Programme from researchers who are actively working on challenges to human health and are trained and experienced in one or more of the following disciplines: biomedicine; physiology and pharmacology; clinical sciences; epidemiology; mathematics and statistics; environmental health; “one health” (veterinary science); behavioural, mental health, public health, data science for health, social and economic sciences; and health policy and systems research.

Eligibility

To be eligible, you need to provide evidence that:

• You are a citizen of a country in Africa
• You are in the early stages of your research career, having completed your research education

EITHER

• you have been awarded a research doctorate (PhD/DPhil/MD) from a recognised academic institution normally within the previous 6 years, (i.e. awarded on or after 1 January 2019);
  • OR you have a medical/clinical qualification PLUS a research-relevant Master’s degree, both awarded normally within the previous 6 years (i.e. awarded on or after 1 January 2019).
• You are currently employed in Africa by a recognised university and/or specialist research institution.
• You have not participated already in equivalent proposal development / grant-writing training.
• A significant part of your current employee role is to develop and conduct health research.
• You do not already have a significant portfolio of international research grants (Combined value of £250,000 or more).

Criteria for selection

Through your application, you will need to demonstrate that you are at a stage of your research career where this intensive training will support your future success as a researcher and you are highly likely to apply your learning to winning research funding.

Capacity to benefit

Your application will be assessed in terms of your capacity to benefit from the training, using the following kinds of evidence:

1. Your research experience, outputs and other achievements as an emerging researcher up to now.
2. How you will use the training to achieve your personal vision for your development as a scientist who can address key health challenges important to Africa.
3. How you will “cascade”, i.e. to pass on, the knowledge and skills you have gained from the programme
4. Adequate command of English.

Programme participants will be shortlisted from the eligible applicants using these criteria.  Only applicants who meet the capacity to benefit criteria will be on the shortlist, from which the final selection will be made.

Diversity and inclusivity

To ensure equity across research organisations, no more than two shortlisted participants will be finally selected from any one employing institution and AREF aims to maintain a gender and language-balanced selection of participants across its programmes.

How to apply

To apply, please go to our portal (https://programmes.aref-africa.org.uk/) to access the Application Form on our portal and complete the application form as directed. You must register an account on the portal before you can access the application form.

You can also find additional information in the 2025 AREF GWP Online Application Form Guidance and the FAQs guide to help you to complete the application form.

Key dates

Contact

If you have any enquiries, contact AREF via the “Contact Us” section on the portal which can be found on the lefthand panel on your homepage with your enquiry and you will receive a response within 5 working days.

If your enquiry is related to registering on the portal, please email us at gtprogrammes@africaresearchexcellencefund.org.uk with the title “Portal Registration” in your email title bar.

Emails sent to any other AREF email related to the application will not receive a timely response.