The Malaria group at MLW has in the 2016 – 2017 Wellcome Trust fiscal year secured a record number of externally funded postgraduate degree training and career development fellowships with a collective value of over £1,000,000.

Group members secured four paid pre-MSc internships, seven MSc fellowships with the Wellcome Trust, Commonwealth and Beit, and two career development fellowships at pre-PhD and PDRA level. The group secured five Wellcome Trust Master’s Fellowships in Public Health and Tropical Medicine in one year (out of 7 submitted applications).

The group’s approach offers promising and talented candidates the opportunity to learn within a multidisciplinary team, and work on or towards a research project under the mentorship and supervision of a senior scientist within an enabling environment. These experiences strengthen the student’s research skills and knowledge in their areas of interest and helps to prepare them for international postgraduate training fellowships. It also recognizes the importance of using ample time to develop strong research projects, and match candidates to supportive local and international team of supervisors and mentors in their research areas of interest.

While much of this success is due to the rigorous personal and team effort by the applicants, key to the group’s success has been a research mentorship programme at MLW piloted by Dr Anja Terlouw, the Malaria group head. Apart from their technical training, students are supported to develop more general academic skills such as leadership, win-win thinking, academic writing and presentation, communication, peer-learning, time management, networking, media engagement and team building.

“I am delighted with the success this year, they’ve all worked really hard and I am confident they will all succeed in their fellowships and in their chosen careers. Importantly, they are also developing as a team of colleagues and friends with complementary expertise. And my bet is that will help them get far in achieving whatever they may set their minds to as a group,” said Terlouw