The Fogarty African Bioethics Consortium Post-Doctoral Fellowship (FABC-PDF) program will provide advanced, postdoctoral training in bioethics to ten individuals with existing track records in both bioethics and research from within institutions of the African Bioethics Consortium (ABC). The ABC is an international collaboration of four research intensive institutions ? University of Botswana, University of Zambia, Makerere University (Uganda) and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) ? that together have pursued coordinated activities, for more than five years, to enhance individual and institutional bioethics capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. The FABC-PDF builds on 17 years of bioethics capacity development in Africa that JHU has provided through prior Fogarty awards. Selected trainees for the new post-doctoral program will be individuals well-positioned to become leading faculty in bioethics and research in their institutions and within the African continent. Post-doctoral training in bioethics is a necessary and natural next step in bioethics program building for the three African consortium universities, where programs in bioethics are being created, but deeper scholarship and leadership skills are needed among key faculty to ensure the highest quality, internationally recognized, and locally-driven ethics programs in Africa. Local impact and relevance is supported through the involvement of Co-PI Dr. Nelson Sewankambo of Makerere University, who will lead the oversight of Africa-based fellowship activities. Post-doctoral training in bioethics is a well- established path for in-depth, rigorous knowledge and skill-building to those with clear professional accomplishment as demonstrated by the prior completion of doctoral training. Indeed, at JHU we have provided post-doctoral training in bioethics to a highly select and interdisciplinary group of scholars for 25 years, focusing mainly on ?northern? bioethics. The proposed 18-month post-doctoral program will be globally oriented and include one academic year (nine months) at JHU, completely embedded in a rich and rigorous bioethics and research environment, meeting regularly with U.S. and African peer trainees around multiple topics in bioethics and research, and then working closely and individually with a team of mentors to develop an individualized training plan and research project. The next six months of training are spent completing a supported research project, and the last two months are spent in a different African consortium country from one's own to foster networking and provide dedicated mentored writing time to completion of a manuscript. The three PIs, from JHU and Africa, together have decades of experience both conducting internationally recognized independent scholarship in research ethics, bioethics, and global health, and, in mentoring dozens of doctoral and post-doctoral students. Leveraging our longstanding commitments, experiences, and relationships, we propose a collaborative post-doctoral partnership to firmly root bioethics expertise in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Fogarty African Bioethics Consortium Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program (FABC-PDF) will provide 18-month, advanced bioethics training to 10 accomplished research and bioethics professionals from the African Bioethics Consortium (Makerere University Uganda, University of Zambia, University of Botswana). Ten individuals, selected for their demonstrated bioethics commitments and the ability to develop independent scholarly careers within research intensive academic settings, will spend one academic year (nine months) at Johns Hopkins, taking specialized coursework in bioethics and research methods and engaging in a rich mentored bioethics and research environment; seven months conducting independent research in their home countries; followed by two months in another consortium African country to foster inter-institutional collaboration and allow dedicated writing time such that each trainee generates a publishable manuscript by the end of the 18 months of training. Dedicated mentors from JHU and Africa are built into the program's core infrastructure to ensure that key substantive concepts are clear, that research and writing are of rigorous quality and are completed in a timely manner, and that fellows are fully supported as they pursue careers in bioethics beyond their training.
