Dr Michael Chipeta and James Chirombo, both members of the malaria group at MLW recently attended a one-week statistics summer school in the UK. It was sponsored by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) under the Africa NCD Open Lab. Established in 2014, the goal of the Africa NCD open Lab is to work in partnership with funders, researchers and academic groups to share expertise and resources to conduct research in Africa aimed at increasing the understanding of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in African patients. The workshop brought together statisticians from Africa that are working on GSK funded projects in this area of NCDs. It was held at GSK’s Stevenage campus in the UK.

The workshop covered topics from trial design, conduct and statistical analysis of clinical trial data. It also covered topics in grant writing and communication skills. Participants were also given an overview of GSK’s therapeutic areas such as cardiovascular diseases.

James said “This was an important workshop. It prepared me for the next step of my career. It helped me to better understand my role as a statistician in a research institution like the MLW. The workshop also came at the right time as I am approaching the end of my PhD at Lancaster and I have just returned to MLW”.

Michael said “the Africa NCD Open Lab statistics summer school was a great opportunity for networking with statisticians in the sub-Saharan Africa. I am looking forward to long-term collaborations with researchers and statisticians that I met with at the summer school. The workshop included a component on proposal/grant writing, it was a great eye opener, especially now that I am writing grant applications.”