VALIDATE is excited to announce that we have been awarded a new UK Medical Research Council (MRC) grant, to enable us to continue our network activities until 2027!
The £2.4million grant, via MRC’s ISPF (International Science Partnership Fund) and Partnership Grant funding streams, will enable VALIDATE to continue to provide grants, events, and other opportunities to our members from 2024-2027. We will be opening several new grant calls over the next few months (members will be notified by email about all new calls), so watch this space!
Established in 2017, VALIDATE is an international network of researchers currently connecting over 660 members from 300 institutes across 75 countries (48 LMIC), all working together to accelerate vaccine development for three groups of complex neglected intracellular pathogens that cause significant mortality and morbidity throughout the world, particularly in LMICs: Mycobacteria (causing tuberculosis, leprosy and other diseases), Leishmania (causing leishmaniasis) and Burkholderia pseudomallei (causing melioidosis).
A second, important aim of the VALIDATE Network is to facilitate career progression for its members, particularly Early Career Researchers, and (recognising career progression inequity) researchers from LMICs and researchers identifying as female. The VALIDATE Network is led by Director Prof Helen McShane (University of Oxford, UK) and co-Director Prof Samantha Sampson (Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa), with Executive Manager & Co-Investigator Samantha Vermaak (University of Oxford, UK). Membership is free and open to all. We are proud that 46.2% of members are female (2.0% gender not stated; 51.8% male). 53.6% of our members are based in LMICs.
The VALIDATE Network and our various activities have so far facilitated over 100 new collaborations, produced 72 peer-reviewed publications, and attracted £16m in follow-on funding for VALIDATE and its members. We have funded four Fellowships, 30 pump-priming grants, 51 training grants, 55 travel grants, and connected 24 mentor-mentee relationships. We set up an Early Career Researcher Career Development Network (ECDN) for female post-doctoral VALIDATE members to support their career development. We have run 58 events (in-person and virtual, including Annual Meetings, workshops, seminars, Schools talks, and public talks), with >2,300 attendees from 71 countries (46 LMIC). We have grown our membership >20-fold from our 32 inaugural members. The VALIDATE website showcases some of our successes to date (www.validate-network.org/case-studies).