Deadline: October 30, 2026
Applications are open for the IDM-Africa Fellowship Programme 2027. IDM-Africa invites applications from early- and mid-career scientists in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for its annual Fellowship Programme in infectious-disease modelling. The Fellowship supports scientists who already have foundational training and practical experience in infectious-disease modelling to develop an applied, policy-relevant modelling project using their own data.
Fellows will receive structured mentorship from leading modellers, infectious-disease experts and policy specialists at partner institutions. The partner sites are The Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) at Makerere University; University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB) and Amsterdam University Medical Center (UMC) with their corresponding training sites being The African Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Data-Intensive Sciences, Kampala-Uganda (ACE-Uganda); The African Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Data-Intensive Sciences, Bamako-Mali (ACE-B); and The Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD).
Fellowship Structure
Each Fellowship runs for 12 months:
- One month of in-person placement at the selected host institution (ACE-Uganda or ACE-B), with intensive mentor-guided project development.
- Eleven months of online mentorship, including at least one mentor-mentee session every two weeks, peer-learning activities, monthly progress reporting, and quarterly review meetings.
By the end of the Fellowship, each Fellow will be expected to:
- Complete a documented and validated infectious-disease model, including reproducible code in R, Python or equivalent software.
- Submit a final project report to the IDM-Africa coordinating centre at IDI.
- Submit a manuscript as lead author to a peer-reviewed open-access journal.
- Produce a policy brief as lead author communicating the relevance of the modelling results to policymakers.
- Submit regular bi-weekly progress updates and quarterly performance reports via the IDI iBRIDGE system / Virtual Communities of Learning (VCL) platform.
- Attend the monthly peer-fellow meetings.
- Present progress during quarterly Fellowship review meetings.
- Present research findings at a workshop or regional scientific conference and at the annual IDM-Africa policy translation workshop.
- Complete all agreed mentorship, reporting and deliverable requirements to receive a certificate of completion.
Eligibility
- Be affiliated with an institution located in sub-Saharan Africa and within the EDCTP Association.
- Be resident in, or willing to relocate to, an eligible sub-Saharan African country for the Fellowship placement.
- Hold a master’s degree in a quantitative discipline – such as mathematics, physics, data science or statistics or a health-related field, together with short-term training in infectious-disease modelling. Candidates holding or pursuing a PhD in these disciplines are also eligible to apply.
- Have practical experience in infectious-disease modelling, including having led a substantial component of a modelling-related project, particularly the mathematical-modelling component.
- Be proficient in at least one modelling platform or programming language, such as R, Python or MATLAB, and be able to manage datasets, formulate models, run simulations and interpret results.
- Demonstrate a clear commitment to a career in infectious-disease modelling and its application to public-health challenges.
- Be willing and able to work in interdisciplinary teams, including with epidemiologists, public-health officers, modellers and policymakers.
- Be available for the full one-month in-person placement and the subsequent 11 months of online mentorship.
- Commit to completing the agreed Fellowship outputs.
- Applicants affiliated with partner institutions, including institutions at IDI/Makerere University in Uganda or ACE-B/USTTB in Mali, are NOT eligible.
Application
For more information, visit IDM-Africa Fellowship.
