AMMnet | March 2024

Welcome to the March newsletter!

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

Contents:

Special announcements
Jobs and grant opportunities
Workshops and conferences
Courses and learning opportunities
Subgroups, working groups, and regional activities
Seminar recap and recordings

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1. Special announcements

Register before April 1!
AMMnet Africa Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda | April 18-19, 2024

You should have received an email on March 7 from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Events team inviting you to register for the AMMnet event. The AMMnet Kigali Planning Meeting Task Force has planned a diverse set of speakers, panelists, trainings, and opportunities for you to connect to each other.

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.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is pleased to partner with AMMnet to sponsor the 2024 conference. There is no registration fee to attend the meeting, and foundation support enables AMMnet to offer select meals to attendees free of charge during the event. The foundation will not be covering any participant travel expenses.

While we invite you to participate in person, a limited number of sessions will be also available for live streaming.

We look forward to your active involvement and contributions to make the 2024 AMMnet Annual Meeting a success!

Note: The registration website provides instructions for using the French registration form. Follow directions at the top of the registration form if this is your preference.

Contact info@ammnet.org if you have any questions.

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AMMnet Monthly Seminar on April 2, 15:00 UTC | Redrawing the “MAP”: Decentralization and Innovation in the Malaria Atlas Project”

Join the Zoom meeting at the link here.

Speakers: Susan Rumisha and Punam Amratia from the Malaria Atlas Project East Africa

Explore the evolution of the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) and the launch of the MAP East Africa (EA) Node in our upcoming talk. Since 2005, MAP has been pivotal in employing advanced data and geospatial analytics to inform malaria policy globally. The establishment of the MAP EA Node marks a significant step towards MAP decentralization agenda, aiming to enhance the technical, malaria research capacity and policy support provided to NMPs and the local malaria community in Sub-Saharan Africa. This Node focuses on developing and implementing innovative geostatistical models to understand malaria dynamics, aiding policy formulation and program evaluation while enhancing African research leadership in geospatial malaria modeling. Learn how this initiative is leading the charge in geospatial modelling, facilitating decision-making, and developing analytic capacity in the region.

AMMnet Funding Opportunity for 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

Members have voted to approve a new policy for establishing local AMMnet chapters. AMMnet’s Terms of Reference has been updated to include a formal process for establishing, operating, and reviewing local AMMnet chapters.

A big thank you to everyone who participated in this process:

AMMnet Board members Antonio Christophe Nkondjio and Cherlynn Dumbura, who led this effort, including research, interviews, and drafting the first version of the policy
AMMnet local chapter and regional leaders, who gave their ideas and comments
AMMnet members who commented on the draft policy: many of your ideas are now included!
AMMnet Board members Susan Rumisha, Luc Djogbenou, and Emmanuel Bakare, who drafted the guidelines for establishment

If you are interested or have begun to establish a local AMMnet chapter, see below for the updated AMMnet Terms of Reference document and establishment guidelines, both available in English, French and Portuguese versions.

Terms of Reference – English, français, Português
Establishment guidelines – English, français, Português
Bylaws guidance and template – coming soon! Please email us at info@ammnet.org if you would like to be personally notified when they are available in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions, considerations or suggestions for establishing local AMMnet chapters, please send us an email at info@ammnet.org.

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.

Topic: Webinar on CV Writing
Speaker: Benedicta Mensah, Member of AMMnet Career Development Committee and Research Fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana.
Zoom Registration Link: Register Here

PAMCA 2024 Pre-conference Event Organized by AMMNET Francophone in Côte d’Ivoire

AMMnet is a network of modelers and non-modellers who promote the use of modelling for informed decision-making in malaria elimination. Despite the rapid development of AMMnet worldwide, the French-speaking community remains small and inactive. In the run-up to the PAMCA conference to be held in Côte d’Ivoire in September 2024, AMMnet Francophone has organized a series of activities during a PAMCA pre-conference workshop, featuring training sessions, round tables and presentations of work. The aim of this scientific meeting is to arouse the interest of the French-speaking community in modeling, and to develop and strengthen their modeling capabilities. This scientific meeting will help advance AMMnet’s mission by extending the modeler network to a wider audience, generating interest in modeling and strengthening collaboration between Malaria Control Programs (NMCPs) and other research networks.

Further information on “Save the date” will be given very shortly (including a call for poster submissions and travel grant applications).

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

CDC/CFA ORISE Summer Fellowships

The CDC Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics is recruiting ORISE Summer Fellows. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics is recruiting data science summer fellows

10-week ORISE fellowship placement with stipend
Remote, or in-person placement options in DC and Atlanta
Build skills to meet the challenges of analyzing outbreak data in real time
Embed in a team producing models and analyses to support public health decision making
Wrestle with scientific challenges to identify what data, modeling, and inference methods produce the best insights from messy, lagged, or incomplete data
Gain experience with best practices in scientific computing while working to implement well- tested, scalable, open-source computational tools that will be used internally at CDC and by external partners in academia and government

Ideal Candidates Are

Pursuing a Masters Degree or PhD in Infectious Disease Dynamics, Math, Applied Math, Statistics,
Biostatistics, or a related quantitative field
Experienced or training to develop and interpret models of infectious disease transmission
Proficient with advanced statistical and modeling analysis of public health data
Familiar with advanced Bayesian inference methods

Check out our current fellowship openings:

Apply by March 31st. Applications reviewed on a rolling basis. Please direct questions to JPULLIAM@CDC.GOV.

University of Sydney Postdoctoral Research Associate

We are seeking a 2-year postdoctoral researcher to join our project “Learning the meso-scale organization of complex networks” at The University of Sydney, Australia. Ideal candidates will have a background and interest in complex systems, networks, data science, or computational social science.

This project is funded by the Australian Research Council and led by Eduardo G. Altmann (Applied Maths/Usyd), Tristram Alexander (Physics/Usyd), Olga Boichack (Computational Social Sciences/Usyd), and Tiago Peixoto (Network Science/CEU).

Applications are due April 29. Further details can be found at the link here.

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3. Workshops, webinars and conferences

ASTMH 2024 Annual Meeting | Call for Abstracts | Proposals Due April 17

Be sure to check the website Scientific Content page for information. Presenters with oral presentations have the option to pre-record a presentation if unable to attend in person. This applies to symposia and Scientific Sessions (oral abstract sessions). There will be no e-Poster option this year.

TRAVEL AWARD APPLICATIONS OPEN MARCH 20

Due April 17. Applications for the 2024 Travel Awards will open March 20. Check the website Travel Awards and Funding page for details about:

ASTMH/Gates Foundation Annual Meeting Travel Awards
ASTMH Subgroup Travel Awards
ACCTMTH Clinical Research Award
ASTMH Young Investigator Awards

Travel Awards are offered to qualified students, early-career investigators and scientists actively working in the tropical medicine field to attend the Annual Meeting.

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!

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 Francophone

AMMnet has a group dedicated to building a French speaking modeling community. Led by 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.

AMMnet Francophone Training | Save the Date

Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data extraction and indicator mapping on R

Date: April 3, 2024, 14:00 UTC

In April 2024, you are invited to join AMMnet Francophone for a webinar entitled “Extracting DHS data and mapping indicators on R”, presented by Dr. Oumar Billa from Northwestern University in Chicago, USA. This webinar aims to familiarize participants with the DHS Program environment, teach data extraction techniques and calculate indicators on R. Look for more details to come soon.

AMMnet Francophone Webinar Series

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

AMMnet Uganda | UGNexus Networking Event | March 22

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: March 5, General Assembly on New Local Chapter Policy

Since AMMnet was founded in April 2022, our community has grown. 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 hosted a General Assembly with you, our members, to review these updates, after which held a ratification vote. AMMnet members voted unanimously to ratify the AMMnet Terms of Reference to include the newly updated Local Chapter policy.

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.

Welcome to the Name newsletter!