Weekly round-up #112

 

Celebrate Vaccines

Weekly round-up #112

Understandably, both the media and the vaccine research community around the world have been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, but the VALIDATE team is still working hard (from home!) to keep our network engaged and updated with the goings on for our focus pathogens TB, leishmaniasis, leprosy and melioidosis.

On Thursday 26 March we supported the British Society for Immunology's #CelebrateVaccines Campaign launch.  The campaign celebrates the role of vaccines in improving global health. Launched on Twitter, it provides a number of resources, including guides, videos, infographics, and activity packs designed to engage the public about the importance of vaccines. The campaign is ongoing and we would encourage our members to investigate and share some of the excellent resources. 

Last week for World TB Day, our new Communications and Events Coordinator, Blakeley Nixon, interviewed our Director, Prof Helen McShane, about TB and the VALIDATE network. A slightly extended version of this interview has now been turned into a YouTube video that we hope you’ll enjoy and share.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vzMyNeV2Gck

We are always interested in hearing from our members. If you have any research or articles you wish to share with your fellow VALIDATE members, or a success you wish to celebrate, email validate@ndm.ox.ac.uk.

Funding: 

A number of funding institutions have provided updates about the impact of COVID-19 on their grant schemes, both for new applicants and for current grant holders:

  • For anyone applying for or receiving a grant from the Wellcome Trust, you can find information on how the  COVID-19 situation is impacting their funding on the Wellcome Trust Website
  • UK Research and Innovation have published information on the impact of the pandemic on their work and funding streams for those receiving grants
  • For those receiving support from The National Research Council (South Africa) they have also published a Communique to Stakeholders with updates about its activities

We would encourage any of our members who are concerned about their funding or grant applications to contact the relevant funding body; most are being supportive about issues caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

 

The following deadlines are upcoming:

You can find lots of further open grant calls on our funding opportunities page.

 

Training Opportunities:

We’ve kept our training opportunities page up to date with the changes caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

 

Events:

Our events page will keep you up to date on changes made to external events due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, the VALIDATE Team is looking at ways to bring members together over the next few months, if only electronically. Keep an eye on Twitter, LinkedIn and visit our events page to keep informed.

 

Job Opportunities

Visit our job webpage for further opportunities that are currently available.

Publications:

Our publications page is an easy way to find papers that may be of interest to you.

 

Highlights on Twitter this week: On Thursday, we helped spread the word about the #CelebrateVaccines campaign by the British Society for Immunology. There was also further discussion about the possible use of BCG in protecting against  COVID-19 and we shared The Union's excellent guide on the similarities and differences between TB and Coronavirus. If you’re on Twitter, do follow us to more easily keep up-to-date @NetworkVALIDATE

 

Published: 01 April 2020