AREF Excell Malaria Researcher & Leadership Development Programme 2025for African Researchers

AREF’s Excell malaria programme will enable 18 individual researchers from three participating institutions to build strong research careers, empower excellent teams, win research funds, work collaboratively, engage with research users – and so make an even bigger impact on improving health and saving lives. We will support partner institutions to embed structural changes that will enhance their long-term ability to support emerging health research leaders, with up to 50,000 USD over two years available to support proposed capacity-building projects.

• Table of Content
• About Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF)
• AREF Excell Malaria Researcher & Leadership Development Programme
• Requirements for AREF Excell Malaria Researcher & Leadership Development Programme Qualification
• Interview date, Process and Venue for AREF Excell Malaria Researcher & Leadership Development Programme
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF)

The Africa Research Excellence Fund aims to improve the quality and impact of health research in Africa by nurturing talented, emerging researchers to do the best health research in Africa, for Africa. We want to grow the community of African researchers who lead and partner excellent, collaborative health research that benefits patients, populations, policy makers and practitioners throughout the region and globally. You can be part of our vision and help us achieve it. Please read more about our programmes and how you can get involved:... continue reading

AREF Excell Malaria Researcher & Leadership Development Programme

Requirements for AREF Excell Malaria Researcher & Leadership Development Programme Qualification

• An employee of an African institution with a significant and specific role in Malaria research. 
• A national of an African state 
• 2-8 full years of active post-PhD research experience; or a clinician without a PhD with both an MD and research master’s and 4-8 years of active research experience. 
• Not already having participated in previous Excell programme.  
• AREF is keen to recruit talented researchers focusing on malaria research from a broad range of approaches, including laboratory, clinical, behavioural, social, public health, health systems, and environmental and mathematical sciences. Their research must be directed towards achieving better health outcomes in Africa and show alignment with their national Malaria research strategy, where applicable. 

Interview date, Process and Venue for AREF Excell Malaria Researcher & Leadership Development Programme

Programme outline 

In the two years from January 2026 to January 2028, the programme will include: 

• Opening and closing conferences  
• Project funding up to 50,000 USD to embed policy and practice 
• Three experiential workshops  
• Coaching and mentorship for institutional leads 
• Supplementary webinars and on-line resources 
• Monitoring and Evaluation of projects to include baseline and end-of-programme assessments 
• Collaborative projects and networking 

Check also:
Tony Elumelu Foundation African Entrepreneurship Programme 2026

Application Deadline

How to Apply

For more details, visit AREF Programme webpage