News & Updates

December 2022 Edition, Issue 60

Welcome to December and another exciting edition of the CARTA monthly updates. Read on to keep abreast with what is new.

The CARTA family wishes you a great 2023 ahead!

CARTA Research Hubs: Call for Expressions of Interest

In a webinar, CARTA launched the CARTA Evidence Website on December 2, 2022. The interactive platform aims to demonstrate the impact of the CARTA network by timeously tracking, collating, analysing, displaying, and enabling the uptake of empirical and theoretical evidence produced.

Watch the webinar recording here: bit.ly/3hnRA7r

Steven Kisaka (cohort 7, Makerere University) graduated on December 16 from the University of Nairobi, bringing the total number of CARTA graduates/PhD completions to 138.

Frederick Oporia (cohort 10 fellow, Makerere University) was appointed the Head of Unit - Trauma, Injuries, and Disability (TRIAD) at Makerere University. This is the only unit in Uganda that does research on injuries. He was also selected to join the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group to write the first-ever status report on drowning prevention.

Wells Utembe (cohort 1 graduate, University of Malawi) was selected to join the International Commission On Radiological Protection (ICRP) task group on Ecosystem Services in Environmental Radiological Protection.  The ICRP is an independent Registered Charity, that provides recommendations and guidance on all aspects of protection against ionizing radiation.

Marie Claire Uwamahoro (Cohort 7 graduate, University of Rwanda) has taken on a postdoctoral position under the Canadian Collaboration for Complex Care (C4) at the University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine, Community Health Department. This is a two-year fellowship that commences in December 2022.

Samuel Mwaniki (cohort 8 Fellow, University of Nairobi) presented a poster on ‘HIV prevalence and associated risk factors among young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (YMSM) in Nairobi, Kenya’ at the 2022 Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA 2022). The conference was organized by Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the Rwanda Ministry of Health at the Kigali Convention Centre, Rwanda from December 12 - 15, 2022.

At the same conference, alongside colleagues from the Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Fellowship and Women in Global Health - South Africa, Samuel was part of a panel discussing ‘African women leadership in global health: mountains of work, silent voices’.

Jean de la Croix Ingabire (cohort 10 fellow, University of Rwanda) presented his first paper entitled "Prevalence and functional outcome of long-term disability following Road Traffic Orthopedic Injuries in Rwanda" in the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa 22nd Conference and AGM held at Windhoek/Namibia from December 4 - 9, 2022.

Sara Nieuwoudt (cohort 4 graduate, University of the Witwatersrand) presented in four separate sessions at the International SBCC Summit held in Morocco between December 4 - 9, 2022, including two plenaries. This was a great opportunity to provide thought leadership in her field, which focuses on the kinds of partnerships, representation, and skills required to bring about social and/or behavior change in a broad range of fields, such as health, food security, climate action, and governance. These sessions were. The recorded plenaries can be found here.

University of Nairobi holds 68th Graduation

The University of Nairobi (UoN) conferred 72 PhDs, 1510 Masters, 4515 Bachelor Degrees, 439 Diplomas, and 46 postgraduate diplomas during the 68 graduation ceremony held on December 16. UoN, one of CARTA’s African Partner Instutions was founded 50 years ago and has made a significant contribution to Kenya’s development through supply of skilled human resource and innovators.

The University has been the top ranked university in East Africa by the Times Higher Education, Webometrics and QS rankings. CARTA fellow, Steven Kisaka from Makerere University, was one of the PhD graduands. Watch the graduation here

Makerere University and Wits University celebrate 100 years of academic excellence in Africa

On December 7, Makerere University and the University of Witwatersrand jointly commemorated their 100-year anniversary. The universities, both long-standing African partners of CARTA, cemented the partnership with a virtual signing of a Memorandum of Understanding which seeks to strengthen their bonds in leadership, research and innovation.The MoU was signed by the Vice-Chancellor of Makerere University, Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, and the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Witwatersrand, Professor Zeblon Vilakazi (FRS). Read on

APHRC wins NGO/Humanitarian Sector Award

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) on December 2, 2022, emerged as the winner of the NGO/Humanitarian Sector Award during the Champions of Governance (CoG) Awards 2022 gala. The CoG Award was inaugurated by the Institute of Certified Secretaries of Kenya (ICS) to recognize organizations and individuals that exhibit the highest standards of practice of good governance, in line with its vision and mission. This is the first time APHRC has been invited to participate in the awards, and the assessment and subsequent win will enable the Center to benchmark governance practices from other institutions, stimulating innovation, efficiency, and sustainable growth. Other categories that the Center was nominated for were CoG CEO of the Year (Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi), CoG Company Secretary of the Year (Christine Kutto) and COG Award (APHRC).

INORMS 2023 Congress

The Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA) will host the 2023 INORMS Congress between May 30 - June 2, 2023. SARIMA is a membership organization for research and innovation professionals and managers. Its purpose is to strengthen research and innovation (R&I) in Southern Africa and ensure that there is social and economic development of the region. SARIMA provides a platform for engagement between R&I managers coming from a variety of organizations that are involved in R&I in the region. SARIMAs key focus areas include research management, innovation, and technology transfer, and Africa engagement. Details

Registration Deadline: January 15, 2023

Fellowship: Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Program

Applications are open for the Kofi Annan Global Health Leadership Program which aims to support aspirational Public Health Leaders (fellows) from Africa in acquiring advanced skills and competencies to strategize, manage and lead public health programs that will transform public health in Africa. Fellows admitted in the program will be senior public health professionals from African Union Member States who will contribute to and lead the implementation of a new public health order for Africa, and in turn mentor and develop the next generation of public health leaders for the continent. Details

Application Deadline: January 15, 2023

Postdoctoral Fellowship: Health Data Science

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), in collaboration with Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, and Heidelberg University, has been awarded a training grant (U2RTW012140) by the National Institutes of Health and Fogarty International Centre. This research training programme seeks to build data science research capacity in Africa in the following two global health priorities: 1) Health systems strengthening, and 2) Food systems, climate change and planetary health. The fellowship commences in June 2023. Download call

Application Deadline: January 27, 2023

Call for Proposals: Sustaining Agricultural Productivity in the Face of Climate Change

The African Agriculture Climate Adaptation Research System funding call responds to “existing food security challenges in the face of climate change” and is geared towards increasing productivity to meet consumption demands and to limit further agricultural land expansion into natural ecosystems. The call is being rolled out through the SFA Foundation’s Grand Challenges Africa (GC Africa) program in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The African agriculture climate adaptation research system funding will be given to innovative projects that strengthen research, evidence, and processes supporting agriculture-related adaptation planning. This also includes risk management and investment, intra-Africa research collaboration on data, data science, and modeling. Details

Deadline: January 15, 2022

Call for Proposals: Africa Open Lab

Having previously funded 20 projects through the Africa NCD Open Lab, the Africa Open Lab is now calling for research proposals focussed on funding high-quality infectious disease research that has the potential to deliver significant health impact and develop future research leaders, with up to £75,000 available per award. Along with the award we offer mentoring, scientific and technical support while you conduct your innovative research project. Details

Application Deadline: February 17, 2023

Funding: Applied Global Health Research

The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is receiving applications to fund research that will address global health challenges and inequities. UKRI will accept proposals of all sizes, including large research projects and small to medium-scale applications. They seek to develop a portfolio of high-quality global research, which will be diverse, promote multidisciplinarity and strengthen global health research capacity. Encouraged are applications from principal investigators based in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and the UK, working in partnership with LMIC investigators. Details

Deadline: February 16, 2023

The CARTA Evidence Website

An interactive platform, the CARTA Evidence Website aims to demonstrate the impact of the CARTA network by timeously tracking, collating, analysing, displaying, and enabling the uptake of empirical and theoretical evidence produced. The platform will create a collaborative environment for African scientists and evidence users working in communities of practice and across boundaries and disciplines. Building on available information technology, the end goal is increased access to data and speed of discovery and scientific advancement. CARTA Evidence will offer a comprehensive list of research evidence and publicly funded published data to promote accurate monitoring of population health and inform the precision of healthcare policy, and innovations, and the betterment of population health. Explore platform

Share with us news and updates such as upcoming events, meetings, story ideas, new collaborations, new trials/updates, upcoming and published papers, policy briefs, community engagement activities, scholarships, what you are reading, if you won a grant, attending or about an upcoming conference, a call for applications/funding/papers, etc.

To be featured in the next CARTA news and updates, send an email to cartacomms@cartafrica.org before January 20, 2023.

Happy Holidays!

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