IDM-Africa

The challenge

Mathematical modelling is an increasingly important aspect of infectious disease control. Models have a wide range of uses, providing a way to anticipate likely future disease trends and to assess the potential impact of different intervention strategies. Modelling can therefore inform decision-making, helping to identify where activities should be focused and which disease control strategies are likely to be most effective and cost-effective.

Unfortunately, the capacity for infectious disease modelling is limited in most sub-Saharan African countries. Without modelling specialists, countries are limited in their ability to generate accurate forecasts, assess the potential impacts of interventions or disease control strategies, and implement evidence-based public health policies.

The project

The IDM-AFRICA project is addressing these key skills gaps by creating a new training programme for modellers, in partnership with the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and EU institutions with long-standing expertise in this area.

The project plans to train 47 early- to mid-career researchers through workshop training and a structured one-year fellowship programme that combines a strong theoretical foundation with practical application. At least five training sites will be established to support the initial training of 35 researchers at intensive workshops, with a further 12 more advanced researchers completing a fellowship programme.

Five regional workshops will be organised, with pre-workshop preparatory sessions and pre- and post-workshop assessments to track learning outcomes. The workshops will be rooted in the analysis of real-world datasets to emphasise application to practical challenges.

The advanced fellows will also work with genuine datasets related to local public health priorities as part of more intensive modelling projects embedded within their fellowships. They will be expected to generate policy outputs and academic papers, and will undertake a one-month placement during which they will receive intensive mentoring. The project will ensure good gender balance among fellows and recruit at least five students from French-speaking countries. 

Five annual policy workshops will be organised in partnership with the Africa CDC and the ministries of health. Fellows will be expected to generate at least 12 policy briefs, which will be disseminated in at least five countries, helping to build policy literacy among fellows. 

Impact

The IDM-AFRICA project is making a major contribution to the strengthening of infectious disease modelling capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. It will:

• Provide initial training to a group of early-career researchers, providing an entry point into more extensive use of modelling techniques.
• Train a cohort of researchers in advanced modelling with a focus on practical application to address public health priorities.
• Generate analyses of direct relevance to regional health challenges.

Strengthening modelling capacity will ensure that more researchers have the skills required to analyse health and other data and to generate outputs that enable policymakers to optimise programme design and implementation.