Weekly round-up #143

Weekly Round-up #143

At VALIDATE we have been working on ways to better interact with you, our members, and to support and encourage you all, particularly with forming new collaborations. With this in mind, we have just launched our VALIDATE Network Hub.

The Hub can be found on Microsoft Teams. You can use it in a browser but we recommend downloading the MS Teams App. Currently, the VALIDATE Hub has lots of useful information and resources for you, including…

reports and presentation slides from all previous Annual Meetings and Workshops
Announcements for relevant new job vacancies, grant calls, and publications so you can easily stay ahead in our research field
easy communication with our VALIDATE Bioinformatician, Dr Mirvat Surakhy, for support with data analysis
keep up to date with the latest relevant journal articles, and add your own research output on the Publications Channel
a way to build your next research partnership with the Collaboration Channel
an easy way to contact the VALIDATE Management Team via the Question for VALIDATE Team Channel

Because the Hub will contain confidential information, it will only be available to those who have signed the CDA. We hope to expand what the VALIDATE Hub has to offer, so get in touch if you have some ideas for improvements.

VALIDATE Equipment Exchange Update

VALIDATE’s Equipment Exchange Programme is helping to coordinate equipment transfers between our members, with the aim of connecting researchers who have surplus equipment they want to donate with members who would be able to use the equipment in their lab or clinic.

Recently 51 laboratory coats were donated by Public Health England in the UK and shipped by VALIDATE to VALIDATE members at the University of Douala in Cameroon, NIMR-MMRC in Tanzania, and Université des Sciences de la Santé in Gabon for use by students and staff in their labs who, as you can see, were excited to receive the donations.

I am delighted to inform you that we have received the laboratory coats donated by PHE/VALIDATE. Thank you for every effort you made, to enable this to happen. I believe these coats will be useful to staffs during their daily activities in the laboratory.

- Ombeni Chimbe, NIMR-MMRC, Tanzania

Again and again, I will not stop thanking you to help our research unit to grow and to give lectures in good conditions.

- Noé Patrick M'Bondoukwe, Université des Sciences de la Santé, Gabon

If you have any surplus kit or equipment, do get in touch with the VALIDATE Team, as even simple items can make a big difference to our members across the globe.

Vaccines Special Issue

The Vaccines Journal is looking for submissions for a Special Issue: Vaccines for leishmaniasis and the implications of their development. This is very relevant to our members and we encourage all members to submit. Deadline for manuscript submissions is 31 May 2021.

LSHTM Vaccine Centre Website

In order to continue their aim of enhancing public understanding of vaccines, LSHTM has launched their Vaccine Centre website to answer common questions around vaccine research and use with carefully crafted answers and curated resources, such as a video 'How do we know that vaccines are safe'. This will be a very useful resource for VALIDATE members, particularly potentially in your Outreach Week activities.

Funding:

UC Berkeley Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program - The Scholars Program aims to develop a cohort of ethical, entrepreneurial, and energetic young leaders who will drive and lead socio-economic transformation in Africa – deadline 1 December
ESRC-MOST UK-Taiwan Networking Grants – This call seeks to improve the connectivity between UK and Taiwan social science research communities, by providing funding to groups of researchers to foster the development of relationships – deadline 4 January 2021
Future Leaders Fellowships: Round 6 - This fellowship is open to researchers and/or innovators with outstanding potential, who are transitioning to or establishing independence – deadline 19 January 2021
Africa Oxford Initiative - AfOx Travel Grants - Funding of up to £5000 for 1-8 weeks' travel for African researchers to collaborate at the University of Oxford, no deadline for applications, feedback will be given within 7 days
ESRC Research grants - For ESRC remit social science (and interdisciplinary) research – ongoing grant

Our funding page is continually updated with any calls we think are relevant to our members.

Training Opportunities and Events:

How to read journal articles and build models for your research, Online, 12:00-14:00 AEDT, 27 November 2020

More opportunities are to be found on our Training and Events pages.

Job Opportunities:

Laboratory Technician (Non-Vesicular Reference Laboratories), Pirbright Institute, UK, deadline 2 December 2020

There are many more relevant career opportunities on our jobs page.

Publications:

Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific cytokine biomarkers to differentiate active TB and LTBI: A systematic review, Sudbury EL et al, in Journal of Infection
Cloning, high-level gene expression and bioinformatics analysis of SP15 and LeIF from leishmania major and Iranian Phlebotomus papatasi saliva as single and novel fusion proteins: a potential vaccine candidate against leishmaniasis, Bordbar A et al, in Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg

Find more articles by our members on our publications page.

Highlights on Twitter this week:

Stellenbosch’s Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics flagged our upcoming Winter Seminars, Oxplore shared details of our December VALIDATE for Schools event, and Write That PhD shared a step-by-step guide for completing systematic reviews. We shared our Collaborators Map, launched our VALIDATE for Schools event, and wished the Francis Crick Institute a happy fourth birthday. Nature Careers warned graduate students against comparing themselves to their peers, the BSI continued to Celebrate Vaccines by arranging for students to chat with researchers online, and Write That PhD has some helpful tips for writing reviews. The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) discussed the role of African scientists in encouraging evidence use in decision making by governments, and Public Health England released a video about the use of BCG in London. Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date - @NetworkVALIDATE.

Published: 11 November 2020