As we approach the season 2 finale of the MAP Early Career Researcher (ECR) Training and Mentorship Program, this is a full-circle moment for some members of the inaugural cohort, who came back this year as instructors and mentors keen to pay forward the knowledge gained and mentorship they had received to the next generation of early career researchers (ECRs).
The season’s pre-launch preparations began well before the curtain rolled up. The incoming pool of instructors participated in a week-long training of trainers workshop led by Amelia Bertozzi-Villa and Gloria Shirima, which served as a primer for techniques and principles, such as backward design, in curriculum development. Amelia also generously volunteered to serve as the program’s expert instructor in residence, whom teachers could consult throughout the program as they developed their lessons. This setup ensured instructors, including those teaching online for the first time, were adequately capacitated and had the support they needed to deliver effective trainings.
This year, the program ran fully remote to accommodate the geographically diverse cohort, with eight participants joining from four countries (Mozambique, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria).
The ECRs are professionals working at government agencies (National Malaria Control Programme, Tanzania Meteorological Agency), research institutions (Ifakara Health Institute, National Institute for Biomedical Research), and universities (Kinshasa School of Public Health, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Osun State University). The cohort’s diversity is also reflected in the participants’ academic and professional backgrounds in domain fields spanning from epidemiology, vector ecology, and medical entomology to climatology and data science. This unique blend of skills and experience makes for some of the most interesting projects that participants work on in teams based on their interests and experience, as part of the program’s core requirement.
The season will culminate with a symposium in October, where ECRs will showcase their work through a series of dynamic, interactive activities including lightning talks, live coding, and roundtable discussions. For some of the ECRs, this will be the first time they present their work publicly, a valuable experience that allows them to put into practice the communication and presentation skills they have developed throughout the program – as a former ECR myself, it will be a proud moment to witness the cohort’s growth. Beyond the program, there will be opportunities for teams that are interested to continue collaborating to develop their projects into concrete outputs such as publications or R packages, etc.
Behind the scenes is an incredible team of dedicated instructors who have been working tirelessly to make this season a success:
- Christina Myalla – Data Management 101; Foundational Statistics for Public Health
- Ernest Moyo – Presentation Strategy
- Gloria Shirima – Data Visualization in R
- Herieth Mboya – Malaria Epidemiology
- Neema Kafwimi – Introduction to R
- Ousmane Diao – Quarto 101; Introduction to Spatial Data
- Praise Michael – Data Visualization in R
- Punam Amratia – Data fishing club
- Susan Rumisha – Introduction to Science Communications
- Yasini Kokoda – Version Control and Git; Functional Programming 101
- Yuval Berman – Data Wrangling in R; Presentation Strategy
