Researcher capacity strengthening regional workshops

Southeast Asia career development workshop

From 18-21 February 2025, we hosted our first Southeast Asia career development workshop in Bangkok, Thailand. For this workshop, we worked alongside Thailand Science Research and Innovation who brought their extensive knowledge of the research landscape in the region and logistical support. 

The workshop reached 66 early career researchers from 7 Southeast Asian countries with sessions including grant writing, pitching for funding and community engagement. Workshop sessions were rated highly by participants, with 'excellent' being the most common rating and all sessions receiving a rating of 'good' or 'excellent' from 95%+ of participants. 100% of participants reported that they found the workshop useful and well organised and felt that it met its objectives.

Our steering committee for the workshop included senior researchers from across Southeast Asia, co-chaired by Associate Professor Nor Azian Abdul Murad and Professor Guy Thwaites FMedSci.  

Quotes from participants

“I truly enjoyed the interactive networking sessions and the grant writing day. The insights from experienced researchers and funders were incredibly valuable.” 

“I plan to take several actions and make some changes based on the learnings from the workshop. For example, I will apply the grant application skills I learned to improve the quality and competitiveness of my future proposals.” 

“I think what you have done are absolutely amazing, thank you so much for everything! I just hope events like this will be organized more often, and there could be ways for us to keep working with each other within this community.” 

To find out more, please contact [email protected] 

Steering committee members

Associate Professor Nor Azian Abdul Murad 

Professor Guy Thwaites FMedSci 

Associate Professor Kim Bao Giang 

Nunung Nurul Qomariyah PhD 

Dr Nguyen Thi Hiep 

Dr Pham Thanh Duy   

Dr Saiful Safuan  

Professor Nipon Chattipakorn, MD 

Professor Paul Newton 

Professor Phaik Yeong Cheah   

Dr. Hani Syahida Salim  

Associate Professor Pongsakorn Tantilipikorn, MD 

Dr Alice Ferrer

Joana America

Africa career development workshop

From 13-15 November 2024, we held our first Africa career development workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the Academy of Sciences in South Africa and the Network of African Science Academies. 59 participants from 23 different countries attended the workshop, 28 of whom are the Academy’s international grant alumni.

In addition to working with the partner organisations, we hosted a steering committee made up of members from across Africa and co-chaired by Associate Professor Priscilla Kolibea Mante and Professor David Lalloo FMedSci.

Together with the partners and the steering committee we designed a three-day event, with skills-based sessions tailored to the needs of researchers who have completed their PhD within the past 7 years. Participants took part in interactive training on topics including grant writing, scientific communication and leadership, and took part in self-care and networking sessions.

93% of participants felt the event was useful and most sessions were rated as excellent by more than 70% of participants. The survey showed a clear increase in the confidence participants felt in their grant writing, presentation, and scientific writing skills.

Quotes from participants

“One of the key takeaways for me was learning strategies to build an effective network and collaborative group. The event highlighted the importance of connecting with people across different disciplines and leveraging those diverse perspectives and skill sets. By forming a network that spans various fields, you can assemble a uniquely qualified team to tackle complex problems.” 

“Attending the workshop on African researchers’ career development was an eye-opening experience, providing actionable insights that will shape my approach as an early-career scientist.” 

“The sessions were excellently set up - my facilitation skills were enhanced - for example through the creativity that was used to deliver the session on leadership. I feel confident that I can now apply for larger grants.” 

To find out more, please contact [email protected] 

Steering committee members

Professor David Lalloo FMedSci

Associate Professor Priscilla Kolibea Mante

Dr Devina Lobine

Professor Samson Kinyanjui

Professor Assan Jaye

Professor Leslie Swartz

Dr Natisha Dukhi

Dr Christian Nkanga

Professor Faith Osier FMedSci

Professor Magatte Ndiaye

Dr Eva Ujeneza

We piloted our first workshop in partnership with the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF) on 22 November 2022 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The second pilot workshop was held in partnership with the African Academy of Sciences on 7 February 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya.

The third pilot workshop was held in partnership with the Academia Nacional de Medicina and the Academia Brasileira de Ciências on 29 March 2023 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

These workshops aim to expand the international impact of our career development programmes and connect cohorts of UK and international researchers to promote sharing best practice and collaboration.  

They bring together interested parties including staff from partner organisations, universities, Fellows, researchers across career stages, Academy staff and award holders and expert facilitators within the region of focus.  

These workshops are funded through Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding and give us the opportunity to run short, researcher career development programmes focused workshops in person in different ODA eligible countries.  

Outputs from the workshop will include short reports summarising the discussion and identifying actionable recommendations.