The research community tackling Global Health challenges is truly international in outlook. One Planet! Do we value our scientists? After committing years to honing their skills to the utmost, highly talented and capable early-career researchers are then expected to work on projects funded in the short term, with little or no financial stability in prospect. Certainly not enough to establish a home or support a family. Little wonder that many leave research to take up more stable and better paid employment in industry.
‘Many excellent scientists leave academic research because of the lack of stability and the continuous pressure.’ Prof. Sarah Gilbert, Vaxxers.
” I was just guessing at numbers and figures, Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress……..
..Nobody said it was easy. No one ever said it would be so hard” Coldplay – The Scientist
It’s in our interests to attract the best talents to the demanding work of pursuing this disease and others. We would do well by offering them better long-term career prospects. Reward? It would take the resources of Bill Gates to plug the financing gap. Recognition? We aren’t offering a Nobel Prize. But we can at least make it clear that their efforts are appreciated. The annual Paul Bedingfield prize helps the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to recognise and reward early career drug discovery/ development researchers.
2023 awards:
Daire Cantillon (TDB, PDRA):
“Galleria melonella: a novel look to model in vivo bacterial infections”
Zachary Stavrou-Dowd (VB, Research Technician):
“Drosophila Genetics and Genomics: A Practical Course”
2024 awards:
Dr Claire Caygill (Tropical Disease Biology)
Training in advanced techniques in maths and computing for use in interdisciplinary bioresearch and advanced organ-on-a-chip models.
Dr Stephanie French (Tropical Disease Biology)
A course on: ‘Proteomics Bioinformatics’ at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute.
Dr Tilly Fox (Clinical Sciences) “Training for realist reviews of complex healthcare interventions.” More details here.
2025 awards:
Esther Picton-Barlow
Training at Birmingham Uni. in the use of computational methods in the analysis of bacterial DNA
Isabel Gullic and Tara Joseph
Placement at Glasgow Uni. Centre for Virus Research; training by Dr. Emilie Pondeville in the infection of mosquitoes with viruses
Ashley Hall
A course in next generation sequencing bioinformatics at the European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge.
Dr Calmes Ursain Bouaka Tsakeng
Training at the Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, in the analysis of genetic data from vectors such as the Tsetsi fly, carrier of ‘Sleeping Sickness’.