About Us
More about IDeAL
The Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL) is a high-quality training programme designed to develop outstanding young African scientists into world-class research leaders. It is hosted by KEMRI – Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya. IDeAL is available to young researchers, from Undergraduate Research Attachments to Postdoctoral Fellowships, with the aim of keeping scientists at African institutions through a defined programme of recruitment, supervision and mentorship with the goal of establishing unique career paths for all students and fellows.
IDeAL 2.0, which is funded till 2027 to the tune of USD 4.4 million through the Science for Africa Foundation, seeks to expand the Initiative’s activities beyond East Africa through a formal partnership with the Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), Epicentre in Niger, University of Glasgow and Oxford in the UK and Strathmore and Pwani universities in Kenya. Thus, IDeAL 2.0 students and fellows will benefit heavily from collective high-quality research resources, collaborative supervision, mentorship and learning across these diverse partners.
IDeAL aims to foster sustainable health research capacity by cultivating a critical mass of local research leaders across various health domains, including laboratory sciences, epidemiology, clinical research, social sciences, health systems, and implementation research. The initiative utilises a comprehensive framework, encompassing a graduate research internship scheme, high-quality Masters’ and PhD training, and the retention of trained individuals in their home country or the broader African context. IDeAL prioritises quality through financial support, operational assistance, a vibrant training environment, technical and leadership development, and post-training support, guided by core values of diversity, inclusivity, equity, and a long-term perspective.
Notably, the IDeAL’s standards are widely recognised, with numerous universities entrusting IDeAL’s secretariat with key responsibilities related to student recruitment, training, and progress tracking. Since 2008, IDeAL has successfully trained over 800 students, boasting a remarkable 90% completion rate within the specified timeframe. Many graduates have assumed leadership roles at both local and global levels, contributing significantly to the understanding of diseases such as malaria to guide vaccine development and to the evidence for policy on universal health coverage and the response to outbreaks such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
The IDeAL Team is comprised of over 200 people, including postdoctoral fellows, students, interns, mentors, supervisors, and the secretariat.
For more details on the schemes supported under IDeAL, visit the Programmes Page.
Vision, Mission, and Objectives
Our History
IDeAL builds on previous capacity-strengthening activities at the KEMRI – Wellcome Trust Research Programme. As illustrated in the figure below, capacity building in the Programme has gone through different phases. During the earliest phase, 1989-2008, the emphasis was on building core structures to support research and training, including high-quality laboratory, clinical, field and ICT infrastructure. As these core structures expanded, there was a gradual increase in the number of local researchers training at Masters and PhD levels, albeit on an ad hoc basis. It eventually became clear that there was a need to develop a coherent framework to manage and scale up research training activities at the Programme. This was achieved through the awarding of a Strategic Award amounting to 12 Million Pounds by the Wellcome Trust. The award supported research training activities from 2008 to 2015.
As a result of the Award, capacity-building activities in the Programme have expanded markedly. In addition, the award facilitated the centralisation and harmonisation of capacity-building management by providing a secure financial base that enabled long-term planning of career paths.
In brief, between 2008 and 2015, 52 students were supported to undertake PhDs and received a further one-year postdoctoral support. 32 of these are Postdoctoral Researchers at KWTRP and elsewhere, while 8 are lecturers in local Universities. 5 have already received Wellcome Trust Training Fellowships. 88 people were supported for Masters’ training either directly or through support, leading to the successful application for external Masters Fellowships (e.g. the Wellcome Trust Masters Fellowship). We have provided internships to 172 recent Kenyan graduates—over 30 of whom have now progressed through the research training to the postdoctoral level. The majority of the rest are either research assistants or Masters students elsewhere.
Importantly, work supported by the SA has contributed to the development of a number of health policies and practice guidelines in Kenya and Globally, particularly for the prevention and treatment of early childhood illnesses. In addition, it has been presented at over 200 conferences and resulted in over 300 peer-reviewed publications (>150 first author papers – >50 in journals with an Impact Factor of >4, and > 150 non-first author papers – >30 in journals with an Impact Factor of >4.
Our Funders & Partners
With the invaluable support of our funders and partners, the IDeAL has continued to grow by demonstrating resilience, delivering excellence in capacity building innovation, and effective grant and financial management. We are profoundly grateful to our funders for your support that enables us to conduct top-notch independent research, facilitate policy change, and foster positive transformations in Africa. Together, we envision a better future for Africa and its people.
