The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supports cutting-edge research to address challenges faced by developing countries. The fund addresses the UN sustainable development goals. It aims to maximise the impact of research and innovation to improve lives and opportunity in the developing world.

The overarching goal of this proposal is to develop a self-sustaining capacity building platform for advancing biostatistical methodology research in Kenya, Malawi and Ethiopia. The grant will sponsor six training fellowships for full-time employed researchers in biostatistics at the Kenya Medical Research Institute Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KEMRI-WTRP) in Nairobi and Kilifi (Kenya), the Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme (MLW-CRP) in Blantyre (Malawi) and the Department of Statistics of Hawassa University in Ethiopia. The rationale for our chosen partners is that Hawassa has a strong postgraduate programme in statistics while KEMRI-WTRP and MLW-CRP provide applied biostatistics environments linked to substantive public health context and expertise. The six Fellows will be placed in Lancaster University and Cambridge University for the duration of 12 months and will work on the development of advanced statistical methodology motivated by three substantive global health problems. The programme will enable the Fellows to operate as integral members of multi-disciplinary research teams by further development of their expertise in biostatistics, skills in teaching of statistical subjects and their ability to develop high-quality documented statistical software. The specific activities of this proposal are the following. Training courses in geospatial statistical methods and mathematical modelling of infectious diseases will be delivered by Lancaster and Cambridge. These courses will be tailored to the specific needs and projects of each Fellows. During the programme, the Fellows will also design new courses in statistics to be delivered at their respective institutes after completion of the project. This will be carried out in collaboration with the PI and CIs who will provide high quality support in the creation of new teaching material and educational statistical software. The core spirit of this programme is of a continuous and strong interaction between the Fellows and the investigators, who will act both as project supervisors and mentors.