This is a competitive renewal application to support a training program begun in Uganda in 2000. The focus of our program has been consistent, with concentration on training in malaria research in Uganda. Our philosophy for training is to emphasize research, with trainees participating in both hands-on mentored malaria research and formal training programs designed to complement the hands on-training and facilitate growth of trainees into independent researchers. We believe that our program has been highly successful, as evidenced by the accomplishments of our trainees. About 50 Ugandan junior scientists have received advanced training, mostly at the Masters level, 13 of these trainees have so far advanced to PhD training, and our more senior trainees are advancing to academic positions in Uganda. Our trainees have authored ~250 papers during or after their training, with 61 first-author papers to date. We are gratified by the successes of our trainees. However, the need for training in malaria research in Uganda remains great. Thus, we feel that it is appropriate to continue our program, building upon our initial success and upon the structures for training that we have established. With maturation of our malaria research program in Uganda and an increased supply of highly qualified training applicants, we plan some changes to our program, in particular increased emphasis on higher level training. We now plan 5 training tracks: 1) short-term training outside Uganda; 2) Masters training at Makerere University; 3) advanced Masters training at UCSF; 4) sandwich PhD training at Makerere University; and 5) postdoctoral training. We are excited about our success to date with both training and research on malaria in Uganda, and we anticipate that continued funding will allow continued progress toward the establishment of cutting-edge independent research capacity in this country and also toward the control and elimination of malaria.
Our program has offered training to Ugandan scientists in malaria research since 2000. With continuation of this program, we will provide short-term, Masters-level, PhD, and postdoctoral training, all linked to mentored research projects. Our goal is to improve research capacity in Uganda to facilitate the control and eventual elimination of malaria.
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