Welcome Trust Grant Proposal for THE 2nd HEALTH, SOCIETY, BIOLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF EAST AFRICA MEETING
THE 2nd HEALTH, SOCIETY, BIOLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF EAST AFRICA MEETING
Proposal for the Wellcome Trust Small Grant
Aims:
As its’ name implies the “2nd Health, Society, Biology and the History of East Africa Meeting” aims to bring together leading academic scientists, senior researchers and young scientists from the region of east Africa to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of social, historical, biological and health related studies pertinent to the region. Through its mosaic themes and myriad of participants the meeting provides an interdisciplinary platform that enables senior and junior scientists and researchers, educators and policy makers to present, exchange and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered in their respective research related activities to come up with unified research fronts and homogeneous solutions that can improve the quality and future of research in the region. Themes for the meeting revolve around the linkage between historic, genomic and social factors that have shaped the characteristics of the current east African populations and the implications of these factors in health and disease.
Objectives:
Establish networks between scientists in the region of east Africa.
Establish new regional collaborative projects.
Follow-up and enhancing the already established regional scientific projects.
Enhance interdisciplinary research in the region.
Highlight model successful research projects in the region.
Networking young scientists in the region.
Putting guidelines and general frames for bio-banking in the region.
Provide a platform for young scientists to present their work and benefit from the direct feedback of their senior counterparts.
L
location of the meeting:
The first part of the meeting will be held in Khartoum state - Sudan in the premises of the ministry of higher education Sudan. The venues of the ministry are highly prepared for hosting big events and conferences. The meeting venue of the ministry accommodates about 500 individuals plus a hall room for catering. The venue is equipped with a free wi-fi and comfortable seats.
The second part of the meeting will be hosted by Shendi University located in Shendi city (the capital of Nile river state - Sudan). It was founded in March 1994 in accordance to Act 67 for the year 1994 in the River Nile State and Shendi as headquarters. The meeting will be hosted in the Mak Nimir hall of the university of Shendi. It is well equipped and designed to host major presentations and scientific activities.
Meeting dates:
The conference will be held from 13-18 Dec 2018
Details of the potential impact of the meeting for the field and/or policy and practice:
The “ 1st Health, Society, Biology and the History of East Africa Meeting” has resulted in the development of new collaborations and networks between scientists from the region crowned by the initiation of some shared regional research projects. The planned “2nd Health, Society, Biology and the History of East Africa Meeting” is expected to enhance the established scientific networks and developing new networks and collaborative projects. Furthermore, the meeting will provide a platform to discuss the progress of the ongoing regional collaborative projects and the means to improve outcomes, mitigate the draw-backs and overcome the obstacles faced during projects implementation. Nonetheless, the meeting will enhance the awareness of the importance of collaboration in science among the future young scientists in the region and empower them to form their independent regional scientific bodies and networks.
Have there been any recent meetings on the same subject? If so, were they funded by the Wellcome Trust?
Yes. The first regional meeting took place during 28th Feb-2March 2017. It was organized by the ministry of higher education, Institute of Endemic Disease-University of Khartoum (in Khartoum state) and Abdellatif El Hamad university (in the Northern State).
The need for gathering the meeting:
This conference is of high impact since it provides a unique platform to gather scientists and young researchers from the region of east Africa in a joint activity. Such gathering has been proofed to be of high importance in the previous inaugural version of the conference. The previous conference has ignited the sparkle for joint research and exchange of expertise between the participating scientists and we hope to keep up the momentum and expand our activities by including countries that have not participate in the previous version.
Will abstracts be pre-circulated?
Yes.