Welcome to the Name newsletter!

Welcome to the February newsletter!

Please contact info@ammnet.org if you would like to contribute any items to next month’s newsletter!

Contents:

1. Special announcements
2. Jobs and grant opportunities
3. Workshops and conferences
4. Courses and learning opportunities
5. Subgroups, working groups, and regional activities
6. Seminar recap and recordings
7. Board meeting summary

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1. Special announcements

AMMnet Monthly Seminar: General Assembly and Membership Vote | March 5, 16:00 UTC

Join the Zoom meeting at the link here.

Since AMMnet was founded in April 2022, our community has grown to over 1,000 members. With this growth, we continue to find new ways to advance our mission of fostering an open and respectful collaborative forum for learning and knowledge-sharing.

Several AMMnet members have established communities of local AMMnet chapters where they may collaborate and learn from each other in closer proximity through meetings, trainings, and other gatherings. With help from our current chapters, we have updated our Terms of Reference to include a more formal process for establishing local chapters and described the responsibilities of local chapters and global AMMnet.

On March 5, the Board will host a General Assembly with you, our members, to review these updates, after which we will hold a ratification vote. All AMMnet members are eligible to vote on whether or not AMMnet should adopt these updates.

The local chapter policy is available here for your review in English, French, and Portuguese. We welcome comments directly on the document or by email to info@ammnet.org.

AMMnet’s terms of reference, to which the local chapter policy will be added if approved, is available in English, French, and Portuguese.

We look forward to seeing you there! This is a great opportunity to learn more about AMMnet and contribute to shaping the direction of this organization.

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AMMnet Advisory Board

We would like to introduce you to our new Advisory Board. The AMMnet Advisory Board, a group of experts in malaria, health analytics, and capacity development, advises AMMnet’s Board on strategic directions and evaluates the Board’s performance.

• Bea Galatas, WHO Global Malaria Programme
• Deirdre Hollingsworth, Oxford University
• Lawrence Kezembe, WHO AFRO Precision Public Health Metrics
• Jean Louis Ndiaye, University of Thies Iba Der Thiam
• Sheetal Silal, University of Cape Town

You may learn more about these members on the Advisory Board page on the AMMnet website here.

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AMMnet Career Development Committee

Join Us for an Exciting Career Development Committee Activity!

As part of our ongoing commitment to support Members career growth and development, The AMMnet Career Development Committee wishes to inform you that it will be organizing an Activity on CV Writing, scheduled to take place on April 5, 2024

Watch for details to come soon.

AMMnet Monthly Seminar: Add the 2024 series to your calendar!

Select the link here to add the AMMnet Monthly Seminar Series to your calendar. (New to 2024, these will no longer be added to your calendar automatically.)

Select the link here to join the Zoom meeting at the scheduled time.

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Do you have a suggested speaker for AMMnet seminars?

We invite you to provide your input in a survey found at the link here. (See the link here for the French survey.)

• We’re looking for speakers who may be interested in giving a 10-minute or 30-minute presentation. Invited speakers do not have to be members of AMMnet.
• We’re also looking for AMMnet members who would like to give a lightning introduction of themselves

If you are interested in adding your name to the list of potential presenters or know someone who may be a great speaker, submit their name in the survey above.

AMMnet Africa Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda April 18-19, 2024

We look forward to welcoming you to the upcoming AMMnet Annual Meeting, which will take place in Kigali, Rwanda, on the 18th and 19th of April 2024, ahead of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Conference (MIM).

We are excited to bring together professionals and experts from the malaria analytics field to share insights, exchange ideas, and foster collaboration. This time we are also excited to host a series of training sessions to all attendees.

Please mark your calendars for this event and stay tuned for further updates and formal registration that will open in a couple weeks. We look forward to your active involvement and contributions to make the 2024 AMMnet Annual Meeting a success.

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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!

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2. Jobs and grant opportunities

ASTMH 2024 Alan J. Magill Fellowship: $50,000 US Available to ASTMH Members From LMICs Wishing to Broaden Their Leadership Skills

ASTMH proudly issues the Call for Concept Papers for the 2024 Alan J. Magill Fellowship, created in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to honor the life, example and legacy of Alan J. Magill, MD, FASTMH, a widely recognized and respected leader in the global tropical medicine community.

In keeping with the prominent roles displayed throughout Alan Magill’s life, the Magill Fellowship:

• Will support mentorship, career and/or leadership development projects for ASTMH members in the early to middle stage of mid-career in low/low-middle income countries focusing on leadership development in tropical medicine.
• Stipulates that the selected Magill Fellow will work closely with a mentor (ideally an ASTMH member) who will play a prominent role in developing and executing the Fellow’s two-year plan of activities.
• Will provide funding of $50,000 US for a period of up to two years to one recipient.
• While the award will recognize achievement in tropical medicine, it is not intended to extend current research or clinical activities. Instead, it is designed to support career-broadening experiences to enhance professional development and leadership opportunities beyond those traditionally available from within the applicant’s home organization—and in so doing, equip awardees to later assume leadership and mentoring roles in various aspects of tropical medicine.

Deadline: March 14

_{Download the Call for Concept Papers}

_{Submit Application Online}

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Call for applications: Capacity-building program for malaria modellers in sub-Saharan Africa – Thiès 2024

National malaria control programs are increasingly integrating mathematical modeling into their strategic planning processes to make informed predictions about the impact of intervention packages. However, this applied, operationally relevant malaria modeling is most often carried out in high-income countries rather than by local researchers with local connections and expertise.

The long-term goal is to train a critical mass of African modeling scientists who will:

• Train the next generation of modelers;
• Work closely with local malaria control programs to provide operational support;
• Compete for grants from international funding agencies.
• Work closely with each other in Africa and with international partners.

To help achieve this goal, the malaria modeling team at the Université Iba Der Thiam de Thiès (Thiès, Senegal), through the WAMCAD (West Africa Mathematical Modeling Capacity Development) project, in collaboration with the Northwestern University team (Chicago, USA), is offering an intensive training program in applied malaria modeling. The training focuses on applied modeling with EMOD, an open-source malaria transmission modeling software currently used to support malaria control programs.

Program location and duration

The program will run from June 3 to September 27, 2024 (4 months) at the Université Iba Der Thiam de Thiès (Senegal).

Profile sought

The call is open to all French-speaking Africans who meet the following criteria:

• Holder of a PhD in one of the following fields: epidemiology, applied informatics,
• Applied mathematics, statistics or data science.
• Curious and willing to learn quickly about epidemiology, computational biology, malaria
• Strong writing and communication skills (in English and/or French)
• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary project involving mathematicians and biologists.
• Commitment to contributing expertise to national disease control programs.

Application procedures

To apply for this program, candidates must send their applications, including a CV and covering letter, to the following address: feprogramthies2024@gmail.com.

Candidates shortlisted after the first stage will be interviewed by the jury. During this interview, each candidate will be asked to present the ideas of the research project he/she will be working on. The final selection will take into account the candidate’s profile.

Application deadline

The deadline for receipt of applications is March 4, 2024 at 23:59 GMT. Shortlisted candidates will be notified on March 6, 2024 and interviews will be scheduled for March 11, 2024.

You may find details about the Call for Applications here.

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AMMnet Grant Opportunity for Local Events

For the last year, AMMnet has offered a small grant – $500-$3,000 – for AMMnet members in malaria-endemic countries to hold in-person events. In 2023, we funded 18 events in 12 countries! A full awardee list is available here. Congratulations to our 2023 awardees!

The award will continue to be available in 2024. The AMMnet Board has updated the documents required for submission, and the new request for proposals is available on our website (English, French, Portuguese). The new requirements are in effect for proposals received on or after 1 January 2024.

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!

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3. Workshops, webinars and conferences

2024 Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Conference | June 24-27, 2024 | Stanford University

The 21st annual Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) conference will be held June 24-27, 2024 at Stanford University, preceded by a workshop available to students and postdocs June 21-24. Abstracts (300 words) and workshop applications are due February 29th!  

_{Abstract and Workshop Application Link}

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Important Dates

• Abstract Submissions are now open, through Thursday, February 29 at 11:59 pm PST.
• Decisions emailed: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
• Conference Registration Open Monday, April 1, 2024 through Wednesday, May 1, 2024

For more information, please visit our EEID 2024 Conference Website.

Workshop synopsis

June 21-24, 2024

Disease Ecology in a Changing World: quantitative tools to applied solutions. This student and postdoc workshop will cover a range of quantitative tools in disease ecology, including basic SIR modeling, fitting environmental response curves, and geospatial analyses in Google Earth Engine (multiple tracks available). Quantitative workshops will be followed by panel discussions and interactive case studies on applying disease ecology research to policy, management, and decision-making. All workshop participants are expected to register to attend the 2024 EEID Conference and are responsible for paying the conference registration fee. Please contact the workshop planning team for more information.

Apply for the Workshop here. Travel awards will be available by application.

The 16th Annual Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases

The Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID) is designed to introduce infectious disease researchers to modern methods of statistical analysis and mathematical modeling. Since its founding in 2009 by Dr. Betz Halloran of University of Washington, SISMID has trained thousands of researchers from academia, government, and industry in cutting edge analytic methods. SISMID’s new home is at Emory University, and housed within the Rollins School of Public Health, in Atlanta, under the direction of Dr. Natalie Dean and Dr. Ben Lopman.

Please visit their website for more information.

8th MIM Society Conference: 21-27 April 2023 Kigali, Rwanda

Multilateral Initiative on Malaria- MIM Society 8th Pan African Malaria Conference (PAMC)

“Grassroots Mobilization to End Malaria: Invest, Innovate & Integrate”

21-27 April 2024

Kigali Convention Centre

Kigali, Rwanda

You may find more information at the website here.

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4. Courses and Learning Opportunities

No courses and learning sources to share this month. Please send any opportunities to AMMnet.org that you’d like to share.

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5. Subgroups, working groups, and regional activities

AMMnet Member Collaboration Request

The Center for Malaria research and Phytomedicine at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in a bid to resubmit their request for funding. They are seeking a genomic modeller to collaborate with them. Please send an email to info@ammnet.org and the Secretariat will connect you.

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AMMnet Francophone

AMMnet has a group dedicated to building a French speaking modeling community. Led by Dr. Dr. Abdourahamane Diallo and Carmène Ngadjeu, they meet monthly, facilitate discussions around malaria modeling learning, collaboration, and resources for francophone countries. If you’d like to participate in the francophone group and receive an invitation to meetings and webinars, please contact info@AMMnet.org.

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Francophone Webinar Series

The next Francophone group webinar is going to be in May 2024. Be on the lookout for details soon.

In March the Francophone Group is going to organize its community meeting to present  to its members the AMMnet ToR  Revision on its Country Chapter Section : Policies about Country Chapter Creation.

The group is also going to discuss with members about its future collaboration with Dr SANOU Antoine and his team on the Elaboration of small technical projects designed by Francophones for the Francophones.

AMMnet Kenya Chapter training workshop with support from AMMnet | February 27-28.

AMMnet Cameroon Chapter and PAMCA Cameroon Co-Organized Conference | June 11-12

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6. Seminar recap and recordings

AMMnet Monthly Seminar Series: 2024 Feb 06 Prof Evelyn Ansah

The Road to Malaria Elimination: Implications for doing things differently

In this seminar, Professor Evelyn Ansah, the Director of the Centre for Malaria Research, University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ghana, shared details about her research on mathematical modeling and the transmission dynamics and control of malaria. She explained the endemicity of malaria in Africa and emphasized the importance of community engagement and behavior change communication to achieve the goal of malaria elimination. Different approaches to achieve elimination of malaria including High Burden High Impact (HBHI), subnational verification of elimination and the pillars of the HBHI approach were buttressed in the seminar using China, Tajikistan, and Algeria’s journeys to elimination as examples. She further explained the progress being made in Ghana towards the elimination of malaria. Most importantly, Professor Ansah explained things that are needed to be done differently to achieve elimination under the sub-headings: rethinking malaria effort, and the HBHI evaluation. Important actions required for elimination were highlighted by Professor Ansah including the use of technology to get quality data.  Being at the cross-roads of malaria elimination, this seminar brought to everyone the way forward to achieve the goal of malaria elimination.

This seminar is available in English, French and Portuguese on the AMMnet website here, which is where you will also find recordings from our other past seminars and special events.

Francophone Webinar Series: 2024 Feb 07 by Mor Absa Loum

Malaria Mathematical Modeling: Introduction to the Epidemiological Modeling Software  (EMOD)

In this session, Dr. Mor Absa Loum, University of Iba Der Thiam,Thiès, Senegal, introduced members to EMOD, what it is and how it is used, particularly in Mathematical Modeling.

You can find its recording (in French) on the AMMnet website here.

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7. Board meeting notes

Present: Hannah, Antonio, Manuela, Jaline, Justin, Caitlin, Cherlynn, Susan, Emilie, Luc, Emmanuel

Absent: (none)

Secretariat present: Shannon, Ida

Local Chapters Terms of Reference (ToR) Vote

• BOARD VOTE: Amend current ToR to incorporate Local Chapter revisions
  • YEA: accept this Local Chapter ToR revision:
    • Board voted Yea
  • NAY: reject this revision
• Next steps if YEA
  • Present to general membership at March 5, UTC 16hr General Assembly
    • slide deck: Jaline will draft
    • presenter: Cherlynn to present
  • Shannon/Jaline will send email to general membership (Shannon will create a voting poll for general assembly in Survey Monkey, this way only one vote allowed)
  • Task Force for Local Chapter ToR:
    • create establishment guidelines (based on ToR) – Susan Rumisha, Emmanuel
    • create templates for bylaws – Luc, Emmanuel
    • create templates for reporting (not urgent)

Visioning exercise

• big thank you to Joe Gray for volunteering time for this
• Joe has done an initial round of interviews with a few AMMnet members. Targeted a diverse list by career stage, gender, geographical origin, and includes a mix of board members, regional leaders, and regular members who have been active in committees
• Joe has used these interviews to generate a questionnaire that we will send to the general membership to give everyone an opportunity to contribute their ideas on where this organization can go
• questionnaire will be sent out to Board members for comments
• Joe will put together the data from the interviews and the questionnaire to generate a readout report
• then we will have a series of co-creation workshops where we will work on drafting the vision. these co-creation workshops will include the full Board as well as certain other key members of the AMMnet community (initial list already generated by Gov Com), a total of ~20 people. we will do this in two groups, then have a session all together to come to a consensus. we will have Joe’s readout report available beforehand to inform discussions
• Jaline would like to have the co-creation workshops in March, so that we have a new vision to share at the Kigali meeting, and some time to think about how it will help set our strategy (to discuss with Ad Board)
  • Will discuss how this vision will help us set our strategy
  • This will give us an idea strategically where we want to head, our future
    • Will give us direction for operational activities
  • Looking at the big picture

BMGF Supplement update

• Sent to Jenn on 5 January. No news yet. Jaline actively following up with Jenn, will see her on 23 Feb
• Jenn was verbally supportive so let’s move ahead with setting up certain things that will allow us to move more quickly if/when we get good news.

AMMnet francophone request for funds to support PAMCA events

• option 1: pre-conference workshop, 50 people, ~$42,000 (includes 10 travel awards and travel support for 7 workshop leaders, PAMCA registration)
  • Good idea, but would be best to decrease budget
  • What does BMGF typically pay for these? Is this reasonable? Can BMGF help?
  • What is the proposed agenda? Modeling specific?
  • Board prefers option 1 with some streamlining of the budget
  • Board comments and questions :
    • Would this set an expectation for future?
    • if this is funded once, would it be expected for AMMnet to contribute to all PAMCA conferences, or a one time request for now/ assessed individually each time?
    • Do we know the focus of this workshop?
    • Would the pre-meeting workshop be available to others for online participation?
    • Seems like if we’re leaning towards the pre-conference (which I agree with), then it makes sense to me to drop the conference registration
    • It could be better than symposium since not interrupted with PAMCA
    • 50 people seems a lot; how many teach modeling?
    • It could be better than symposium since not interrupted with PAMCA
    • Initial impression – seems like a lot!
    • Based on the finances do we know how the cost scales with participation?
    • suggestion if we are going to fund training is to wait for the reply from questionnaires post Kigali meeting to understand what the community would like to learn
      • and we could filter based on language, ie understand what the francophone community wants to learn more about
    • Workshop 1 would not  take as much time as the other ones? not sure what training in values and principles means, might be the translator / agree that overall it is a lot, but interesting on 2 and 3, 4 too narrow on AMMnet RFPs ?
    • Refine topics after Kigali so understand what francophone participants want to learn
      • There is a willingness to be trained
      • Limited financial resources
      • Need to understand what people want to learn more about
    • Given that it’s a relatively high budget per participant, it would be great to encourage having an online mode and/or recording content to create reusable resources.
• option 2: symposium during conference, 150 people, ~$13,000
• option 3: both, $44,000
• additional indirects: 15% if awarded to CRID, 7% if awarded to PAMCA Cameroon

Comments back to francophone group:

• Interested in sponsoring workshop
• Trim down budget and return with updated draft
• Consider non-accepted training applications to Kigali
• Discuss topics/understand topics to cover at workshop
• Provide a breakdown of schedule
• Offer hybrid/online opportunity (despite losing some interactive capability)
• What is the audience profile? Senior level / Junior level

Secretariat future / administrative options for doing large awards

• Secretariat future
  • BMGF grant to Northwestern for AMMnet ends 31 August 2025
  • Jaline’s term as BC/ED expires in May 2025
  • This might be a good time to separate out the BC and ED roles
    • In the Board Chair role, the Board Chair facilitates the Board’s involvement in AMMnet operations, approving of guiding principles, policies, strategy, and mission. In the Executive Director role, the Board Chair oversees the Secretariat and day-to-day operations of AMMnet.
    • New BC would need to work closely with ED
    • If the roles are separated, Secretariat would stay with the institution of the ED rather than the BC
  • There are several options for future Secretariat, including moving the Secretariat (permanently or just for the next grant cycle) to another institution, or incorporating ourselves.
• Large awards
  • In our supplemental funding request, we asked for funds to support large event awards of $40,000, and support for an additional 20 small event awards
  • This will be challenging to administer from Northwestern
    • we have a working process for the small awards but it’s burdensome on both the secretariat and the awardees
    • the large awards will not be able to use this process since they are too big
  • Discussion of possible solutions
  • Next steps: Will discuss at next GovCom meeting

Large awards task force (Board and non-Board members)

• given the likely long lead time needed for this, let’s get started on putting together the RFP and requirements. will probably need substantial discussion.
• TF volunteers or nominations? not required to be Board member
• Hannah, task force volunteer
• Emilie, task force volunteer

Board / Board Chair Evaluations

• Board Self-evaluation
  • we should have a clear strategy / vision that is well-communicated– Visioning Exercise is good timing  and will help with this
  • we need a mechanism for evaluating the executive director / secretariat – consult ToR and make a plan
  • generally positive feelings about inclusivity of people in board discussions
• Board Chair Evaluation
  • want tighter and more focused Board meetings with fewer agenda items; goal is to resolve things outside of Board meetings, Slack Board channel is a place to do this; Secretariat will use Slack more and remind members to use it
  • can do more focus on strategy

Secretariat interviewing candidates for part-time AMMnet lusophone administrator role

List of funding opportunities from Susan and Antonio — ok to put on website? (not slide deck, a list of links)

• Shannon will post on website

List of reading resources from the BP committee OK to put on website – YES

• Shannon will post on website

Presenting on AMMnet at ASTMH or PAMCA

• ASTMH deadline March 5
• could be symposium, represent activities and subgroups, committee can present what they are doing
• Emilie and Jaline to discuss
• Luc: consider for PAMCA

Next Board meeting April 16

• in person April 20? (following advisory board meeting) – Yes
  • Shannon will ensure time scheduled with BMGF