Dear AMMnet,
Welcome to the April newsletter!
Please contact info@ammnet.org if you would like to contribute any items to next month’s newsletter!
Contents:
- Special announcements
- Jobs, workshops, conferences, and opportunities
- Working group announcements
- Board and committee announcements
- Seminar recap and recordings
- Special announcements
On May 2, the Board will host AMMnet’s first General Assembly!
During the last year AMMnet has grown from a small group of malaria modelers to a community of almost 350! To maintain this momentum and evolve AMMnet to better serve our community of malaria modelers, analysts, and partners, we continue to look for ways to improve and develop our global organization.
With feedback from you, our members, the Board has recently updated AMMnet’s organization and committee structure to help us better engage members and undertake the core mission of AMMnet: facilitating connections in this community and enabling us to learn from each other. This new organizational structure is described in full in the AMMnet Terms of Reference document, available in English, French, and Portuguese.
During the meeting, we’ll briefly review AMMnet activities to date, funding and award opportunities, and future plans. After this brief overview, we’ll lead a discussion around the Terms of Reference, after which we will hold a ratification vote. All AMMnet members are eligible to vote whether AMMnet should adopt this Terms of Reference. If you are unable to make it to the meeting, you still have an opportunity to vote, as we will send an email to all members with a link.
We look forward to seeing you there! This is a great opportunity to learn more about AMMnet, figure out how to get involved, and contribute to shaping the direction of this organization.
Join the Zoom meeting on May 2, 2023, 15:00 UTC/GMT.
AMMnet awardees to host local in-person AMMnet events: Thailand and Ghana!
Congratulations to AMMnet members Isaiah Agorinya, University of Health and Allied Sciences, School of Public Health in Ghana, and Sompob Saralamba, Mahidol University in Thailand, who are our most recent awardees:
- Ghana event: First AMMnet Ghana Chapter Meeting
- Thailand event: A Short Course on R Shiny for Malaria Modelers
This funding opportunity remains open! AMMnet would like to encourage the growth of regional AMMnet chapters and is looking to support small regional in-person AMMnet events such as meetings, conferences, or workshops. AMMnet will fund up to 10 regional events annually, each with a budget range of $500 to $3,000.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and in English, French, or Portuguese. More information and application instructions are available here: English, French, Portuguese.
Special Event and Seminar recordings are available if you missed them!
March 30th Recording of Geospatial Analysis and Spatial-temporal Modelling Webinar
If you missed the webinar showcasing the development, uptake, and adoption of geospatial analysis and spatial-temporal modelling tools and techniques, you may listen to the recording here. Featured speakers for this webinar included Toussaint Rouamba, Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro, Burkina Faso; Robert Zupko, Pennsylvania State University, USA; Tasmin Symons, Malaria Atlas Project, Telethon Kids Institute, Australia; and Amelia Bertozzi-Villa, Institute for Disease Modeling, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA.
April 4th Monthly Seminar Series Recording of Modeling Research in HIV
To listen to the seminar with guest speaker, Anna Bershteyn, Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU School of Medicine, you may find the recording in English here and French here. Anna spoke about her modeling research on HIV transmission dynamics and impact evaluation of biomedical and programmatic improvements to HIV care and prevention.
Join the AMMnet Slack workspace
If you haven’t joined the AMMnet slack workspace, join here! Many announcements, including job opportunities and upcoming events, are posted first on the Slack. This is also a great place to connect directly with other modelers!
- Jobs, workshops, conferences, and opportunities
Webinars
MIDAS Webinar Series
Friday, April 28, 12:00 – 1:00pm Eastern Daylight Time
Topic: The Planetary Child Health and Enterics Observatory (Plan-EO): A Research Initiative and Web-Based Dashboard for Mapping Enteric Infectious Diseases and their Risk Factors in LMICs
Speaker: Dr. Josh Colston
Register and/or find out more information here.
Workshops and Conferences
Save the Date & Call for Abstracts: AMMnet Pre-ASTMH Modeling Meeting October 17! We are thrilled to announce that AMMnet will hold an in-person 1-day meeting on October 17, 2023, in Chicago, USA, ahead of the ASTMH annual meeting. The AMMnet meeting will include talks, a poster session, small group discussions, and an evening social event. The scientific theme of the meeting is “Use of data in modeling.”
If you would like to submit an abstract for a talk or poster, please submit it here by May 1. You are welcome to submit the same abstract as for the ASTMH conference. In June, we will send notifications of abstract acceptance.
We plan to offer a few travel awards of up to $4,200 and will make an announcement when we have more information.
Look for more details to come in the coming months.
The Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) Symposium
Please save the date for the IDM Annual Symposium, which will be held May 22-24, 2023 at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Conference Center in Seattle, Washington. Registration opens soon!
AMMnet attendees and local AMMnet members are invited to an informal social event on the evening of May 24. Details to come!
Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute Conferences
Blood Stage Malaria Symposium: Staving Off the Firestorm
Event date: 25 April 2023
For more information, check the event website here.
2023 Baltimore Vector Encounter: Save the date
June 15th and June 16th, 2023
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
For more information, check the event website here.
AMMnet Repository for Modeling Workshops
AMMnet is planning to host a repository of past modeling workshops. If you would like more information or you have materials to contribute (such as syllabi or other materials), please reach out to info@ammnet.org.
Courses
Introduction to Mathematical Models of the Epidemiology & Control of Infectious Diseases: An interactive short course for professionals
11th – 22nd September 2023
Taught by leading researchers who advise policy-makers internationally. Topics include HIV, TB, malaria, Ebola, COVID-19, health economics, vaccination programmes, stochastic models & more.
Free Maths and Excel Refresher Day: 10th September 2023
Cost: £2250 before 1st June 2023, £2500 after.
Applications for 2023 are now open!
Find more information here.
Contact: Dr Lilith Whittles or Dr Clare McCormack
Email: infectiousdiseasemodels@imperial.ac.uk
Fellowship Opportunity
Global Computational & Data Science Fellowship for Master’s/PhD students
Eligibility:
- Either currently enrolled in a graduate program or accepted to begin in one no later than October 15
- Pursuing a graduate degree – Master’s, PhD, or equivalent – in computational or data science (although the formal name of the program may be somewhat different)
- Completed less than half of her/his planned program of study (with preference given to students who are still early in their studies)
- A woman and/or a member of a racial/ethnic group that is currently underrepresented in the computing field in the country where the student will earn the degree
Benefits:
- Annual stipend of $15,000 USD for remainder of degree (up to 4 years – award amount adjusted using national price level ratio if outside US)
- Paid travel to annual Supercomputing conference (“SC”)
Application (nomination from research advisor, CV, candidate statement, and 1 brief recommendation letter) due April 30th. Find more information here.
Grant Opportunities
Regional AMMnet Event Grant
We are thrilled to announce the first open funding opportunity for AMMnet members. AMMnet would like to encourage the growth of regional AMMnet chapters and is looking to support small regional in-person AMMnet events such as meetings, conferences, or workshops. AMMnet will fund up to 10 regional events annually, each with a budget range of $500 to $3,000.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and in English, French, or Portuguese. More information and application instructions are available here: English, French, Portuguese.
- Working group announcements
The Chemoprevention working group will kick off in the next few months! Please join the #chemoprevention channel on the AMMnet slack to participate. All with interest in chemoprevention are welcome!
- Board and committee announcements
AMMnet board
The board met on April 18.
Present: Manuela, Jaline, Shannon, Ida, Hannah, Caitlin, Cherlynn, Luc, Emmanuel, Emilie
Absent: Justin, Ousmane
Agenda:
- Welcome Ida Sagbo!
- Will manage Francophone AMMnet
- Francophone committee and Secretariat meeting scheduled for 4/27
- Finance Committee updates
- Met 4/13
- Current budget outlook
- Will share budget quarterly with Committee
- Board voted “Yea” to fund 4 pre-ASTMH AMMnet meeting travel awards
- Awardees to be decided by pre-ASTMH AMMnet meeting task force (includes flights, accommodation, registration for ASTMH)
- Board voted “Yea” to fund 7 AMMnet Africa meeting travel awards up to $2000 each
- Awardees to be decided by AMMnet Africa meeting task force (includes flights, accommodation, per diem; held Sept. 5-7)
- Board voted Yea to fund travel awards for LMIC Board members to travel to in-person Board meeting
- Finance Committee to finalize a number within $3000-$5000 each
- More discussion at next Board meeting
- Board voted “Yea” to add Board member Cherlynn Dumbara to the Finance Committee
- Terms of Reference
- Board voted “Yea” to approve Terms of Reference
- Secretariat will send Terms of Reference document in 3 languages to general membership today or tomorrow so members may review ahead of voting to adopt
- Secretariat is developing an agenda for May 2 General Assembly
- Francophone group will reach out to membership to encourage attendance
- Agenda to be refined and shared with Board, more details to be added
- Emilie will be in Kigali
- Committee structure
- ToR states at least one Board member per committee; Governance and Finance consist of Board members only. For Objectives Committees, a Board member can chair the committee but is not required to.
- Revisions to member assignment. Below: previous proposal
- Governance
- Caitlin, Emilie, Hannah, Luc, Jaline (Chair)
- Will revisit for discussion
- Existing or new Board members to be added
- Finance
- Hannah (Chair), Emilie, Jaline, Cherlynn
- Connections
- Caitlin (Chair), Cherlynn, Manuela
- Learning
- Emilie (Chair), Emmanuel, Justin
- Career Development
- Luc (Chair), Ousmane, Jaline
- Best Practices
- Manuela (Chair), Justin, Emilie
- Governance
- Committee restructuring is outlined as follows
- Training, Workshops -> Learning
- Data, Values -> Best practices
- Seminars, Social -> Connecting
- Francophone -> subgroup
- Membership -> secretariat/board
- Task Force list to redistribute current committee tasks and assign supervising Committees
- Committee chairs will add to this list and include all active task forces
- Chair of new Committees for Learning, Best practices, Career Dev, and Connecting
- Need at least an interim chair to set first meeting(s), draft Statement of Purpose, to act as contact person for Secretariat support
- Update website with new structure, Board members + brief bio, committees, chairs and their affiliation, former board members
- Board membership according to ToR
- Each member will be elected for 1 year and automatically renewed for 1 additional year if attendance criteria have been met. Board members can be re-elected with a maximum of 4 years of service allowed. Initially, term limits will be staggered such that no more than half the Board turns over within a 6-month period.
- Annual elections, plus special elections as needed
- Attendance criteria: The expectation is that Board members attend all Board meetings. Minimum attendance is two-thirds of meetings. Board members are expected to have a reasonable reason for missing a meeting and to provide adequate notice. If a meeting is missed, the Board member is expected to catch up by reading meeting minutes. If a Board member consistently is unable to attend Board meetings, they may be subject to removal from the Board at the 1-year mark or sooner if more than one-third of meetings have already been missed.
- Board membership recruitment
- Emphasize that early career can participate in Board
- Emphasize perks, travel awards, leadership opportunities
- Need strong LMIC representation
- Communicate need for both senior and junior leadership when recruiting/electing for the Board
- Continue discussion at next Board meeting
- Work together to write an effective solicitation email
- How much interest is there among the general membership to join the Board?
- Board members’ nominations
- Consistent seminar attendees, for example, are great candidates
- Demonstrates commitment and enthusiasm + likelihood to attend meetings
- Secretariat to investigate for historical attendance
- More discussion around Board election/nomination and criteria at next meeting
- Are any current Board members planning to cycle off before May 2024?
- None anticipated but will check on the board members who were not able to attend this meeting
- Board voted “Yea” to Board service to begin upon ratification of ToR, May 2023 at earliest.
- Board voted “Yea” to add a new Board member to take seat vacated by Tatiana
- More discussion at next board meeting
- Task Force updates
- Regional AMMnet events
- 5 Awarded
- AMMnet Africa 2023 task force updates
- 5-7th September, Kigali
- Task force to provide secretariat with a Save the Date communication to be sent to members
- Pre-ASTMH Modeling Meeting task force updates
- 17th October, Chicago
- Collecting abstract submissions
- Task force to send communication to members regarding travel awards
- Regional AMMnet events
- Previous committee updates, if any
- Membership: 336 members to date
- Seminars:
- Upcoming meetings:
- May 2: General Assembly on Terms of Reference
- June 6: Charles Wondji
- July 11: SMC Webinar (tentative)
- August 1: TBD
- Upcoming meetings:
- Social:
- LinkedIn: 215 followers
- Facebook: 118 followers (110 likes)
- Twitter: 620 followers
- Training:
- Working on a questionnaire to assess needs for training and training offers
- Looking for 5 AMMnet ambassadors to discuss with the 5 capacity strengthening grant challenges grantees
- Values:
- No updates to report
- Data:
- Get task force started for activities
- Francophone:
- See above
- Any other order(s) of business
- Seminar recap and recordings
Monthly Seminar Series: April 4th with Anna Bershteyn, Modeling Research in HIV
In our April AMMnet seminar, Anna Bershteyn from NYU Grossman School of Medicine joined us to share insights from the HIV Modelling Consortium that could be relevant to future AMMnet activities, structure, and approach. The HIV Modelling Consortium has a longer history than AMMnet – it has been active since 2010 – but it has many similarities to AMMnet in its goals of informing policy decision-making and supporting the development and implementation of mathematical modeling analysis. Anna described the evolution of the Consortium, including changes in membership and participation, progress in creating a more collaborative community, and future aspirations of moving away from a London-centric approach and of promoting capacity strengthening. Some of the Consortium’s key contributions to the HIV modeling field have been connecting modelers across different institutions and career stages, enabling multi-model comparisons to evaluate how robust policy advice is to model assumptions, connecting decision-makers with modelers that are well positioned to answer their questions, and organizing productive workshops, talks, and discussions. You may find the recording in English here and French here.