Women Leaders in Global Health Challenge Contest​ (Funded to London, UK) 2018

Application Deadline: 1st July 2018

Eligible Countries: All. Submissions are encouraged from women from developing countries

To Be Taken At (Country): London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

About the Award: The Contest is looking for creative ideas to make the research year more flexible or spur more women to apply. Individuals who submit exceptional ideas will be supported to join the Women Leaders in Global Health conference in London this November. But more importantly, selected ideas deemed feasible by WHO/TDR will be implemented to increase women’s participation in the fellowship.
 The WHO/TDR clinical research and development fellowship (“the fellowship” in this challenge) provides support for mid-career individuals from low and middle-income countries (LMIC) to spend one year in a high-income country to learn about clinical research. Mid-career is defined as within 10 years of a medical degree or PhD.
Over the past four years, 16-24% of fellowship applicants have been women and about one-quarter of all participants are women. But this is not a simple problem and we need your creative solutions. A wide range of concerns may discourage women from applying, including issues related to moving away from home (finding work for spouses and child care), administrative issues related to going from an LMIC to a high-income country (obtaining visas for spouses, children, and care-givers), and other obligations associated with caregiving. One former fellow explained, “Having worked in the laboratory previously, it was exciting to be involved in work that could see promising candidates become actual products given to communities to save lives. However, I had a baby under 2 years at the time and the thought of leaving her and my older child and husband for a whole year was heart breaking. Besides, I had already been away from my husband while undertaking my PhD in Europe! Was I doing the right thing?”. There may be other barriers that prevent women from applying for this fellowship.

Type: Contest

Eligibility: 

• The contest is open to anyone from any location.
• Ideas from women in low- and middle-income countries are particularly encouraged, but review will be blinded so that judges do not know who submitted each one. Confidentiality will be maintained throughout the challenge contest.

Selection Criteria: Submissions will be judged on a 1-10 scale according to the following three criteria:

1. capacity to increase the number of women who apply and receive WHO/TDR fellowships;
2. feasibility;
3. innovation, defined as different from the current practice used in the fellowship.

Final decisions about semi-finalists will be made by the Steering Committee.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: 

• At least three semi-finalists will be supported (registration, travel, hotel, per diem) to join and present their idea at the Women Leaders in Global Health conference in November 2018.
• Selected finalists will have their idea implemented to increase women’s participation in this fellowship.

How to Apply: Send us your plan to expand women’s participation in a mid-career fellowship from WHO/TDR. This could be a way to more widely disseminate the fellowship call in order to increase awareness, a way to make the fellowship more conducive to women with caregiving obligations, or a way to increase the number of qualified women applicants. Be creative!
Format for submissions: Submissions must be written in English and less than 500 words. Submissions with figures have a 450 word limit.

Apply Here

Visit Programme Webpage for Details