Call for Applications: Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM), 05/02

Deadline: 1 May 2002

The Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been privileged to host the Secretariat of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) for the last two years, following from The Wellcome Trust's stewardship of the MIM ending in 1999. When the MIM was initiated in 1997, the view on the Secretariat was that it would rotate among MIM partners at regular intervals in order to maintain the multilateral nature of MIM and to represent all MIM partners. This thinking was reconfirmed at the MIM Conference Executive Committee meeting in Paris on September 24, 2001. The current tenure of the MIM Secretariat at FIC will come to an end after the MIM Pan-African Conference in Arusha, Tanzania in November 2002. Therefore the decision regarding the transfer of the MIM Secretariat to the next organization should to be made by early summer to allow a sufficient transition period and to ensure that the next Secretariat is functional in early 2003. We would like to invite applications for the position of the next MIM Secretariat.

Selection of the Next MIM Secretariat

Voting Method

To ensure that the transfer of the Secretariat is conducted in a fair and transparent manner, a group of representatives will vote on the MIM Secretariat candidates. These representatives have been selected by the current Secretariat to represent the alliance of funding partners, scientific organizations, and research institutions that make up MIM. These representatives consist of an approximately equal number from funding partners in the North and from institutions in Africa conducting malaria research. These voting members were identified based on their significant and direct involvement with MIM, either through major support of conferences, workshops and initiatives or through in-country activities.

Candidates & Candidate Criteria

Applications can be made from an organization or agency in the North involved with malaria research, research funding and research capacity strengthening in malaria endemic countries, and from research institutions in Africa conducting malaria research. Applications have to be made on an institutional level. Applications can be made by an alliance of organizations and/or institutions. Candidates will be required to give details on the following: 1) Willingness and ability to support the Secretariat functions 2) Proposed activities to be carried out by the Secretariat over a 3 to
5 year period 3) Proposed budget for the Secretariat and its activities 4) Demonstrated ability to fund the Secretariat budget 5) Information regarding capacity to maintain the communications, in cluding easy email access 6) Demonstrate organization/institute/agency has good organizational
capacity 7) Demonstrate organization/institute/agency has strong scientific
capacity

Organizations without sufficient internal resources may apply and be selected if there is evidence of an external grant of support to cover the Secretariat functions for a minimum period of three full years.

Duties and Responsibilities of the MIM Secretariat

The new Secretariat will decide to what level they will fund Secretariat activities. It is expected that core support will be provided for administrative costs and salaries of personnel, the organization and financial support of one MIM Pan-African Conference, as well as support for raising funds from other sources. In addition to core functions, it is expected that the Secretariat will also support workshops, meetings and symposia to promote research and networking, and support the travel of developing country scientists to attend these. The duties and responsibilities are detailed in the Terms of Reference below.

Transfer of Duties

To aid the transfer of knowledge and enable the Secretariat to become functional as soon as possible after the transfer, it is recommended that there is a period of overlap with a coordinator from the newly elected Secretariat working with the current Secretariat for 2-5 months.

Transfer Procedure

The position of the Secretariat will be advertised in February 2002. Application deadline is 1 May 2002. The voting members will review the applications during May 2002. Votes will be cast at the end of May 2002. An announcement of the new Secretariat will be made early June 2002. Optimally, the new coordinator will join the Secretariat by August 2002. Transfer of the Secretariat is expected one month after the MIM Pan-African Conference i.e. at the end of December 2002.

The following is the Terms of Reference for the MIM Secretariat, which serves as a guideline for the functions that are required of the Secretariat:

The MIM Secretariat Terms of Reference

The MIM Secretariat maintains coherence, collaboration and communication among the different MIM activities, serves as the spokesperson for all MIM activities and raises support for MIM activities.

The Secretariat rotates among partners at a regular interval, approximately every two to three years as determined by the involved partners, to maintain the multilateral nature of MIM and to represent all MIM partners. Decisions regarding rotation will be made at a MIM Partners meeting with input from scientists in endemic countries in advance of each of the MIM Pan-African Malaria Research and Control Conferences.

Specific Functions of the MIM Secretariat include:

A) Fostering Communications with MIM Constituents, the Scientific Community, and the Public

1) Communicating MIM activities to all constituents through the MIM newsletter in English and French. Activities include the timely and regular production of the newsletter (currently produced four times a year), producing or soliciting the text from the MIM partners, formatting, printing and distribution of the newsletter.

2) Maintaining and updating the MIM web site in English and French.

3) Maintaining the MIM list serve, by email and fax, regularly providing information on the latest opportunities in research funding, training, job opportunities etc especially relevant to the African malaria research community.

4) To raise the profile of MIM by publicizing MIM activities, holding meetings and symposia, giving presentations at national and international meetings and conferences, producing publications addressing malaria research capacity development needs and gaps in malaria research, produce press releases, brochures etc of MIM activities.

B) Organizing and Conducting the MIM Pan-African Conferences

Organize and conduct a periodic international conference on malaria to bring world attention to malaria providing an important venue for scientists and control groups from all over Africa and the world to share information, to define new research needs, and to form collaborations. Each MIM Secretariat is responsible to provide financial support of one MIM Pan-African Conference and identify additional appropriate sources of funding to support the conference and to organize and conduct the conference on behalf of all the MIM partners. The MIM Secretariat identifies further support for a substantial number of scientists from Africa to attend the conference.

C) Garnering Support for MIM

To convene funders to raise support for various MIM activities, the parties responsible for the various MIM activities will be responsible for fund raising for those activities in conjunction with the Secretariat. The MIM Secretariat will also help in identifying new funding opportunities and partners for MIM.

D) Fostering Dialogues between Research and Control Communities

To work with partners to convene the research and control communities in meetings and conferences to engage the malaria research community and the control community to identify research needed for control. Identify gaps in research, set priorities, and develop strategies to support these activities.

E) Strengthen Research Capacity in Malaria-Endemic Regions

1) To engage the African malaria research community in the identification of research training needs and to develop training workshops and programs.

2) Support African scientists to travel to malaria research and training meetings, conferences and workshops organized by MIM.

Governance of MIM Activities MIM activities are carried out by four main components, the MIM Secretariat, the MIM research grants administrated by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization (MIM/TDR), the Malaria Research and Reference Reagent Resource Center (MR4), and MIMCom. The alliance is stimulating collaborative research to answer the needs of public health and malaria control programs, modernizing communications, and strengthening institutional research capacity and human resources where the need is greatest. The Secretariat provides cohesion between the MIM activities and ensures coordination through frequent exchange of information between various parts of MIM, joint workshops, and joint efforts to mobilize support for activities of each part. However, the MIM Secretariat does not govern the MIM/TDR, MR4 and MIMCom activities of MIM. The MIM Secretariat, MIM/TDR, MR4 and MIMCom activities each have a program director that governs the respective activities. MIMCom, MR4, and MIM/TDR are autonomous structures but linked to the overarching goals of the MIM. The transfer of the Secretariat does not affect structure and function of the MIM/TDR, MR4 and MIMCom. The MIM Secretariats have not had a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and this could be explored for future Secretariats. For now, the MIM Secretariat is represented at the annual MIM/TDR Task Force meetings and at monthly meetings of the MR4 and MIMCom administrators. MIM/TDR and the MR4 have their own SABs (called "Task Force" for the MIM/TDR) to decide their activities.

Budget of MIM Activities

The support for the functioning and activities of the present MIM Secretariat comes from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and specifically from the Fogarty International Center (FIC) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). This amounts to roughly US$ 420,000 per year, and is considered as part of the NIH contribution to MIM. When the MIM Secretariat was based at The Wellcome Trust, it was also financed solely through that organization, and The Wellcome Trust's support for the Secretariat was part of its contribution to MIM. Financial support of the next Secretariat would be expected to come from the host organization (or collective). The MIM Secretariat also attempts to raise financial support to co-fund workshops and other activities it organizes. The funds for the MR4 program are from NIAID at the NIH. Funds for MIMCom are from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the NIH and from the local recipient programs or their Northern sponsors. Funds for the MIM/TDR program are from a variety of sources - NIAID, the World Health Organization (TDR, AFRO, RBM), the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank and contributions from the governments of Norway and Japan. The MIM Secretariat helps convene funders to raise support for various MIM activities (such as MIM/TDR), but the parties responsible for the various MIM activities are responsible for fund raising for those activities in conjunction with the Secretariat. The MIM Secretariat also helps in identifying new funding opportunities and partners for MIM. The MIM Secretariat is fully responsible for funds related to effective functioning of the MIM Secretariat. Other programs such as MR4, MIM/TDR, and MIMCom, have a decentralized decision-making and fund-raising structure, but they all work to support broad goals of the MIM. All research grant decisions are made by the MIM/TDR Task Force. MR4 has a SAB to decide on workshop funding etc. The MIM Secretariat and MIMCom identify priorities and related funding decisions through broad but informal consultative mechanisms.

Please send your application to Dr. Andrea Egan MIM Coordinator mailto:egana@mail.nih.gov

by 1 May 2002. We strongly encourage you to discuss candidature requirements with Dr. Egan (Tel: + 1-301-402-6680) before submitting your application.

We look forward to hearing from the MIM Secretariat candidates!

Sincerely,

Dr. Gerald Keusch Director of the MIM Secretariat

-Andrea Egan, PhD Coordinator Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Fogarty International Center National Institutes of Health 31 Center Drive MSC 2220 Building 31, Room B2C39 Bethesda, MD 20892, USA Tel: +1-301-402-6680 Fax: +1-301-594-1211 mailto:egana@mail.nih.gov http://mim.nih.gov

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