The gnatwork: building capacity for research on neglected tropical vectors

该网络应对的病媒传播疾病挑战是开发多学科技术，可用于研究三个被忽视的病媒群体：蠓、白蛉和黑蝇。这些群体负责在世界范围内传播国际重要病原体，并对接受联合王国官方发展援助的国家产生不成比例的影响。目前，研究蠓、白蛉和黑蝇的群落之间几乎不存在交流，原因多种多样，主要与每个群体传播的病原体类型和致病宿主的差异有关。然而，所有这些吸血昆虫的研究中最重要的瓶颈是它们的体型小。这对从行为生态学到基因组学的广泛研究领域施加了限制，并且由于他们被认为难以成为受试者而经常排除招募新工作人员。再加上作为病原体研究内在因素的资金波动，这对留住足够数量的研究人员构成了重大挑战，特别是在医疗和兽医优先事项迅速变化的国家。通过将研究与发展相关的两个国家的工作人员聚集在一起，我们可以在翻译所有三个病媒群体的技术方面取得重大进展，并为这些群体建立一个更有弹性的研究基地。网络管理委员会包括公认的、成熟的蚊虫、白蛉和黑蝇专家以及性别均衡的早期职业研究人员。我们将首先在孟加拉国和巴西开展该项目，那里现有的工人社区仍然完全分离。因此，我们为巴西和孟加拉国征聘了管理领导，他们将与主任和共同主任合作，通过项目会议将工作人员聚集在一起。在这些会议上，我们将利用研讨会来培训学生和早期职业研究人员，以务实的方法建立足够的专业知识基线，以改善工作实践。我们认为可以显着改进的领域是实验设计，昆虫区系分类和实际的野外工作项目。我们还着重于流行病学技术，包括空间和时间层面的监测数据的分析之间的群体共享的相似性。作为该网络的一部分，我们还将在两个电话中资助六个催化剂项目，金额高达10万英镑。这些项目的目的是提供经过验证的方法，以便在这三个病媒群体中使用并有可能推广到其他群体。在这些项目中，将明确强调迅速向尽可能广泛的社区提供数据，目的是支持更大的协作应用程序。将要求每项研究至少有一部分在巴西或孟加拉国或这两个国家进行。发展南南关系将是该项目的一个特点，因为在这两个国家研究这些病媒群落的社区目前的合作渠道很少，在实地开展研究时面临类似的后勤问题。将鼓励在这些研究项目中使用学生和早期职业研究人员，每个人都将在网络网站上有很高的知名度，以提高职业前景。

The vector-borne disease challenge this network addresses is to develop multidisciplinary techniques that can be used in research across three neglected vector groups: biting midges, sandflies and blackflies. These groups are responsible for the transmission of internationally important pathogens worldwide and disproportionately impact upon countries receiving official development assistance from the UK. At present, communication between communities studying midges, sandflies and blackflies is almost non-existent for a wide variety of reasons, mostly associated with differences in the type of pathogens each group transmits and the host in which they cause disease. The single most important bottleneck shared in research of all these haematophagous insects, however, is their small body size. This imposes constraints on a vast range of research areas from behavioural ecology to genomics and often precludes recruitment of new workers due to their perceived difficulty as subjects. When combined with fluctuations in funding that are an intrinsic factor in pathogen research this creates a significant challenge in retaining a critical mass of researchers, particularly in countries where medical and veterinary priorities change rapidly. By bringing together workers in two countries where research is relevant to development, we can make significant progress in translating techniques across all three vector groups and build a more resilient research base for these groups.The network management board contains acknowledged and established experts on biting midges, sandflies and blackflies and early career researchers with an equal gender balance. We will initially base the project in Bangladesh and Brazil where there are existing communities of workers on all three groups that remain entirely disconnected. We have therefore recruited management leads for both Brazil and Bangladesh who will work with the Director and co-Director to bring together workers through project meetings. At these meetings, we will use workshops to train students and early career researchers with a pragmatic approach in establishing a sufficient baseline of expertise to improve working practices. Areas that we feel can be significantly improved are in experimental design, taxonomy of insect fauna and practical fieldwork projects. We have also focussed on epidemiological techniques that share similarities between the groups including the analysis of surveillance data on spatial and temporal levels. As part of the network, we will also fund six catalyst projects of up to £100k across two calls. The aim of these projects will be to provide validated approaches for techniques that can be used across the three vector groups and potentially extended to others. There will be a clear emphasis during these projects in providing data quickly to as broad a proportion of the community as possible as the aim is to underpin larger collaborative applications. There will be a requirement for at least a proportion of each study to be conducted in either Brazil, or Bangladesh, or both countries. The development of south-south relationships will be a feature of the project as communities studying these vector communities in the two countries have few current lines of collaboration and face similar logistical issues in implementing research in the field. The use of students and early career researchers in these research projects will be encouraged and each will have a high profile on the network website to enhance career prospects.