Welcome to the June newsletter! 

Please contact info@ammnet.org if you would like to contribute any items to next month’s newsletter!

Contents:

1. Special announcements
2. Jobs and grant opportunities 
3. Workshops and conferences 
4. Courses and learning opportunities
5. Working group announcements
6. Seminar recap and recordings
7. Board meeting summary and committee announcements

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1. Special announcements

Travel Awards for October 2023 AMMnet and ASTMH meetings: Congratulations to the awardees!
Congratulations William Kuipou, Vusi Magagula, Zahraa Mohamed, and Carmène Sandra Ngadjeu! These four AMMnet members were selected to receive funding support to attend the ASTMH conference and the pre-ASTMH AMMnet meeting in Chicago, USA, October 17-22, 2023. Thank you to everyone who applied, we received so many strong applications and hope to fund you next time!

AMMnet Special Event: SMC M&E Webinar July 25
Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention Monitoring & Evaluation Webinar: Modeling SMC in the context of national malaria strategic planning and Global Fund applications

Co-hosted by the SMC Alliance Monitoring & Evaluation subgroup and the Applied Malaria Modeling Network (AMMnet)

Date: July 25
Time: 14:00 UTC
Registration: Register at this link

Includes live interpretation in French

This webinar will discuss how national malaria control programs (NMCPs) approach SMC during their subnational intervention planning process, national malaria strategic plan development, and resource mobilization plans from the Global Fund and others. Mathematical modeling is increasingly being used to inform these discussions, including providing impact estimates of adding cycles, expanding the eligible age range, and expanding to new districts.

AMMnet Committee and Task Force Membership
We are restructuring our Committees after the Terms of Reference approval in May. Our new Committees are: Connecting, Learning, Career Development, and Best Practices. Look for an email to come soon to recruit AMMnet members to actively participate in AMMnet Committees and Task Forces!

AMMnet Board elections
Thank you to everyone who applied to join the Board! We received 20 applications. The Governance Committee will select 6 candidates for election by all AMMnet members. Look for the election announcement by email in the next week.

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!

2. Jobs and grant opportunities

Two open epidemiologist positions at Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)

• A senior research associate position based in Laos (or other countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region) The individual will be responsible for managing a small team of junior epidemiologists and driving the agenda for malaria elimination in the region. More information can be found here.

• A research associate position based in West Africa (Burkina Faso or other countries in the region Benin or Senegal). French fluency and strong analytical skills required. More information can be found here.

MAP Perth has two open postdoctoral positions! 
We are soliciting expressions of interest for 2 postdoctoral positions shortly to be advertised by the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP), based in Perth, Western Australia at Telethon Kids Institute. These roles will be focussed on developing new modelling approaches – both statistical and mathematical – to better understand geographic variations in malaria risk and intervention impacts.  You will be working on a dedicated geospatial modelling research team led by Dr Tasmin Symons (tasmin.symons@telethonkids.org.au), extending MAP’s existing modelling frameworks to answer urgent questions in malaria control (e.g. around the optimal use of interventions), as well as designing new approaches addressing long-standing open questions (e.g. what is the role of the changing human environment in Africa in observed trends in malaria?). 

You should apply if 

• You have (or are about to receive) a PhD in mathematics or statistics, or another similarly quantitative field 

• You have demonstrable skills in (at least one) field relevant to mathematical and/or statistical disease modelling – spatial statistics, Gaussian processes, ODEs/PDEs, time-series analysis, and/or related topics 

• You have programming skills in at least one of R or Python (or similar) 

• You’d like to live in Australia’s sunniest city (we can discuss visa sponsorship – MAP is a very diverse group, and most of the team is from overseas) 

Please send a short CV and cover note to tasmin.symons@telethonkids.org.au and copy natasha.stretton@telethonkids.org.au – we’ll be in touch with how to apply formally once the positions officially open for applications around the end of June. 

Postdoctoral Research Fellowships at York University, Toronto, Canada: Three open positions that can begin as early as June 1, 2023 
Looking for applicants with strong research skills and experience in one of the three thematic areas: 

• Artificial Intelligence for Infectious Disease Prediction, Geospatial Analysis and Risk map assessment, GIS AI
• The STI impacts of one-health mathematical modelling approach to Mpox and (re)emerging zoonotic threats
• Clinical public health infectious epidemiology and modelling

This research is chaired by Woldegebriel Assefa Woldegerima and is sponsored by a research grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). The successful candidates will have the opportunity to be co-supervised by Sarah Flicker, Ali Asgary, Jianhong Wu, Jude Kong, James Orbinski and Nicola Bragazzi.

For more information and to apply, visit the link here. 

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.

3. Workshops, webinars and conferences

Western States (USA) Modeling Symposium – Accepting Abstracts
We invite abstract submissions for the 2nd Annual Western States Modeling Symposium, to be held virtually on September 12–14, 2023. The symposium is a venue for public health modelers, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, and other data scientists who work in Western States (AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, OR, NV, WA) to share modeling projects and insights relevant to applied public health. This year, we are inviting talks on public health modeling of infectious diseases (respiratory viruses, vector-borne diseases, enteric diseases, sexually transmitted infections, etc.) as well as opioid overdoses, climate impacts, and economic trade-offs, among other potential topics. Academics working in collaboration with public health departments are welcome to submit.

Presentations will be assigned as either:

• A 12-minute presentation (with 3 minutes for questions)
• A 5-minute lighting talk

Submission deadline is June 30, 2023. Submitters will be notified of results by July 31, 2023 and the program finalized by August 18, 2023.

Abstract submission via Google form is preferred.

If you are unable to submit via the form please email your abstract to modeling@cdph.ca.gov.  Abstracts should at minimum include presentation title, list of authors (with affiliations listed in parentheses after each author or groups of authors), a one-paragraph abstract (without section headers, limited to 2000 characters), contact information for the presenting author, preference for lightning talk or full presentation, as well as any scheduling conflicts we should know about.

African Genetic Biocontrol Consortium: 1st Global Congress On Emerging Genetic Biocontrol Technologies
The African Genetic Biocontrol Consortium is delighted to announce the 1st Global Congress on New and Emerging Genetic Biocontrol Technologies. 

• Location: Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya
• Dates: August 28-Sept 02, 2023 

Includes:

• Three full days of intensive Pre-Conference Workshops/Symposia/Courses
• Three full days of the state-of-the-art keynotes, papers, and panel discussions
• Exhibits on genetic biocontrol products and services.
• Invaluable networking

You may find more information on the website here and here.

2023 MIDAS Network Annual Meeting: June 27 deadline for abstract submissions
The 2023 MIDAS Network Annual Meeting will be held October 29-31, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Navigate to the webpage for more details here.

If you have questions or concerns, email at questions@midasnetwork.us if you have any questions or concerns.

US-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The US-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine will hold its second meeting in Rabat, Morocco, January 16-18, 2024. The call for applications is now open for emerging leaders in those fields to submit an application via the online application platform before the deadline of July 31. Attendees are typically within 15 years of their last degree. If you are past that career stage, please pass this along to others. 

For more information, click here.
Questions? USAfricaSTEM@nas.edu

Save the Date: AMMnet Pre-ASTMH Modeling Meeting October 17! 
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.” More information is coming soon.

US-RSE Conference 2023: Software Enabled Discovery and Beyond
This conference is for those who regularly use expertise in programming to advance research.This includes researchers who spend a significant amount of time programming, full-time software engineers writing code to solve research problems, and those somewhere in-between. We aspire to apply the skills and practices of software development to research to create more robust, manageable, and sustainable research software. 

Conference Date: October 16-18, 2023, Chicago, IL

You may find out more information about the conference here. 

4. Courses and Learning Opportunities

MOOC modelling infectious diseases
In this online MOOC you will learn a basic, yet very general approach to mathematical modeling of infectious disease dynamics.

• Where: online
• Brought to you by Institut Pasteur.
• Enrollment:  From June 15 to Nov. 8, 2023
• Course: From Sept. 6 to Nov. 15, 2023
• Languages: The videos are in English, with English and French.

For more information, go to the website here; to register, navigate to the link here.

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: £2500

Applications for 2023 are now open! Find more information here.

Contact: Dr Lilith Whittles or Dr Clare McCormack

Email: infectiousdiseasemodels@imperial.ac.uk

5. Working group announcements

Global Alliance for Immune Prediction and Intervention (GLIMPRINT) has Officially Launched
GLIMPRINT is a nonprofit organization (501 (c)(3)) that emerged from the IMAG/MSM Working Group on Multiscale Modeling and Viral Pandemics. The working group, which has grown to nearly 300 members over the last couple of years, will continue to focus on its initial mission of multiscale modeling and viral infections. GLIMPRINT’s mission focuses on the broader immune system using emerging modeling technologies, namely medical digital twins.

The GLIMPRINT member community is already growing since its “soft” launch earlier this year, and we are cordially inviting you to join the community. Individual and institutional membership information is available on our website here. If you decide to join GLIMPRINT, please also fill out this questionnaire so that we can share your expertise and work with the rest of the community.

We also invite you to our biweekly webinars related to medical digital twins, multi-scale modeling, viral pandemics, and the immune system, co-organized by GLIMPRINT and the IMAG/MSM Working Group.

6. Seminar recap and recordings

Monthly Seminar Series: June 6 with Fredros Okumu, Updates on the Biology of Anopheles funestus in Tanzania
In our June seminar, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Fredros Okumu from Ifakara Health Institute. During the meeting he reviewed ecological vulnerabilities of An. funestus and implications for control and provided an update on understanding of its aquatic ecology. He described population dynamics of An. funestus mosquitoes in rural Tanzania, including a comparative assessment of pyrethroid resistance phenotypes between An. funestus and other vector species as well as swarming and mating behaviors. He also discussed fitness characteristics of An. funestus, reviewing field studies on the reproductive biology of female and dry season survival strategies in the wild. Finally, Dr Okumu reviewed country wide surveys in Tanzania and discussed mosquito behaviors, malaria transmission activity and insecticide resistance. You may find a link to the recordings in both French and English here. 

7. Board and committee announcements

AMMnet board
The board met on June 20. 

Present: Caitlin Bever, Luc Djogbenou, Cherlynn Dumbura, Jaline Gerardin, Manuela Runge, Hannah Slater

Absent: Justin Millar, Emilie Pothin, Emmanuel Bakare

Secretariat present: Ida Sagbo, Shannon Stanfill

Agenda:

• Board election
  • Received 20 apps. GovCom will vote for their top 10
  • Six will be chosen to share with general membership for a vote. 
  • BOARD VOTE: general election by email and forgo the general assembly
    • VOTED YEA (4/5): general election for 2 new board members will be by email
• Terms of Reference implementations
  • Board
    • New Board members
      • Governance Committee provides orientation and mentoring for new Board members: on next governance committee meeting agenda in July will discuss
    • Self-eval: Need to survey Board during October meeting
      • Shannon and Jaline will draft survey to share at Oct meeting (in person)
      • Survey to be reviewed and approved by Governance Committee prior to sharing at the meeting
  • Board Chair
    • May 2025 Jaline’s term expires
    • Between May and Oct 2024, need to select chair elect (GovCom long term obj)
  • Governance Committee
    • Need to provide orientation and mentorship to new incoming board members (on July agenda)
    • Need to propose 3-8 advisory board members for board selection (on July agenda)
    • Need evaluation scheme for committees, board chair, board (on July agenda to plan development)
    • Committee statements of purpose
      • Discuss any questions/comments regarding draft objective(s) of each Objectives Committee
      • Discussed together and shared with each objectives committee chair today. Next Steps:
        • Objectives Committees will refine their objective(s) into a statement of purpose, which will be approved by the Board. 
        • The statement of purpose will be used to guide each Committee’s mission and scope of activities.
        • Statement of purpose to be posted on the website.
        • Shannon/secretariat to share draft objectives with chairs
    • Next Governance Committee meeting is July 18: need to move, Jaline to send a “When to meet” for 12, 13, 14th.
  • Finance Committee
    • Secretariat to provide a budget update in June
  • Advisory Board
    • Need to decide when evaluations should occur (one year after ToR enaction?). GovCom to discuss – May 2024
  • Objectives Committees
    • Need official Committee membership
      • 8 members unless the Committee has voted to increase its size
      • Nominated by Committee members, or those interested can apply
        • secretariat can solicit new committee membership via email or newsletter if requested
      • Committee votes to decide who joins
      • Committee membership should be decided by September 15 at the latest
    • Need statement of purpose drafted from objectives approved by GovCom. The statement of purpose will be used to guide each Committee’s mission and scope of activities.
      • 1 month after committee membership defined, October 15 at the latest
    • Need to identify and form task forces
      • Oversight committee approves task force statement of purpose
  • Task Forces (TFs)
    • 3+ active TFs right now
    • Need statement of purpose set by TF
    • Need meeting minutes to be shared to oversight committee
    • Need evaluation rubric set by oversight committee + TF chair; evaluation is between quarterly and annually
    • Jaline piloted evaluation rubric from Terms of Reference with Caitlin, for pre-ASTMH meeting TF:
      • rubric is fine as-is
      • 2 Options for evaluating
        • Request chair fill out the evaluation questions and submit to Committee for review
        • Invite TF chair to a committee meeting to give the TF update, and evaluation can be done easily during the meeting. Results captured in committee meeting minutes 
  • Secretariat
    • chair elect evaluates. Think about next May, 2024 or when we have a chair-elect.
  • Implementing new committee structure
    • Current Task Force list: add and assign supervising Committees for the three existing
      • Connecting committee approves task forces assigned
      • Connecting Committee
        • Seminar activities continue as primary committee activities
        • Social media committee will become a task force under Connecting Committee, Chair of TF to be decided
      • Any other task forces to define?
        • SMC Webinar
      • Committee chairs to think about how activities map onto task force framework, add to TF list (this will be helpful to report back to funder)
    • Learning (includes Training and Workshops former committees)
      • Emilie (Chair), Emmanuel, Justin
      • Planned next steps: not discussed because all Committee members absent today
    • Career Development
      • Luc (Chair), Jaline
      • Planned next steps:
        • Finalize statement of purpose and develop objectives
        • Add new committee members, will send email to solicit interest
          • Luc to send a draft email to Shannon and Jaline, and they will send on behalf of committee (combine this with Manuela’s member solicitation)
    • Best Practices (includes Data, Values former committees)
      • Manuela (Chair), Justin, Emilie
      • Planned next steps:
        • Reach out to most active past members and ask if they’d like to continue
        • include in newsletter that committee is open to new members (need by 6/22)
          • add generic BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR COMMITTEE SOLICITATIONS
          • be clear on expectations (from ToR)
        • Manuela to draft an email to send to all members, share with Shannon and Jaline
        • After selecting members, make new slack channel and convene meeting to draft statement of purpose
    • Connecting (includes Seminars, Social former committees)
      • Caitlin (Chair), Cherlynn, Manuela
      • Updates and planned next steps:
        • Caitlin will reach out to Social committee to assess who wants TF vs Connecting Committee
        • Seminar Committee people will continue (verify individually)
          • If additional members are needed, will send solicitation to membership
        • figure out how TF oversight will work for Connecting TFs
  • Update website with new structure, Board members + brief bio, committees, chairs and their affiliation, former board members
    • Ida will reach out to each Board member to review draft and add content to brief bio (about 100 words)
• SMC Webinar July 25
  • Connections committee to disseminate on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
    • Official flier received
    • Shannon developing email blast (sending by 6/21), include in newsletter too
    • Social media postings to follow email blasts/reminders
  • Details in newsletter
  • Secretariat – reminder emails
• Concept note for supplemental funding from BMGF (or another mechanism)
  • Start to put down some ideas for additional funds: e.g. to support regional AMMnet chapters. What would we want to fund?
    • Board to think through
    • Board volunteer(s) to facilitate? 
    • To discuss at next meeting
• In-person Board meeting Oct 17 at the AMMnet meeting, during poster session
• Task force updates
  • Pre-ASTMH Modeling Meeting task force Oct 17 updates (Jaline)
    • Program / abstracts selected
    • Travel awards selected
  • Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) conference – Kigali, Rwanda from 21st – 27th April, 2024
    • AMMnet meeting will align with this
• Subgroup Updates:
  • Francophone
    • Email invitation sent to members collect suggestions for building community and inform of AMMnet Updates
    • Scheduling of next meeting on June 30
    • Ongoing: drafting a plan for activities that the francophone community can do for 2023
  • Lusophone
    • Baltazar Ca has begun forming a Lusophone group, first meeting June 15
    • Continuing to meet to discuss group objectives
    • Will send an event award application soon
• Next Board meeting is August 15