Postgraduate Fellowships and Scholarships in Control and Prevention of Zoonoses

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The Consortium for Control and Prevention of Zoonoses in West Africa is an initiative of a group of academic staff members at the University of Ibadan in response to a perceived need for sub-regional educational co-operation and collaboration among five strategic Universities in the sub-region of West Africa, namely the University of Ibadan, University of Ghana, Cuttington University in Liberia, University of Sierra Leone and Njala University in Sierra Leone. Our other partners are professional associations,including Ghana Veterinary Medical Association, Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association, two Research Institutes, including the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) in Nigeria, the Nigerian Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT), with two advisers in the United States of America (Dr. James A. Roth, Center for Food Security and Public Health, Iowa State University and Dr. Wole Odemuyiwa,Department of Pathobiology, Tuskegee University). The collaboration aims at supporting higher education through specific international activities and projects relevant to global health in West Africa.

The Consortium aims to involve many academic disciplines within and beyond the health sciences, to promote interdisciplinary collaboration that is critical for promoting the surveillance, control and prevention of zoonotic diseases, some of which have been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as neglected diseases. A major boost to the thrust of the consortium is a grant from the John D.and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, USA recently awarded to the University of Ibadan along their International Programmes/ Higher Education in Africa Initiative. The grant of USD 890,000 is to improve the University's graduate programme for surveillance of human-animal diseases in West Africa. This support is for a period of three years that will enable the consortium to invest in people and institutions to build a critical mass of personnel through postgraduate career development awards to effectively engage in a network for human-animal-environmental health promotion in the sub-region.

Top performing young West African women and men will be equipped for professional and academic career development in the study and promotion of zoonoses containment. Thus, to attain a high impact, priority attention is given to career personnel in government service and the academia in related fields.

University of Ibadan Programme for Control and Prevention of Zoonoses in West Africa (PCPZ) is pleased to support Postgraduate Career Development Fellowship Awards in the three-year period from 2012 to 2014, under the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grant, permitting a broad range of research interests from studies on knowledge, attitude and practices associated with human-animal diseases (capturing indigenous knowledge and practices), reporting systems and their use in confirming outbreaks (covering prospective and 10-year retrospective study), identify associated geographic risk factors, up to developing risk management plans, policy initiatives for monitoring and evaluation at local, national and sub-regional levels of interventions on zoonoses. Spatio-temporal data capture and information analysis using global positioning systems (GPS), remote sensing (aerial photography) and geographic information systems, indigenization of biotechnology for products development, including laboratory diagnostics, pathogen characterization, studies on pathogenesis, molecular epidemiology, virology, parasitology, immunology, vaccinology and genomics of specific zoonotic diseases including(but not limited to) Brucellosis, Toxoplasmosis, Cryptosporidiosis, Yellow fever, Lassa fever, Rabies, Tuberculosis and Influenza are of major interest to the consortium and receive priority attention in the current Postgraduate Career Development Awards for Doctoral Fellowships in Zoonoses Studies.

The CCPZ therefore welcomes applications from prospective students, most especially young faculty members (academic staff) of institutions in this consortium and the respective national and state Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Environment in their home countries. Students already pursuing studies at the University of Ibadan in fields related to the thrust of human-animal disease surveillance in line with the mandate of CCPZ either at Masters or at a very early stage of their Doctoral programmes are invited to submit applications to the project implementation committee at the University of Ibadan.

Other landmark projects of the CCPZ include undertaking to revise an existing graduate curriculum for M.Sc. Epizootiology at the University of Ibadan and to produce a zoonosis track in the form of M.Sc. Zoonoses Studies (academic) and Master of Zoonoses Containment Promotion (professional). The new curricula will be formulated to support epidemiology and global health in a unique way, permitting international experiences and hands-on training in endemic, emerging and neglected zoonoses in West Africa. Prospective Career Development Scholarship Awards for Masters Degree applicants will be mainly reserved for individuals admitted to these proposed programmes when operational at the University of Ibadan. Certificate Level distance learning component of Career Development Programme will also emerge between University of Ibadan and Njala University with Learning Center in Sierra Leone.

It is gratifying to note that the Consortium has gained on peripheral networks through partnerships with the USAID sponsored Excellence in Higher Education for Liberian Development (EHELD) and the International Conference on Rabies in West Africa (RIWA) to promote robust inclusion of human-animal health components into the curriculum of the Center of Excellence in Agriculture at Cuttington University in Liberia and in international network for Rabies control in humans and animals respectively for West Africa. The CCPZ career development awards will further leverage on these connections.

How to find out more and apply for the Fellowship and Scholarship Awards Download the cover letter and application form below. Instructions for completing and submitting the application are located at the bottom of the cover letter and the application form. If you have questions,call Dr. S.I.B. Cadmus (+234-802-375-1093). Submit application document to do.oluwayelu@ui.edu.ng,with a copy to pcpzui@gmail.com by 4pm Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on June 12, 2012.

•   PCPZ 2012 Cover Letter: PCPZ 2012/2013 Fellowship Cover Letter
•   PCPZ 2012 Application Form: PCPZ 2012/2013 Fellowship Application Form

Source: Postgraduate Fellowships and Scholarships in Control and Prevention of Zoonoses

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