IDM-Africa Fellowship: Three 12-Month Infectious Disease Modelling Opportunities

Applications are open for the IDM-Africa Fellowship in infectious disease modelling. Three places are available for early- and mid-career scientists in sub-Saharan Africa to develop a public-health research project using their own data.

Programme: IDM-Africa, coordinated by the Infectious Diseases Institute at Makerere University
Duration: 12 months
Locations: Kampala, Uganda (two places) and Bamako, Mali (one place)
Format: One month in person, followed by 11 months of online mentorship
Job code: IDMA003
Deadline: 30 October 2026, 16:59 East Africa Time (EAT)

What the fellowship offers

• A monthly stipend throughout the fellowship; the amount is not specified.
• Publication fees for the completed modelling work.
• Placement support covering a return economy-class flight, visa fees, travel insurance, accommodation and ground transport.
• Mentorship in modelling, data analysis, reproducible research, scientific writing and communicating findings to policymakers.

The first month requires full-time participation. The online phase requires approximately four hours a day, or 50% of working time. Fellows are expected to produce a validated model with reproducible code, a visualization dashboard, a project report, a lead-author manuscript and a policy brief, alongside progress reports and presentations.

Who can apply?

• Early- or mid-career scientists affiliated with an eligible sub-Saharan African institution within the EDCTP Association.
• Applicants with a relevant quantitative or health-related master’s degree and short-course training in infectious disease modelling. Relevant PhD candidates and holders may also apply.
• Candidates with practical modelling experience, skills in R, Python, MATLAB or a comparable platform, and access to data for their proposed project.
• Applicants able to attend the placement, complete the online mentorship and secure institutional support for at least 50% protected time during the online phase.

The Uganda placements require fluent English. The Mali placement requires fluent French. Applicants must live in, or be willing to relocate to, an eligible sub-Saharan African country for the placement. Applicants affiliated with partner institutions, including IDI/Makerere University and ACE-B/USTTB, are not eligible.

How to apply

Apply through the IDI recruitment portal for either host site. Upload one PDF containing:

• Your CV, certified academic certificates and transcripts, and a scanned national ID or passport.
• Two recommendation letters from supervisors or mentors.
• A career-goals and motivation statement, plus your preferred host and reasons for choosing it.
• A project proposal explaining the research question, methods, public-health relevance, policy implications and intended use of findings.
• A description of the data you will use to build and validate the model.
• An institutional commitment letter supporting your participation, protected time and completion of the research outputs.

Submit early: the call document states 16:59 EAT on 30 October 2026, while the recruitment portal displays 17:00 without a time zone. Use the earlier stated cutoff and confirm any uncertainty with the programme at aceuganda@idi.co.ug.