Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) Essential Grant Writing Skills Programme 2025

The Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) works to strengthen the health research capacity of scientists in Africa who are engaged in tackling the sub-region’s significant health challenges. AREF is calling for applications from scientists who are active, emerging biomedical/health researchers in African countries to participate in its Essential Grant Writing Skills Programme.

This fully online programme will be held over eight 3-hour sessions during the weeks of March 17, 2025 and May 5, 2025. There will be a six-week break in between the two-part programme, where you will be expected to write a mini proposal and participate in an activity to review the proposals of your colleagues. This is an intensive programme that is designed to produce tangible progress towards a grant proposal by the end of the programme series. Your commitment to the entire series and to the additional work outside of sessions will be necessary to achieve these outcomes.

To fully benefit from this programme series, you will be at a stage in your research career where you are actively seeking independent funding, and perhaps have won smaller grants, but have yet to secure that big grant necessary to support your research independence.

Programme Details of Essential Grant

The Programmme aim is to enable talented early-career health- and health-related researchers from countries in Africa to build skills to develop their own research and fellowship proposals of the quality required to win competitive international, regional and national funding.

The programme will cover:

• Developing and expressing your unique research niche
• Formulating your compelling research question
• Understanding funders’ requirements
• Writing in plain English
• Writing the different sections of a proposal
• Key parts of a typical Case for Support / Project Description
• Planning your proposal project plan and budget
• Principles of managing your collaboration and team
• Understanding and practicing peer review
• Preparing for a Fellowship interview.

Check : United Nations 63rd Graduate Study Programme 2025

Eligibility for Essential Grant

To be eligible, you need to provide evidence that:

• You are a citizen of a country in Africa.
• You are in the early stages of your research career, having completed your research education.

EITHER

• You have been awarded a research doctorate (PhD/DPhil/MD) from a recognised academic institution normally within the previous 6 years, (i.e. awarded on or after 1 January 2019);
  • OR you have a medical/clinical qualification PLUS a research-relevant Master’s degree, both awarded normally within the previous 6 years (i.e. awarded on or after 1 January 2019).
• You are currently employed in Africa by a recognised university and/or specialist research institution.
• You have not participated already in equivalent proposal development / grant-writing training.
• A significant part of your current employee role is to develop and conduct health research.
• You do not already have a significant portfolio of international research grants (Combined value of £250,000 or more).

Also Check : Leading Scholarship to Attend One Young World Summit 2025 in Munich, Germany (Fully-funded)

Selection Criteria

Your application will be assessed in terms of your capacity to benefit from the training, using the following kinds of evidence:

• Your research experience, outputs and other achievements as an emerging researcher up to now.
• How you will use the training to achieve your personal vision for your development as a scientist who can address key health challenges important to Africa.
• How you will “cascade”, i.e. to pass on, the knowledge and skills you have gained from the programme
• Adequate command of English.

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