The Africa Open Lab concept submission period is now open.

[Africa Open Lab Proposal submissions:]
The Africa Open Lab is inviting applications from African scientists at an early stage of their career with an interest in conducting research in infectious diseases. We strive to enable awardees to develop their research careers through offering funding for a research project and mentoring while they conduct their innovative research projects.

Africa Open Lab call is for proposals of relevance to the understanding of infectious disease epidemiology, aetiology, prevention and control; proposals addressing significant gaps in knowledge as well as mechanisms to improve access and use of medicines and vaccines for infectious diseases in Africa.

Proposals must demonstrate the specific health needs their research will address and how they will engage with specific stakeholders to bring about change in health policy and/or practice.

The research project may consist of population-based or clinical studies, laboratory-based analysis of field or clinical samples; but projects focused solely on studies in vitro or research using animal models will not be considered.

[The applications are invited in the following disease areas:]

o   Malaria
o   Tuberculosis (TB) or drug-resistant tuberculosis
o   Drug resistant bacterial infections
o   Enteric infections


Malaria (may include but not limited to research addressing)
Epidemiology (characterisation) in children hospitalised due to malarial anaemia and severe malaria, with focus on management of those discharged with anaemia (e.g. description of preventive malaria treatment and treatment outcome)

Treatment of malaria with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs):
o   Level of compliance with ACTs
o   Risk factors that lower compliance and their link to treatment outcomes in a real-world setting
o   Resistance to ACT

Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) and perennial prevention of malaria
o   Level of resistance to drug used in SMC
o   Cost of delivering SMC and cost of care of a malaria case and the impact to caregivers and the affected individuals
o   Risk factors that lower compliance (inc. different populations) and their link to treatment outcomes in a real-world setting

Description of standard of care and treatment seeking behaviours and dynamics

Diagnosis of malaria. Detection of low level parasitaemia in asymptomatic carriers. Detection of mixed infections; prevalence of non-falciparum malaria

Treatment for P. vivax/ovale radical cure. Evidence of chloroquine resistant strains. Risk factors for effective treatment (compliance, G6PDH deficiency)

Effectiveness of vaccines

Approaches to increase the uptake of malaria vaccine and other interventions

Biology of vectors



Tuberculosis (TB) or drug-resistant tuberculosis (may include but not limited to research addressing)
Understanding prevalence of isoniazid (H) resistance and the influence of H resistance in HRZE treatment outcomes (isoniazid (H), rifampin (R), pyrazinamide (Z), and ethambutol (E))

Understanding prevalence, characteristics, clinical outcomes of extensively resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and pre-XDR TB

Understanding emergence of resistance to newer therapies

Level of compliance to TB treatment: drug sensitive, drug resistant and TB preventative treatment

Risk factors that lower compliance (inc. different populations) and their link to treatment outcomes in a real- world setting


Drug resistant bacterial infections (may include but not limited to research addressing)
Phenotypic and genomic surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and surveillance of anti-microbial use (AMU), antimicrobial access and stewardship

Resistance mechanisms of priority bacterial pathogens (as identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO))

Impact of vaccines; Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC)

Wastewater based epidemiology of AMR

AMR at One Health interface


Enteric Infections (may include but not limited to research addressing)
Typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, nontyphoidal salmonella (NTS) diseases

Prevalence, incidence, and/or case fatality of typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, invasive non-typhoidal salmonella (iNTS)

Disease in different real-world settings (with focus on children under 5 years with granular data by month of age in first year), possibly including prevalence and incidence of disease caused by drug resistant strains

Cost of the illness possibly from different perspectives (healthcare system, societal)

iNTS disease – Proportion of carriers of nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) among population, mode of transmission and reservoir

Surveillance of potential Salmonella serovar replacement following introduction of Typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) vaccines
o   Case fatality rate of enterocolitis disease due to Non Typhoidal Salmonella
o   Treatment of infections caused by Salmonella with focus on outcomes of treatment and resistance to antibiotics


Epidemiology of viral infections (rotavirus/ norovirus)