A total of 18 product development clinicians from 9 low- and middle-income countries have been awarded clinical research and development fellowships. These fellows are supported by TDR and scheduled to be placed with 10 host institutions by early 2016.
The Clinical Research and Development Fellows (CDF) are the first jointly selected applicants resulting from TDR’s agreement in 2014 with the EDCTP, the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, to harmonize and streamline two similar fellowship programmes. The EDCTP-supported fellowships will be announced early next year.
Meantime, the second round of applications is now open. The deadline for applications is 28 January 2016.
The TDR fellowship programme, which began in 1999, gives postgraduate fellows from hospitals, academic and research institutions the opportunity to spend 12 months working in the clinical department of a host pharmaceutical company, product development partnership or research institution.
The EDCTP-TDR partnership is designed to increase opportunities and efficiencies for scientists. This includes collecting applications centrally using the same process and forms with selections made from a wider pool of candidates. Applicant backgrounds are also shared with more pharmaceutical companies.
EDCTP funds fellows from sub-Saharan African countries only and will announce its awards in early 2016 after completing a two-stage application procedure.
TDR received US$ 6.7 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last year to expand the initiative and support its fellows. The programme currently has 22 partners, including 13 pharmaceutical companies, 7 Product Development Partnerships (PDPs) and 2 public research institutions.
A recent external review of the TDR-supported fellowships found it to have an impact on a broad range of factors, with ample future potential for continued growth and extension. Some 95% of survey respondents said they considered their skills and competencies in good clinical or laboratory practices “better” or “much better” at the end of the programme. To date, a total of 60 fellows have participated in the programme.