Africa Cancer Leaders Institute

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PROJECT SUMMARY The proposed renewal application for African Cancer Leaders Institute (ACLI) is a “meeting within a meeting” designed to coincide with conferences organized by the African Organization for Research Training In Cancer (AORTIC) conference, beginning with the forthcoming, “Cancer in Africa: Implementation, Workforce, and Opportunities” in Dakar, Senegal, November 3-8, 2023.The ACLI will identify early career researchers, especially women and individuals underrepresented in global cancer research who are capable of leading interdisciplinary teams to improve cancer treatment in Africa. The long-term goal of the ACLI is to provide an intellectually stimulating platform to propel emerging global cancer leaders from Africa and the US to receive support for innovative cancer research in Africa, and to stimulate an African network for emerging leaders in cancer research. The ACLI platform will have annual goals and objectives set by the Education and Research Sub- Committees of AORTIC in collaboration with the ACLI program Organizers. The ACLI will widely solicit competitive applications from aspiring leaders in Africa and the US. During the past funding cycle, three cohorts of ACLI participants (60 total) were recruited and participated in AORTIC Conferences in Durban in 2017, Maputo in 2019 and Senegal in 2022 during a mini-retreat for ACLI members and AORTIC Council Members at the 1st African Regional Cancer Conference (ARCC) planned and hosted by AORTIC Leadership in West Africa. Awardees from all cohorts were invited to participate and 21 attended in person. It was gratifying to note enthusiastic participation by investigators from West Africa, especially those from French and Portuguese speaking countries. Most of the ARCC lectures were given by ACLI participants and researchers working in Africa who reported having received 6 NIH and 5 foundation grants. ACLI participants were unanimous in endorsing the need for a regional conference every other year that will provide greater capacity building opportunities and more succinct leadership programing for ACLI. For this renewal application, 10 Emerging Leaders will be fully-funded for travel to attend the AORTIC conference and participate in ACLI activities. Five emerging Leaders from high-income countries with meritorious abstracts and application will be selected for Merit travel award in order to continue to forge professional relationships and foster peer mentorship. ACLI participants will mostly network in groups of 6-8 with conversations on specific topics facilitated by Faculty and attend scientific sessions. For peer mentoring, sessions will be arranged for ACLI participants to discuss and evaluate concepts presented at the conference to enhance learning and career development experience. Each new ACLI participant will be asked to prepare a brief 15-minute overview of career accomplishments and plans for their career development activities. We will continue to track a number of metrics including conference evaluations, career landmarks, publication records and the number of ACLI members who compete successfully for Africa focused NIH/NCI grants e.g K43, K07, K23, R21 etc.