Welcome to the April newsletter! It was wonderful to see so many members at the Kigali meeting. If you were unable to join this time, we hope to see you next time!
Please contact info@ammnet.org if you would like to contribute any items to next month’s newsletter!
What a pleasure to meet you in person at the AMMnet Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda!
The two-day meeting included engaging group discussions, scientific presentations, a panel discussion and hands-on training sessions. This is the first time we offered training sessions. This valuable hands-on experience and practical skills will undoubtedly benefit participants in their research endeavors.
We hope you all were inspired, learned something new, and connected with new friends and old, and formed new partnerships and potential collaborators.
Thank you to those who made it happen.
A huge thank you the AMMnet Kigali Meeting Task Force – Emilie Pothin, Benedicta Mensah, Kate Battle, Julia Dunn, Isambi Mbalawata, Wilfred Ndifon, and especially Gianpaolo Pontiggia – for planning such an enriching program for us.
Thank you to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation events team for providing us with support and giving us an opportunity to gather and exchange knowledge around malaria modeling.
And thank you to our event rapporteurs – Thabo Bogopa, Victor Ameh, Ruby Aworka, Timoteo Sambo and Lancei Kaba, and our social media task force, Isaiah Agorinya and Manuela Runge, for covering and documenting the sessions.
Lastly, thank you to you, our members, for inspiring us to continue the march toward malaria eradication.
If you attended the meeting please help us by filling out the evaluation questionnaire.
As we look to the future and begin planning for the next annual AMMnet meeting, we hope you will take a moment and provide your feedback to us using the link here in English and here in French. Your feedback helps us improve the next meeting. Thank you!
AMMnet Monthly Seminar on May 7, 15:00 UTC | AMMnet Kigali Meeting Recap and Discussion
Join the Zoom meeting at the link here.
Seminar Hosts: Vusi Magagula and Cherlynn Dumbura
Join us for this special seminar where we’ll discuss the highlights at the AMMnet Kigali meeting and gather your input so we plan the next meeting, which we hope will be even better than this last one.
New AMMnet Funding Opportunity for Large Local Events
The Applied Malaria Modeling Network (AMMnet) would like to offer AMMnet members the opportunity to hold large events with a training or educational purpose consistent with AMMnet’s mission.
The types of activities that can be supported by this award include, but are not limited to:
- Implementation of a short course, summer school, or multiple workshops
- Development of training materials and curriculum
- Delivery of trainings related to malaria modeling and/or analytics
- Organization of an annual meeting of multiple chapters, as long as a training component is included
- Other activities with a strong educational or training focus that support AMMnet’s mission of exchanging knowledge to improve support offered to malaria programs and advance general malaria research.
This award has a budget range of up to $40,000, which must be expended within 18 months of the awarded date. Up to 10% additional facilities and administration fees may be added according to the policies of the awarded institution, for a total award of up to $44,000.
You may find more details and proposal requirements on the AMMnet website at the link here.
AMMnet Funding Opportunity for Small Local Events
AMMnet would like to encourage the growth of local chapters and is looking to support small local in-person events such as meetings, conferences, or workshops.
In 2023, we funded 18 AMMnet events in 12 countries! An awardee list is available here.
You may find guidelines and requirements for submission on the AMMnet website at the link here.
We especially encourage our francophone and lusophone members to apply, and we accept applications in English, French, or Portuguese.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to info@ammnet.org with any questions. We look forward to receiving your application!
New Policy for Establishing Local Chapters
If you are interested or have begun to establish a local AMMnet chapter, you will find Establishment Guidelines, Bylaws guidance and template, and Terms of Reference on your website at the Local Chapters link here.
If you have any questions, considerations or suggestions for establishing local AMMnet chapters, please send us an email at info@ammnet.org.
New Hackathon Series
A new virtual hackathon series for continual learning was developed by a collaborative effort between the Best Practices and Learning Committees and launched at the AMMnet Kigali meeting.
Aims:
- To create a continual support space that anyone can access
- To learn how to code and how to code better
- To upskill people from a distance, ultimately improving all our abilities in:
- data handling, presentation and analysis
- experimental design
- quantitative understanding
- coding and problem solving
- transmission modelling
- To collaborate better and more equitably
Structure:
- A theme is selected by the committee
- Skilled individuals sign up to support specific themed areas
- A participant submits a coding related problem for consideration within a specific theme
- Experts select 2 – 3 problems per session on the chosen theme, and prepare some solutions to present
The first session is coming in June! Submit your problem related to the theme – Data Visualization in R – using the LINK HERE by May 15!
If you are an expert in Data Visualization in R, we need your help! Use the LINK HERE to sign up as an expert.
Experts will work with the committee for a half a day to consider the problems submitted and draft solutions. Once solutions are ready for a hackathon audience, they will present at a training session (2 hour-session). After the training session, experts will spend about an hour summarizing the session, adapting solutions, and uploading them to the shared space.
Why volunteer as an expert? The best way to learn is to teach. You’ll also have an opportunity to network and gain professional visibility within the AMMnet community.
New Mentorship Program
The Career Development Committee is in the process of developing a mentorship program for AMMnet members who wish to participate. The committee is currently in the research phase of development. Look for more details to come in the coming months.
Join the AMMnet Slack Workspace
If you haven’t joined the AMMnet slack workspace, join here! Many announcements, including job opportunities and upcoming events, are posted first on the Slack. This is also a great place to connect directly with other modelers!
Board Meeting Recap
The Board met in person in Kigali on April 20, 2024.
20 April 2024 Board Meeting Minutes
Present: Jaline, Justin, Cherlynn, Susan, Luc, Emmanuel, Antonio, Caitlin, Hannah
Absent: Emilie
Secretariat present: Shannon and Ida
- Strategy and visioning next steps
- Created a strategy task force, which will kick off in July 2024
- Task force will provide a proposal by end of year
- Task force members
- Luc
- Hannah
- Antonio
- Susan
- Cherlynn
- Board will bring potential names to June Board meeting
- Invite leaders of local chapters
- AMMnet Kigali meeting feedback
- Very positive
- Training quality needed a little more oversight: formalized, more time to prepare, manage expectations, clear training objectives that are feasible for the time, more structure
- All trainings were targeted at beginners:
- Include more advanced options next time or other options like JC for non-beginners
- Include a session for “friends of modelers”
- pre-training: share content early so people can prepare, do homework in advance, maybe meet online in advance
- Checklist of things to have in place; verify that they are done ahead of time
- Post-training followup: to help define next training
- slack channel for training group to keep in touch
- link to hackathons
- Group discussions were great
- Recommend including one per day
- Freeform was great, no need to report out to everyone
- For speakers, presentation practice to be done more in advance to give more time for revisions
- Remove one training session and replace with a student session?
- Poor gender balance on panel, but overall balance was good
- Committee recruitment
- flag that a board spot is opening up and (active) committee membership is a requirement
- Board shuffling
- Manuela to cycle off
- Board chair
- confidential nomination form to be filled by June meeting
