What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
India Alliance’s main focus is to make science available to all through structured and intelligent investment of research and projects.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences) Working in the field of brand management, the role of digital media is now surpassing that of conventional media. With digital media and technology, the landscape changes everyday and so, the key is to avoid becoming obsolete by being adaptable and tuned in to continuous learning.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)? I get to network with a lot of astute individuals who support each other. Learning and growth is a healthy and enjoyable process as a team. We also get our work to be featured in a number of key events with influential people.

What is your favourite quote?
“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.” I heard that quote in a movie somewhere (I think it’s from Mulan).

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance (India Alliance) is an independent, dynamic public charity that funds research in health and biomedical sciences in India. India Alliance invests in transformative ideas and supportive research ecosystems to advance discovery and innovation to improve health and well-being.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)? I am currently working with my team to put together science communication workshops for researchers.

In the past, I have worked as a science communicator aboard a science exhibition train – The Science Express which reached millions of people in India. It was one of the most fulfilling career stints.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences) One challenge is to engage the public with the latest research happening in the biomedical and health ecosystem. Since most of the research are very complex, it is a challenge to explain it in laymen terms without diluting the essence.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?To connect public with researchers and vice versa so that both can learn from each other.

What is your favourite quote?
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – by Maya Angelou

Ms. Adama GUINDO from Mali, she has a licence degree in communication from Arabic university of sciences (Tunisia) and a Master degree in (Information, Documentation and Communication the digital Environments) from the “Ecole Supérieure de Professorat et de l’Education de Rouen (France) under the French Government scholarship. She was the communication Manager at Fanaday from 2014 to 2016.

Currently, she works as a communications officer at the Developing Excellence in Leadership and Genetics Training for Malaria Elimination in sub-Saharan Africa. Her job is to plan, develop and implement effective and efficient communication strategies. This experience is both a challenge, due to the implementation of the project in a multicultural environment, and a strong requirement linked to the project logic that demands immediate results without any existence in the structure.

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
Using innovative methods to develop research studies and actively propagate scientific citizenship.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)? Developing and implementing an edutainment participatory approach, in the form of a body mapping intervention and participation communication methodology, as an aid to addressing intra- and inter-personal conflict resolution in teenagers. The outcome of project was rewarding in how the teenagers responded positively.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences) Moving from face to face, to virtual interactions is at times proving limiting with some projects. It’s about adapting the logistics to effectively engage with the participants.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)? The opportunity to positively impact our communities, through engaging and educating them on their health and well being.

What is your favourite quote?
It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do – Jane Austen.

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at the University of Oxford is a collection of research groups permanently based in Oxford, Africa and in Asia. Aiming to tackle infectious diseases, from malaria, TB and HIV to neglected tropical diseases and emerging infections, our research ranges from clinical studies to behavioural sciences, with capacity building integral to all of our activities.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)? The most exciting project I have worked on is probably the set up and development of our podcast series on Translational Medicine. Podcasts are very powerful tools to showcase both the scientific project and the person behind the science, adding a face to a piece of research. Students looking for a supervisor or researchers about to embark on a collaborative project might like to know what a person looks like, how warmly they speak, how much enthusiasm they share about their passion. I started this project in 2010, and it is still going.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences) It can be quite a challenge to promote the research outcomes of about 200 researchers, when you are a one-person team working part-time. Requests coming in vastly exceed the time I can offer; setting up priorities and juggling with various levels of urgency is every day’s challenge, but the results can be immensely gratifying.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?Although I don’t work in a lab anymore (I returned my lab coat quite a few years ago), I enjoy knowing that our work does make a difference, in the lives of so many people; I like to think that those are the people who need the most that the scientific community invests time and resources to solve their most pressing problems. Researchers do all the hard work, but the job doesn’t stop when the paper is published, so much more needs to happen for a piece of research to reach the intended audience and get the impact it deserves.

What is your favourite quote?
I don’t have one

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
Conducting research in health to benefit health and to train the next generation of scientists.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Every Last Child campaign by Save the Children. This campaign advocated for rights of most vulnerable children living in remote areas in Malawi. This included advocacy for increased investment towards nutrition.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
COVID has made it difficult to conduct public and community engagement activities in the communities we work in.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?Working with a team that is dedicated and committed to the work.

What is your favourite quote?
“if you want happiness for an hour-take a nap. If you want happiness for a day -go fishing. If you want happiness for a year-inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime-help someone else”-Chinese proverb".

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
CARTA offers a well thought out approach to rebuild and to strengthen the capacity of African universities to produce world-class researchers, research leaders, and scholars. CARTA is a collaboration jointly led by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Kenya, and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
One of the most exciting campaigns I have undertaken in my career is a digital marketing campaign for CtGA. We devised a plan that saw more than 100000% increase in conversions, realized an increase in brand awareness, gained social media followers by the thousands (from 100- 300,000+), and improved our search engine optimization score by a wide margin. Seeing the numbers grow, and having a great return on investment was genuinely satisfying.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
The internet has made it easy to put out information, but it has also become crowded in the process. The clutter can be overwhelming, and the challenge for any communicator, not just myself, is choosing the correct pathways to target audiences, which is critical in ensuring that messages hit home.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Being a communicator, I am challenged and rewarded at the same time by the projects I undertake. I am most passionate about storytelling and more so of home-grown innovative solutions for local/African problems. In my current role I strive to develop a unique voice for CARTA and create and implement strategies that will further our goals.

What is your favourite quote?
“We carry within us the wonders we seek without us” ~ Thomas Browne

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The AAS’ vision is to see transformed lives on the African continent through science. Our tripartite mandate is recognising excellence through the AAS’ highly prestigious fellowship and award schemes, providing advisory and think tank functions for shaping Africa’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) strategies and policies, and implementing key STI programmes addressing Africa’s developmental challenges.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Learning to bridge the gap between science and communities is one of the exciting projects I have been involved in. I got to work with researchers and help them think through creative ways in which they can engage with the communities they work with to share their research findings .

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Communications is considered a support function that gets roped in at the end of a project. Most times projects have not adequately budgeted for communications, which limits the activities you can do to promote and create visibility on the finalised project.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Knowledge translation is the best part of science communication. Taking a technical report or journal article and packaging it into a simplified blog or animated video to reach a wider non-scientific audience.

What is your favourite quote?
“No matter how dark the cloud, there is always a thin, silver lining, and that is what we must look for. The silver lining will come, if not to us then to next generation or the generation after that. And maybe with that generation the lining will no longer be thin.” ― Wangari Maathai, Unbowed

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
A world-renowned health research unit of excellence based in Kenya.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Reviving the University engagement project at KEMRI-Wellcome is a project that excites me. The university engagement project is a project that seeks to enhance dialogue between researchers and university students across the country. The goal is to inform, educated and empower students to better understand health research and participate in discussions and activities around this.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Simplifying the research world to the lay public is not that simple but it is achievable

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Working with different publics, today It might be students, tomorrow it is media practitioners another day it may be policy makers. I enjoy working with all this groups of people.

What is your favourite quote?
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson.

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
Apart from funding research, at India Alliance we support as well as design and implement interventions that aim to strengthen the Indian research ecosystem, capacity building and professional skills programmes, and research management programmes. We support and anchor programmes that promote science communication, and public’s engagement with science and research in India.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Difficult to choose one: (i) Engaging with public to promote my PhD research work, at a performing art theatre (Program- Chai&Why) (ii) Explorer Series- a public-talk science series- to discuss a scientist’s journey—from chasing the unknown to the eureka moment.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
I am still trying to become more spontaneous at public events.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
When your audience understands a scientific concept and asks some relevant questions!

What is your favourite quote?
Science isn’t appreciated until it’s communicated!.

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
Our ten-year vision is to have local, regional and global impact on health by leading a locally driven research programme on infectious diseases in Southeast Asia.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
I’m currently working as a Communication Specialist for a LEAF study in Vietnam - the first ever challenge study in this country. The challenge for communication, therefore, is massive due to the sensitivity of the topic. However, it also opens many opportunities for us to set the foundation in years to come as we are the pioneers in Challenge study in this country.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)

• The challenge is that we do not have precedent experience with this study in Vietnam.
• Communication for Challenge study is also a recent subject globally.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?

• An opportunity to work on something novel.
• An opportunity to set up a foundation that can work in a long time.

What is your favourite quote?
Sorry, I can’t think of a favourite quote at the moment.

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?

HIC-Vac is an international network of researchers who are developing human infection challenge (HIC) studies to accelerate the development of vaccines against pathogens of high global impact.

By bringing together the brightest minds in the field, we want to speed up vaccine development and reduce the burden of some of the world's most crippling diseases by supporting human infection challenge studies. Our goal is to foster an engaged and interactive community of international researchers to promote open sharing of knowledge and expertise, generate new ideas, support and share best practice, and form new cross-discipline collaborations.

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) was established in 1979 as a research collaboration between Mahidol University (Thailand) and the University of Oxford (UK), and is core-funded by the Wellcome Trust. Our core activity is clinical research, including multi-site clinical trials on tropical diseases such as malaria, melioidosis, scrub typhus, and on maternal and child health. We also conduct laboratory studies, epidemiology studies, mathematical modelling, social and ethics research.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
I am one of the facilitators of the Bangkok Health Research and Ethics Group, which provides advice and feedback on various aspects of MORU research studies. It is exciting, as the group members bring their diverse perspectives to the table, and their valuable input helps us to shape our engagement and research approaches.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
I am based in the UK, which is 6-7 hours behind Thailand and South East Asia.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
I love working with researchers and non-expert audiences, and facilitating meaningful discussions between different groups.

What is your favourite quote?
“Feel the fear and do it anyway”.

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence in East Africa (THRiVE) Consortium is a collaborative research capacity building project that aims to implement high-quality scientific research training aimed at producing research leaders.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
This is still a work in progress. However, one that I intend to embark upon is an awareness campaign on THRiVE’s contribution to promoting women in Science.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Greatest challenge is limited funding for communications activities which limits implementation of budget heavy activities such as public dialogue series.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
I enjoy creating new information and materials from a vast array of science researchers that I into a simple narrative for non-scientists.

What is your favourite quote?
If humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts are fruitless.

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL), based at the KEMRI – Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya, is a high-quality training programme that aims to develop outstanding young African scientists into world-class research leaders.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
#Wezeshadada(Empower Girls) was one of the campaign that we conceptualised and secured funding to implement in low-income settlements in Kenya: Mathare, Mukuru, and Korogocho in Nairobi, and Kondele and Muhoroni in Kisumu. We worked with close to 100 girls training them on communication, media production and self-empowerment.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Communication has always been an afterthought in most projects yet essential in addressing the challenges we face in today’s society. Most communication projects remain underfunded and viewed as non-essential, impacting how effectively we communicate and engage considering the limited resources available.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Travelling is top of the list, but realising how communication and information transforms life and positively impacts on society is an entirely different experience.

What is your favourite quote?
“We are travellers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of Infinity. Life is Eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in Eternity.” Paulo Coelho

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
To conduct research to the highest international scientific and ethical standards on the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the region in order to provide the evidence base to improve health.

To train an internationally competitive cadre of Kenyan and African research leaders to ensure the long-term development of health research in Africa

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Implementing a one-year radio program that focused on stimulating dialogue around health research and health issues targeting audience around the Kenyan Coastal region.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Bridging the gap between research and media…building capacity within our researchers to effectively engage with the media on their research studies.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
After planning and coordinating media engagement, I sit back and listen to a radio program featuring my researcher engaging with listeners or reading an article by researcher, this is quite fulfilling!

What is your favourite quote?
If I cant find my box to tick, I will draw mine (This is my original quote)

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance is an independent, dynamic public charity that funds research in health and biomedical sciences in India. India Alliance invests in transformative ideas and supportive research ecosystems to advance discovery and innovation to improve health and well-being. India Alliance encourages diversity, inclusivity, and transparency in science and works to facilitate engagement of science with society.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Currently, I’m working on a multi-country public engagement project called Planet DIVOC-91. It's a 9-part digital comic for young adults, which provides an alternative, character-based narrative about a pandemic. The project is motivated to offer diverse perspectives on how to make sense of a pandemic. The project aims to empower young adults—whose voices have been marginal in the COVID-19 crisis—to be heard in current and future pandemic research and policy. It has been great learning and an exhilarating experience working with a diverse, young team.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
I’m often think about this question–Are we, through our efforts, ensuring communication from the public to science and from science to the public? Achieving this balance is a challenge that perhaps many of us face.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Every science communication and engagement project gives me the opportunity to learn something new and meet very interesting people. This is what I absolutely love about my job.

What is your favourite quote?
“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf.”― Rabindranath Tagore

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The Makerere University – Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) Centre of Excellence for Infection & Immunity Research and Training (MUII-plus) is a collaborative capacity-building programme supporting excellence in infection and immunity training.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
I received an award from the AAS and worked with colleagues to design and implement an interactive campaign to create awareness around SARS-CoV-2 infection and Prevention Control among vendors in markets in the Kampala Central Business District (CBD). It was exciting to see the enthusiasm, appreciation and understanding of the key scientific concepts around SARS-CoV-2 infection prevention and control and the subsequent ability to jointly development of messages that directly communicated to the target audiences.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Communications is usually considered as an afterthought and this is reflected in the time and budgets allocated to communication activities.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
My job gives me an opportunity to interact with scientists from various backgrounds and to understand what they are working on, which gives me access to a wide range of scientific information. Supporting researchers to share their work with diverse audiences, especially the non-science ones is also something that I enjoy about my job.

What is your favourite quote?
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it, keep looking. Don’t settle”. By Steve Jobs

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The Malaria Research Capacity Development Consortium (MARCAD) seeks to train a core group of African scientists in West and Central Africa who will be able to provide relevant answers for the control and elimination of malaria.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Being involve in the Urgent Community Development Program (PUDC) of the Senegal Government was very exciting. It allowed me to work close to specialist from several domains and backgrounds, for the development of our country.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Maintaining and strengthening the community and public engagement (CPE) and the good relationships with the policy-makers and with our partners.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
The opportunity it’s gives me to share my knowledge, gaining more skills and to widen my network.

What is your favourite quote?
“The more you try, the best you will do. Never give up” Kodou SENE

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
WACCBIP focuses on capacity building at master’s, PhD, and postdoctoral levels, and on research into infectious and non-communicable diseases.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Leading communication and executing brand management strategies for an annual breast cancer awareness initiative, ‘Nufu Festival’.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Mainly having to establish and run a whole communication function by myself and the general communication management challenge of everyone believing they can do my job.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
The rare opportunity to create impactful awareness about important scientific research, which otherwise would have little to no salience in mainstream media and the opportunity to build/influence brands in Science.

What is your favourite quote?
“We have nothing to lose but our chains. We have a continent to regain. We have freedom and human dignity to attain.” — Kwame Nkrumah

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
AHRI is a multidisciplinary research organisation focussing mostly on HIV and TB research.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
I cannot pinpoint one but I do enjoy projects that have to do with youth or community knowledge development.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
There is always that great idea, and then there are “everyday duties” that kill that great idea.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Working in a science environment means that there is always something new to learn, that’s exciting. Most of the people I work with and the communities I work in.

What is your favourite quote?
When I had something hard to do or ask of someone my grandmother would ask “Izoku’bulala?” (Will it kill you?), implying that, that’s the worst that could happen and if that won’t happen, might as well get on with it, try!

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
Conducting excellent science that to benefit health and training the next generation of scientists.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Science in Unusual Places Project: Increasing awareness and visibility and encouraging men to access treatment at formal hospitals.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Finding and networking with other science communicators within Malawi whom I can share experiences and learn.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Developing and implementing strategies to increase the visibility of Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme.

What is your favourite quote?
You are beautiful but learn to work for you cannot eat your beauty. – African Proverb.

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
SACAB aims to develop, strengthen and implement high quality biostatistics Masters training at the Lead and Partner Institutions, to provide PhD training to develop expertise, skills, and research leaders of biostatistics in Sub-Saharan Africa and to build a sustainable network of biostatisticians and statistically informed researchers within each country through outreach, mentoring and transferring skills, workshops and conferences. SSACAB also seeks to integrate with International Biostatistics Societies and National Statistical Societies to produce a cadre of internationally trained African biostatisticians.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
The most exciting project I have worked on in my career is the SSACAB project. I have had the privilege of working with a diverse group of people i.e. fellows, Principals Investigators and administrators from all over the continent to increase the number of biostatisticians through training and mentorship.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
The challenges I face in my role are threefold: firstly that I work in a male dominated environment and sometimes you have to request information several times and using various channels, email, SMS, calls, visits before getting the appropriate response. Secondly, in our programme we are geographically dispersed and in different time zones, it can be a challenge setting up meeting times. And lastly language differences also present a challenge in my role when dealing with non-English speaking people.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
What I enjoy most about my job is the opportunity to travel and network with different kind of professionals to improve the quality of work in my programme. I thoroughly enjoy bridging the gap between our various Partner and Research institutions. Our Programme is one of the biggest Consortium on the DELTAS Africa Platform and bringing everything and everyone together has been satisfying and enriching for my personal and professional life.

What is your favourite quote?
My favourite quote is from Mercedes Benz – the best or nothing. This quite reminds me to always do my best and always strive to be better than yesterday. It is a highly aspirational quote.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
As part of my comms portfolio, I lead OUCRU’s policy engagement programme. Our goal is to implement a cycle of continuous engagement with policy makers across all areas of our work – at both a strategic level and at the project or programme level. Because our vision is to have impact on health, and that our research programme should be locally-driven, we realise that we need to embed true engagement and consultation with policy makers across all areas of our programme, to ensure that our research is relevant, and our finding as accessible and communicated effectively with this important audience.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
In terms of my comms portfolio, the biggest challenge is that our audience is large and diverse. As a programme, we work across a number of countries, and have different audiences in each of those environments, so we need to make sure that we effectively communicate with all of those audiences, and in a way that suits them.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Communicating science effectively is extremely important for building trust between the scientific community, and other communities. One of the things I like most in that process is finding ways for the scientists I work with to really effectively listen to other communities, and to broker opportunities for true consultation. !

What is your favourite quote?
Find out who you are, and do it on purpose – Dolly Parton

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) is a pan African organisation with a vision of transforming lives on the African continent through science. The AAS recognises excellence, provides advisory and think tank and implements key science, technology and innovation programmes addressing Africa’s development. The Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), an initiative of the AAS, African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and global partners is shifting the centre of gravity for African science to Africa through agenda setting, mobilizing Research & Development (R&D) funding, and managing continent-wide Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) programmes.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
There has been many one is running a Ministry of Health campaign around TB following a nationwide survey this was fun, together with a team of communication professionals and partners we put together TV/Radio adverts, social media campaigns and a high profile event to mark the launch of the final report from the WHO and Global Fund supported exercise. At AESA, the communications team supports high level events from our partners as well as organising and hosting continent-wide events for our African scientific community.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
A challenge or a pet peeve? When scientists are not as equally excited about science communication, public engagement and unavailable to participate on media interviews whether TV, Radio or Print. Also, when scientists don’t build their brands as knowledge generators in whatever science area they specialise in and get involved on conversations on social media.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
I am a scientist at the core and a creative as well, being able to communicate science in fun innovative ways, whether on social media, media, through science cafés, engaging policy makers, using arts and theatre, videos etc being enabled to do these fun activities that’s what I love the most about my job and science communication

What is your favourite quote?
Go big or go home… These two from Maya Angelou speak to my core: "My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style." "Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently."

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
MORU (Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, University of Oxford) is a Bangkok-headquartered multinational network of clinical and laboratory research units and collaborating sites in 11 Asian and 9 African countries. We seek practical ways to prevent and treat infectious diseases and improve the health of the tropical rural poor. We study infectious diseases such as malaria, melioidosis, scrub and murine typhus, CNS infections, critical care medicine, maternal and child health, childhood pneumonia, and COVID-19.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
The launch 21 May 2020 of COPCOV, the MORU-led global study to test if either chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine can prevent COVID-19 in vital frontline healthcare workers, followed 5 days later by the UK regulator MHRA suspending the study after a paper by Mehra et in The Lancet said that hydroxychloroquine increased risk of death in Covid patients. The WHO also suspended its global studies of hydroxychloroquine. Over the next several weeks, working closely with colleagues who determined that The Lancet and another paper in the NEJM used fraudulent data from a little-known company, Surgisphere. Our coordinated campaign engage international media including the NYT, STAT, The Scientist and led to both papers being retracted on 4 June. Sadly, it took the UK MHRA until 26 June to allow COPCOV UK to resume participant enrolment. Our COPCOV study has yet to recover from those fraudulent papers. We’ve enrolled <200 participants of the 40,000 we hoped for. We’ve just now begun in Pakistan, with Indenesia, Nepal and Kenya soon to come. And still, we struggle on!

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Not enough hours in the day to take on all the projects I could. MORU’s work is so varied and interesting, and I only work 10 days/month.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
The opportunity to learn every day from smart, curious, caring and engaged younger colleagues, friends and family.

What is your favourite quote?
“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ― Thomas A. Edison
The future depends on what we do in the present. Mahatma Ghandi

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
We focus on building the capacity for future research leaders in East and Central Africa.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
I worked with a NGO to develop a grant application from inception to completion. I identified the needs of the program which I aligned to the requirements of the request for call for applications.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Institutional bureaucracies that slow down the pace of implementation of grants.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Finding solutions to complex research management and administration challenges faced by researchers as they implement their research.

What is your favourite quote?
“We become what we think” E. Nightingale

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The focus of Afrique One–ASPIRE (2016-2021) is on endemic zoonotic diseases (diseases that are transmissible between animals and humans) through capacity building. Its aspiration is to harness the unique societal drivers of Africa to build a world-leading Pan-African research capacity in One Health science.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
The world rabies campaign 2018 was the most exciting campaign I have worked on. After getting important data about rabies burden in Ivory Coast, the challenges were to make them well known by political leaders so that they take a strategic decision for rabies elimination. The decisions were taken. Yes!

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
At the beginning, the main challenges I faced was to convince some of my scientists’ collaborators about the importance of communicating science by themselves.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
Learning, challenges and networking

What is your favourite quote?
Think Big and Give your best

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) was created in 2015 through a partnership of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), the founding and funding global partners, and through a resolution of the summit of African Union Heads of Governments.
The mission of AESA is to shift the centre of gravity for African science to Africa through agenda setting, mobilizing Research & Development (R&D) funding, and managing continent-wide Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) programmes that promote the brightest minds, strengthening the best possible science environments in Africa, fostering scientific excellence, inspiring and mentoring emerging research leaders, and accelerating and translating research & innovations into products, policies and practices that will improve and transform lives in Africa.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
Currently would be the development of a science communication training manual

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
There are many competing priorities and not enough resources.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
The opportunity to work with people from different fields.

What is your favourite quote?
Everything will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright, it’s not the end- Hotel Marigold

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The programme began by largely focusing on Malaria. Over the years, the research activities at the programme have grown to focus on addressing key local health priorities including respiratory diseases, malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS, and new and emerging health issues. The programme adopts a comprehensive approach to conducting research around focusing on the basic biology, clinical descriptions and intervention, epidemiology, social and behavioural sciences and health systems ethics and policy.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
I strongly believe that encouraging ownership of communication processes and creating a culture of accountability is more value adding and sustainable than imposing policies. With my experience in science communication, I invested in, initiated and provided pragmatic solutions to researchers to grow their own communication skills, through training and developing self-assisted manuals. This has enabled them reach out to their own networks through social media, traditional media (Electronic and print), Policy engagement and community engagement. This has also guaranteed that our researchers value communication as a key support element of the research process. I now believe that I have created and developed reliable champions in the communication value chain.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
One of the biggest challenges I have faced is changing attitudes of those colleagues who have had bad experiences in an engagement exercise.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
The change journey resulting from by the engagement initiatives we develop and implement as a communication team, and experiences of satisfaction or criticism shared by the community/public member or researcher after every of these activities.

What is your favourite quote?
“Truth has become such a rare commodity”

What is your organisation's focus (in one or two sentences)?
The African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI) aims to equip researchers to lead high quality mental health research programmes that meet the needs of their countries, and to establish a sustainable career path for these researchers.

Tell us about one of the most exciting projects/campaigns you’ve worked on in your career (in one or two sentences)?
In 2020 I was awarded an AAS COVID-19 Community and Public Engagement (CPE) grant in which I used radio to engage, raise and promote mental wellbeing in Zimbabwe during COVID-19 period.

What challenges do you face in your role? (in one or two sentences)
Currently our AMARI consortium has four countries, and our communication strategy cannot be a one size fits all, it has to be specific to each context/ country.

What do you enjoy most about your job (in one or two sentences)?
The networking opportunities which comes with learning and growth.

What is your favourite quote?
“For with God nothing will be impossible” – Luke 1 vs 37.