"Afrique One" Postdoc Fellowships in Ecosystem and Population Health The African Research Consortium for Ecosystem and Population Health is seeking to appoint eleven post-doctoral research scientists to its prestigious 4-year fellowship program. The Consortium comprises eleven African Universities and Research Institutes in Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda, and is funded through the Wellcome Trust’s African Institutes Initiative. The fellowship program seeks to support the next generation of African science leaders in the field of ecosystem and population health. We are looking for the very best post-doctoral scientists to develop independent sustainable science programs in each of the consortium’s core institutions. Fellowships come with competitive salaries and substantial research support budgets that include graduate studentships, technician salaries, travel funds, and consumables. All areas of science that fall within an Ecosystem and Population ealth remit may be supported but successful applicants must be able to demonstrate a long-term commitment to leading and developing science programs relevant to their countries research needs, and that enhance existing research activities in their chosen institutions. Applications should be made to individual participating institutions, and should comprise: a full CV, 3 letters of reference; and a 4000 word outline of their research plan. The deadline for applications is February 1st 2010. Late submission will be considered in the event that positions are not filled. Applicants must be able to take up the position by September 1st 2010. Full details of the application procedure are available at www.afriqueone.net.

• http://www.afriqueone.net/

Global Health Academy has been awarded 5 Masters scholarships from the University (2 for MSc by research and 3 for E-DL courses) for 2010-11. If you know anyone that would be interested in applying for International Animal Heath or Emerging and Neglected Infectious Diseases or Non Communicable Disease on line courses or undertaking a residential Public Health Masters, Centre for International Public Health Policy (CIPHP) please let them know to look at the new website http://www.globalhealthacademy.ed.ac.uk/.

• Global Health Academy - http://www.globalhealthacademy.ed.ac.uk/
• MSc International Animal Health - http://www.internationalanimalhealth.ed.ac.uk/
• MSc in Emerging and Neglected Infectious Diseases - http://www.enid.mvm.ed.ac.uk/
• New for 2010 - MSc Biodiversity, Wildlife and Ecosystem Health - http://www.web.mvm.ed.ac.uk/

The training and technology work package (WP 11) is an overarching WP involving all 22 partners in the ICONZ consortium. The objective is to strengthen capacity on the neglected zoonoses (NZ) in African countries at all levels. The work package will provide inventory of currently available relevant training options and needs, develop and implement at least 4 training courses in relevant topics, and develop electronic learning modules on specific diseases, GIS and interventions. To produce the inventory a questionnaire survey at all partner institutes (in collaboration with WP2) addressing needs for capacity building, opportunities and available training options for NZ will be undertaken during the first year of the project. This is likely to be followed up by site visits to further explore opportunities and needs. Based on the inventory ICONZ partners will decide on relevant course topics. At least 4 courses will be developed and implemented at relevant partner institutions for appropriate participants. Topics may include diagnosis, epidemiology, disease burden assessment and control of NZ, basic research methodology, and research ethics. Course implementation will take place during the second and third years of ICONZ. From the third year onwards an e-learning course based on material generated from the pig-associated parasite package (WP7) directed at different target audiences will be produced and evaluated. E-based GIS training will additionally be provided. Finally, community-level “toolkits” for NZ will be developed in collaboration with partners of WP5-8. These ‘toolkits’ will include simple instructions for prevention and control of NZ.

For further information please contact, Maria Vang Johansen, email:

As part of the ICONZ-project, the possibility is offered to participate in a course on the use of GIS in spatial epidemiology. Each ICONZ partner can apply for one free ICONZ scholarship for this course. This course will start in February 2010 and end in July 2010. At the end of the course a certificate will be delivered.

This course will be presented as a post-graduate distance-learning program during which the participant will be supplied with study material. On-line discussion forums will be used for contact sessions with a tutor and fellow students. The 6-month module consists of two parts. In the theoretical part, the different aspects of a GIS project, data requirements and analysis techniques will be tackled in relation to the building of spatial epidemiological models and analyses. The second, main part of this module consists of hands-on exercises using ArcGIS-software (ESRI).

For African participants, a free one-year educational license has been obtained from their respective regional ESRI-offices. EU-Participants are invited to contact their national ESRI dealer to request a one-year educational Arc-GIS license (ArcGIS and Spatial Analyst). A full operational academic license costs around 4000 U$ (ArcView + Spatial Analyst extension) and can be purchased through the local ESRI-provider. The possibility exists to supplement the license with a non-obligatory yearly maintenance contract with ESRI, including future updates and assistance of the ArcGIS-helpdesk.

Subscriptions to this course can be forwarded to .

Download the extended course description for additional information (requires a PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader).

• Training Course Flyer [PDF 247KB]
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We are very pleased that every African partner country has sent a scientist who will be actively involved in the work on assessing the burden of zoonoses and the cost of their control in fieldwork their country. Those attending are: Doctors Mamadou Niang (Mali), Mohammed Bouslikhane (Morocco), Claudio Gule (Mozambique), Reuben Adama Ocholi (Nigeria), Athumani Msalale Lupindu (Tanzania), Denis Muhanguzi (Uganda) and Chummy S. Sikasunge (Zambia).

Download the workshop flyer for additional information (requires a PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader).

• Workshop Flyer [PDF 196KB]
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