Mastercard Foundation has launched a $9 million fellowship in collaboration with Stellenbosch University and the Institut Pasteur de Dakar. This is to develop the capacity of African scientists in epidemic and pandemic response.
The African STARS Fellowship Programme will fund 131 fellows over three years of its first phase according to an official announcement by Stellenbosch.
With an emphasis on inclusivity and equitable representation across all African regions, the initiative aims to ensure that 60 percent of trainees are young women, addressing the gender disparities prevalent in the science and technology fields.
“This programme has been designed with the core aim of nurturing the continent’s new healthcare research leaders and creating a skilled workforce in genomics, diagnostics, and vaccine design and production in Africa,” the statement read.
The programme will include two structured master’s programmes of 2 years, including a Master in Business Administration (MBA) on Health Care Leadership and a structured Masters on Pathogen Genomics and Bioinformatics.
It will also have two short-term fellowships including the advanced and translational training (ATT) programme, which is four to six months and will focus on intense training on advanced genomics for public health analysis, genomic diagnostic design, and aspects around vaccine manufacturing.
The second is the Young Professional Program (YPP), which includes 12 months of training focused on biotechnology innovation and entrepreneurship and includes placement at commercial companies, industry, or innovation hubs.
Despite being home to the fastest-growing young population globally, projected to reach nearly half of the world’s youth by 2100, Africa grapples with the challenge of training sufficient scientists, the institute laments.
At the same time, the continent faces a disproportionate burden of health crises due to frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as HIV, Ebola, Marburg, Mpox, and Tuberculosis.
In 2023 alone, over 150 disease outbreaks were reported across Africa, escalating the need for knowledgeable leaders who can engage effectively in public health efforts and can create companies and research institutes that advance the discovery and manufacturing of medical countermeasures in Africa, the university stated.
It hopes that this initiative will help build the skills to counter these pressing challenges, noting that it will leverage previous investments in fellowship programmes in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the GIZ.
“Together, these programmes have already trained 600 fellows towards strengthening African capacity in critical areas of genomics and bioinformatics,” it said.
“The African STARS fellowship will now take training in Africa to the next level by creating structured programmes and providing up to two years of training and fostering partnerships with big industry and biotechnology innovation hubs with the ultimate objective to create jobs that will retain and attract talented scientists to the African continent.”
Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation at the university described the fellowship as an embodiment of a commitment to empower the next generation of science leaders.
By focusing on the skills development of young African scientific leaders, he believes Africa can ensure that it is equipped to lead in addressing emerging health crises.
He explained that the last 10 years have witnessed extensive investment in science and technology in Africa, allowing access to some of the best laboratories in the world, which became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic with African scientists leading the world in the discovery of Omicron.
“Now, we need to invest in the research and development eco-system to create our own diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics,” Oliveira said.
Solomon Zewdu, senior executive resident, Mastercard Foundation, said the initiative aims to increase the employability potential of the African youth in jobs where these advanced skills would traditionally only be met by foreign-trained professionals.
“It would also equip the individual to generate additional employment opportunities in the field with mastery of resource mobilization skills and creating a multiplication effect in employment opportunities for the youth of the continent,” he added.
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