Advancing Africa’s future in infectious disease research leadership
The SAHRI Fellowship Program is an exceptional 3-year training program designed to empower 12 talented mid-career biomedical and clinical researchers from sub-Saharan Africa to become leaders in biomedical innovation and clinical research addressing the urgent challenges of infectious diseases across the continent.
This fully-funded fellowship features three key phases:
- advanced academic training in a research-oriented Master of Science in Tropical Medicine,
- an internship at BioNTech, and hands-on placements at premier African research institutions
- a strategic return-home implementation phase
Program overview
- 12 Fellows
- 3 Years
- 60 ECTS
Academic phase: Includes the research-oriented master of science in tropical medicine at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (60 ECTS with flexible, modular structure) and the ‘systems thinking in biotech development’ training at KULeuven, Belgium.
Hands-on phase: This phase includes a training internship for 6 months at BioNTech headquarters in Mainz, Germany, and hands-on research experience at excelence research centres in sub-Saharan Africa.
Return-home phase: In the 3rd year, fellows implement a research project in their home country or region, advancing research and innovation, with sustainable impact within their home institutions and communities
Who Can Apply?
The SAHRI Fellowship Program is designed for mid-career African researchers. To be eligible, you must:
- Be a citizen of a sub-Saharan African country with plans to return and contribute to your home region
- Hold the necessary qualifications for admission to the Master of Science in Tropical Medicine at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp
- Match one of the 6 specialized internship profiles offered by BioNTech
The program will recruit 12 fellows in total, distributed across two consecutive cohorts, ensuring an open, fair, transparent, and gender-balanced selection process. Read below the detailed eligibility criteria.
Selection Criteria
The SAHRI Fellowship employs a rigorous, fair, and transparent selection process designed to ensure merit-based evaluation of all applicants.
SAHRI applicants will be selected based on the following criteria:
- Academic qualifications: Master’s degree (EU equivalent) in a biomedical or clinical discipline.
- Research experience: prior involvement in biomedical or clinical research, preferably on infectious diseases relevant to Africa.
- Professional profile: clear alignment with one of the two target groups (clinical/biomedical professionals or clinical/biomedical scientists).
- Institutional support: an Institutional endorsement letter from the home institution confirming support during the fellowship and the return home phase.
- Motivation: strong interest in health research, innovation, and entrepreneurship, with a demonstrated commitment to apply skills in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Potential for leadership: ability to contribute to capacity building and sustainable change in health research and innovation.
- Language skills: fluency in English (written and spoken); knowledge of French is considered an asset.
- Diversity: gender balance and regional representation will be taken into account, with women and candidates from underrepresented regions strongly encouraged to apply.
- Appropiate match with one of the internship positions offered by BioNTech
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