NIH Fogarty Administrators’ Meeting in Grenada
Kathryn Wood, CIDRI-Africa’s Centre Operations Manager, attended the NIH Fogarty Administrators’ meeting in Grenada, West Indies, from 7th to 9th May 2018, in her role as the administrator for the HIV-associated TB Training Program.
The meeting was held to update Fogarty award administrators on NIH Fogarty guidelines and to facilitate discussions and collaborations between administrators of these awards in low and middle income countries. The meeting was held at St George’s University in Grenada, a beautifully situated university on True Blue Bay surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
The meeting was hosted by Randall Waechter, a Fogarty grantee, who is also the Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Director of Research as well as the Grants Administrator of the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF) at St Georges University.
Most of the delegates were from the United States universities such as Clarkson University, Northwestern University, University of Nebraska, Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health and Johns Hopkins University. UCT was represented by two delegates, Kathryn from CIDRI-Africa and Jenna Oosthuizen from the Division of Haematology. Presentations included the experiences from the Caribbean research groups, tracking grant activities, lessons from the Zambia Training Program, dealing with US visas for overseas trainees, program evaluations from the BJMC/John Hopkins India award, as well as guidelines updates from Kasima Garst, Grants Management Specialist from Fogarty International Center, via conference call.
As recipients of a new D43 training program, this meeting of the Fogarty administrators was very helpful in understanding Fogarty program requirements and established connections with other experienced administrators.