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GeMVi Research Fellowships

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The University of Warwick in collaboration with KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme and partner institutes in East Africa are conducting an NIHR Global Health Research Group project on the Application of Genomics and Modelling to the Control of Virus Pathogens (GeMVi) in East Africa.

GeMVi is looking to recruit 20 high calibre East African Research Fellows to undertake short term public health oriented projects of relevance to the East African setting. The fellowships will present an excellent opportunity for the Fellows to enhance their skills and work with leading experts in the fields of pathogen sequencing, bioinformatics, predictive modelling and health economics.

Funds are available for Fellowships each averaging 4-5 months with a maximum duration of 9 months. There will be 3 rounds of recruitment, the first went out on 25th January and is for 5 awards (Deadline 15th February, 2019). Second and third call will occur later in this year and in 2020.

There are a range of pre-defined projects outlines that the Fellows could apply to undertake (see list of existing project outlines below). The projects outlined are not necessarily fixed to the countries stated and could be adapted to similar situations in East Africa. Alternatively, if the Fellow is aware of a specific problem the solution to which would have potential public health implications then there is the option to develop a proposal with GeMVi technical support.

The Fellowships may be undertaken at the Fellow’s home institution with short periods at one of the GeMVi Partner institutions or as a placement away from the home institution at a GeMVi Partner or collaborating institution.

Research fellows will be provided with a budget of between 10,000 to 20,000 GBP. The funding level will depend upon duration of project, placement (home or overseas), travel and laboratory, computing or bioinformatics requirements. We will work with the successful applicants to develop the final detail of the award.

Eligibility Criteria

To qualify for the fellowships applicants should:

1. Have a PhD in the biological sciences, mathematics, computing science or statistics, where the project they undertook had a significant component of computational biology or infectious disease modelling or a Master’s degree with strong track record in genomic, informatics, or disease transmission and intervention modelling research.

2. Hold a research position in an East African research organisation or university. If on contract-based funding, they should have at least 6 months remaining beyond the proposed end of the fellowship.

3. Be able to provide a letter of support and release from the Head of their contracting institution. The institution should also confirm continued salary support for the fellow during the course of the fellowship.

4. Hold a valid passport (or adequate travel ID) and be ready to travel at relatively short-notice (without this the applicant recognizes they will be based entirely in their home country.)

Existing Project Outlines

  • Establishing Measles/Rubella genomic surveillance and sequencing capacity for Kenya and East-Africa
  • Modelling the cost-effectiveness of different HPV vaccination strategies in Kenya
  • Modelling the impact of influenza vaccination in Kenya
  • Viral metagenomics of mosquitoes for outbreak surveillance and monitoring
  • Exploring the merits of different rubella vaccination strategy options for Kenya
  • Tracking HIV drug resistance mutations across Tanzania to inform National treatment guidelines
  • Characterising the virus composition of outbreaks of non-malaria acute febrile illness (NM-AFI)
  • Establishing rabies genomic sequencing capacity and reference repository for East Africa
  • Modelling the spatio-temporal risk of measles outbreaks and options for their control in Kenya

New projects with public/policy relevance are welcome.

For more information and application procedure please visit our website at: http://kemri-wellcome.org/gemvi/

Applications are open till the 15th of February, 2019.

Elias Tuhereze

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Special Exam Results -Diploma in Performing Arts 2025/26

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The results for the 2025/2026 special entry examination for the Diploma in Performing Arts held on Saturday 17th May, 2025. Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the Examination and have been recommended to the university’s Admissions Committee for consideration.

Mak Editor

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Mature Age Scheme Exam Results for 2025/2026

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The Office of Academic Registrar, Makerere University has released full results for the Mature Age Entry Scheme Examinations for the Academic Year 2025/2026 held on Saturday 14th December, 2024.

The Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the examination and have been recommended by the Pre-Entry & Mature Age Committee to the University’s Admissions Board for Consideration.

The Aptitude Exam  Results for 2025/2026 Academic Year released in February 2025 can be found here.

Mak Editor

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Call for Application: 2025 SNRM session 4 Summer School

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Participants in focused group discussions. Leiden-Delft-Erasmus East Africa Research Network (LEARN) in collaboration with the Urban Action Lab at Makerere University a workshop to deliberate strategies for mitigating the impacts of climate change in urban centres in the East African Region, Theme: “Resilient Urban Futures: Adapting Livelihoods to Climate Change”, 4th-5th September 2024, School of Public Health Auditorium, Kampala Uganda.

Context:
Natural resources in Africa are being depleted at an alarming rate due to several factors, including unsustainable human activities, climate change, and population growth. A primary condition of sustainable development is to ensure that the pressures do not exceed the environmental limits, and that demand for the resources does not exceed levels that can be sustainably provided by nature. Therefore, there is a pressing need for transformative, systems-thinking approaches and tools that can tackle the diverse challenges facing these systems. In Africa, this need is compounded by a lack of data and monitoring, which significantly hinders sustainable decision-making.

Investing in young scientists who are committed to take lead in sustainable management of Africa’s natural resources is very important. Capacity building of young scientists will enhance their knowledge and skill on sustainable natural resources and their involvement for implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDG’s) in Africa. To this effect, SNRM summer schools have been implemented in three sessions in 2019, 2020, and 2022 with support from Volkswagen Foundation; to build a critical mass of skilled and competent young natural resource scientists in Africa through training, capacity building and mentorship. Session 4 (2025) will target competent young scientists (MSc and PhD students) in Africa and Germany to further develop their knowledge and skills in systems thinking, advanced data collection and analysis, and application of emerging digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT), and embracing transdisciplinary approaches. In addition, we include an ideation workshop where students can work on real problems to come up with solutions for sustainable transformations in natural resource use.

Organizers: Leibniz Universität – Hannover (Germany), University of Antananarivo, University of Abomey Calavi (Benin), Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana (Ghana), University of Parakou (Benin), The Technical University of Kenya, with financial support from the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany).

Venue and dates: Nairobi, Kenya, 16-28 November 2025

Target: MSc and PhD students, early in the program of less than 35 years of age from any university/research institution in either sub-Saharan Africa or Germany with an interest in natural resources management.

Participants and Scholarships: The course is fully funded and open to 20 MSc and PhD students from Africa, and 5 from Germany. Funding will cover the costs of air ticket, accommodation, meals, visa, and transportation. However, participants will cover the cost of their travel health insurance.

Topics

SNRM Summer School Session 4: Transformative pathways in biodiversity management and conservation.
This summer school is designed to deliver four modules over a two-week period. The modules are designed to enable the students to acquire new ways of designing data collection protocols and analysis for transformative sustainable natural resources management.

Module 4.1: Data collection I
Skills in data collection for a transformative and sustainable management of natural resources (water, wildlife, forest, land, livestock, crops) monitoring and data collection techniques; remote monitoring tools, earth observation system data, e.g. satellite data sources, LIDAR, and UAV aerial images. Collect and analyse In-situ data on biotic and abiotic parameters, map and analyse data using R or Google Earth Engine, field data collection and retrieving data from online databases.

Module 4.2 Data management and processing
Introduction to tools and methods of managing large and diverse data sets of natural resources such as time series, spatial, directional, and multivariate data. Practicals will include data storage, organization and conversion into various formats using databases such as PostgreSQL and statistical programming software such as R and Python; scripts.

Module 4.3 Ecological monitoring, modelling and management
This module aims to teach participants how to anticipate and validate trends that can be observed in various ecosystems. Lectures include ecological monitoring and its design; population monitoring studies; metrics in population monitoring; methods for monitoring and assessing marine ecosystems; human ecology to socio-ecological systems; climate change impact of ecosystems; suitability assessments; overview of the principles underlying wildlife monitoring and prediction systems for climate change adaptation. Practicals will include field data collection (individual and group); ecological data analysis using R or PAST; modelling and experiencing the behaviour of complex systems using Vensim.

Module 4.4 Natural habitat restoration ideation lab
This module is designed to spur students’ innovation and creativity, and to help students comprehensively identify interdependencies across the 17 SDG goals. Participants will be trained on ideation processes for solutions and intervention for transformative natural resource management. They will work collaboratively in small groups on case studies and develop pathways of transformative sustainable natural resource management. Examples of projects include forest (mangrove) ecosystem and habitat restoration, improved technologies for agricultural production, nature-based solutions for improving water quality, and reversing land degradation.

Language: The course will be delivered in English. Participants are expected to be fluent in writing and speaking the English language.

How to apply

Applicants are kindly requested to fill in the application form available from https://snrmafrica.com/ and submit the following documents in English through the system.

  • a curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages)
  • a letter of motivation (maximum 1 page)
  • a confirmation of university enrolment
  • a reference letter from the academic supervisor
  • project summary of MSc/ PhD project (1 page including objectives, methodology
    and key findings or expected outcomes).

Important dates
Application deadline: 30th June 2025.
Announcement of accepted applicants: 15th August 2025.
Confirmation of attendance by selected participants: 12th Sept 2025.
Summer school held: 16 – 28 Nov 2025.

Further information is available from

The secretariat info@snrmafrica.com
Dr Lydia Olaka lydiaolaka@tukenya.ac.ke
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Stuetzel stuetzel@gem.uni-hannover.de

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