Training Africans to Lead and Execute Neurological Trials & Studies (TALENTS)

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PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Africa faces a growing burden of non-communicable diseases as the fastest growing cause of morbidity and mortality, many of which are neurological disorders. Clinical studies are the foundation advancements in medicine allowing scientists to test the efficacy and safety of a drug, therapy or strategy; and clinical neuroscience research holds great promise to help mitigate the toll of neurological disease. However, the studies that lead to discovery of causal /risk factors & drugs/interventions rarely emanate from African populations, which bear a major brunt of neurological diseases. With the rise of precision medicine utilizing tailored interventions, lack of race-ethnic diversity in generating evidence-based treatments can be a challenge if people of African ancestry are to truly benefit from these targeted therapies. One way to bolster the limited pool of researchers in Africa conducting neurological research and trials is to expose select individuals to coordinated education, training, mentoring, & networking opportunities, thereby raising their odds of becoming successful clinical researchers, thus creating a cadre of people on the continent making academic contributions to the overall field of neurological diseases, including those conditions endemic to Africa. The goal of the Training Africans to Lead and Execute Neurological Trials & Studies (TALENTS) program, is to build sustainable neurological research capacity in Africa through partnerships between US and African organizations. Six scholars will be accepted into the program each year and exposed to educational, mentoring, & networking activities. TALENTS Specific Aims are: 1) To select & retain 24 promising multidisciplinary scholars from a cross-national pool) committed to careers in neurological research; 2) To increase scholars' scientific knowledge, professional skills, motivation, & credentials, in neurological research (Certificate Program, Master’s degree in Clinical Research, Think Tank Sessions, and Scientific Conference events); 3) To enhance mentoring benefits and networking opportunities for Scholars (congruent one-on-one mentoring approach and online networking activities); 4) By end of the grant period to create an independent Master’s degree in Neurological Research at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, with several member of the faculty being recent TALENTS trainees; 5) To evaluate the effectiveness of the Program. We anticipate that TALENTS will establish a sustainable network of individuals with expertise in neurological research poised to assume leadership and academic faculty roles in Africa, and able to mentor successive generations of locally well-trained and successful neurological researchers in the region.