Pilot Project

The CAMRA Research Hub project is made up of a multidisciplinary team of scientists from Nigeria, Rwanda and the United States, and is focused on Africa, where bacterial infections are pervasive across all age-groups but medical facilities often lack appropriate microbiologic diagnostic services to ascertain the specific causes of these infections. In these settings, antibiotics are readily available without prescription, leaving individuals to solicit healthcare at commercial pharmacies, where antibiotics are dispensed indiscriminately and without diagnostic evaluations, leading to an increase in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Moreover, there is a dearth of reliable and actionable clinical, laboratory or genomic data to direct disease response efforts or ascertain the true prevalence of AMR.

Our CAMRA research hub will build and utilize a data science platform using bacterial genomics to track and characterize antimicrobial resistance in populations in Africa, to develop detection platforms for facile diagnosis of bacterial infections and to provide novel pathways for optimizing empiric use of antibiotics.

Specifically, our CAMRA Research hub focuses on three aims: 1). Comparative phenotypic and genotypic studies of archived and contemporary clinical isolates to inform trends in AMR and dynamics of transmission. 2) Incorporation of acute inflammatory markers of serious bacterial infection and gene products from resistant bacteria into a portable screening tool for clinical care and 3). Explore the potential benefit of an aminoglycoside (Tobramycin) conjugated to an antimicrobial peptide for enhanced bactericidal activity against multi-drug resistant enterobacteriales.

Program Description

The CAMRA research hub will implement pilot project sub-awards that will generally feed into the main goal of the hub and identify with the objectives of the DS-I Africa program. Each pilot project, while being short-term and to be completed within 12 calendar months, will be designed to harness data potential, build capacity and confidence of early investigators and enhance wider community participation in the CAMRA research activity. The entire cycle of the pilot projects will perfectly plug into the mainstream CAMRA financial and progress reporting.

CAMRA pursues unique diagnostic and software-based research end-products for bacterial infections across Africa. The pilot projects will be used to augment the scientific impact, data science application and social output and outcome dissemination of the hub research activities.

However, preference will be given to local African researchers and organizations. At least two potential meritorious pilot project sub-awards will be selected and developed.

Award Information

The Pilot Projects should be short and well-defined (reasonably completed in 9-12 months) with a budget of a maximum $25,000 USD each in total costs.  Applications are encouraged from PhD students and early career investigators based at academic institutions, biomedical research organizations, public health institutions and NGOs.

Applications for Pilot Projects will be required to have aims related to the overall objectives of the CAMRA Hub. These objectives include:

• Diagnostic tools for bacterial detection
• Software tools for analysis of bacterial genomes and identification of antimicrobial resistance markers
• Data visualization tools to track and/or model antimicrobial resistance dynamics across Nigeria, Rwanda and other African countries
• Antibiograms to guide administration of appropriate antibiotics
• Integrated databases for clinical tracking of bacterial infections across populations

How to Apply

• Complete an Pre-Application form
• This Pre-Application form includes the following information:
• Applicant Name
• Name of Affiliate Institution
• Name of faculty Co-Investigator (for applicants currently in PhD programs)
• Proposed duration and budget for Pilot Project
• Proposed start date
• Concept Note or Brief outline of proposed project (2000 characters max), including:
• Background/Significance; Specific Aims; Expected Outcome(s); and Relevance to CAMRA
• Submissions should also include an applicant CV or resume (and faculty co-investigator, if applicable) - each should be 3 pages max
• Full applications will be requested from selected applicants.
• For questions related to this funding opportunity, please email [email protected]

Additional Information

• The pre-application and full application should be submitted in English.
• Applicants should be affiliated with a formal institution, e.g. University, Institute, or Research Hub.
• Applications from PhD students must be supported by a faculty Co-Investigator.
• Applicants can submit more than one pre-application so long as the objectives are distinct.
• There is no eligibility limitation on the country of the applicant, however investigators from Africa and other LMICs are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Details on the requirements for full proposals will be provided to shortlisted applicants and will  generally expand on the information in the pre-application.
• Successful applicants will submit periodic progress reports over the life of the project.
• Awardees will become members/subawardees of the CAMRA Research Hub for the duration of the Pilot Project funding period, with the opportunity to continue membership after funding has ended.

To learn more about our CAMRA Research Hub, please visit our website camra.acegid.org or follow us on Twitter at @dsicamra.