By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The African Research Excellence Fund (AREF) is inviting applications from women researchers in Africa for its Grant Writing Programme. This initiative aims to equip talented early-career health and health-related researchers with the skills to develop competitive research proposals.
Who Can Apply?
AREF welcomes applications from researchers actively working on human health challenges and trained in disciplines such as:
- Biomedicine, physiology, and pharmacology
- Clinical sciences and epidemiology
- Mathematics and statistics
- Environmental health and “One Health” (veterinary science)
- Behavioral and mental health
- Public health and data science for health
- Social and economic sciences
- Health policy and systems research
Programme Coverage
Participants will receive training in:
- Defining and articulating their unique research niche
- Developing compelling research questions
- Understanding funders’ requirements
- Writing in plain English
- Structuring and drafting different sections of a research proposal
- Crafting a Case for Support/Project Description
Eligibility
To qualify, applicants must:
- Be a citizen of an African country
- Be in the early stages of their research career
- Have obtained a PhD/DPhil/MD from a recognised institution within the last six years (on or after January 1, 2019) OR have a medical/clinical qualification plus a research-relevant Master’s degree awarded within the same period.
- Be currently employed by a recognised university or research institution in Africa.
- Not have previously participated in equivalent grant-writing training with AREF
How to Apply
To apply, register and complete the application form at the AREF Programme Portal: https://programmes.aref-africa.org.uk/
The African Research Excellence Fund (AREF) is offering a Grant Writing Programme for women researchers in Africa, particularly for those in the early stages of their health-related research careers. The initiative is designed to develop skills for crafting competitive research proposals. Applicants should be actively engaged in addressing human health challenges and trained in fields such as biomedicine, public health, environmental health, and others related to health policy and systems research.
Participants in the programme will be trained on defining their research niche, formulating research questions, understanding funders' requirements, writing in plain English, and structuring research proposals. Eligibility criteria include being an African citizen, early in their research career, and having obtained relevant academic qualifications recently. Employment at a recognized African university or research institution is also required, along with not having participated in similar AREF training previously.
Applications can be submitted by registering and completing the form available on the AREF Programme Portal.
