Joining VALIDATE

For senior members of the scientific, advocacy or vaccine development community who work directly in the development of vaccines against complex intracellular pathogens, who have been awarded their own funding, work independently leading their own research group, and who will add value to the Network community. This includes Group Leaders from related disciplines, such as (but not limited to) social science, epidemiology, bioengineering, and mathematical modelling.

Group Leaders working on complex intracellular neglected pathogens other than mycobacteria, Leishmania spp, or Burkholderia pseudomallei can join VALIDATE, but should be aware that VALIDATE can only fund projects related to our three focus pathogen groups.

Investigators need to apply to the Network Management Board (NMB) for membership (at any time), and their applications will be decided upon at the next NMB meeting. They then:

• Are invited to attend the VALIDATE Network annual meeting and other events
• Can collaborate on pump-priming funding applications
• Are kept up to date via our monthly newsletters and Twitter/X
• Can connect with other VALIDATE members on LinkedIn
• Early PIs are eligible to apply for a more senior mentor, if appropriate

Senior Scientist Investigators should be prepared to be a potential mentor to less senior members of the Network as part of our mentoring scheme

All Network Investigators must sign the VALIDATE Confidentiality Agreement before they will be given full membership rights, including attendance at meetings, due to the nature of the unpublished data that are shared.

• Post-doctoral scientists with evidence of working on research directly related to vaccine development for mycobacteria, leishmaniasis, or melioidosis
• Post-doctoral researchers with evidence of working in a field/discipline related to vaccine development (e.g. social sciences, bioengineering) and VALIDATE’s focus pathogens
• Post-doctoral researchers working on interdisciplinary research and/or complex intracellular neglected pathogens other than our focus pathogens are welcome to join VALIDATE, particularly if they describe in their application how they will build collaborations and gain experience and expertise to move fields, but should be aware that VALIDATE can only fund projects related to our three focus pathogen groups

Post-doctoral scientists/researchers must have either:

• Completed a PhD

OR

• Hold an MD, and have completed or be in the process of completing a research fellowship

We particularly encourage and welcome applications from Early Career Researchers to join and benefit from the VALIDATE Network. Network Associates should apply to the Management Team for membership (at any time), and their applications will be decided upon monthly.

We occasionally make an exception to the requirement that Associate members must hold a PhD for LMIC researchers who do not have a PhD but have extensive experience in our research field (e.g. have led clinical trials for TB vaccines for 10 years). This rare exception is to recognise that obtaining a PhD is not an opportunity open to everyone everywhere, and is at the discretion of the Management Team during membership application review.

Associates are:

• Invited to attend our Network annual meeting and other events (including training workshops)
• Eligible to lead or collaborate on pump-priming grants
• Eligible to apply for VALIDATE Fellowships
• Eligible to apply for training grants
• Eligible to apply for a mentor
• Eligible to apply for the ECR Career Development Network (ECDN) (for members identifying as female or non-binary)
• Kept up to date via our monthly newsletters and Twitter/X
• Can connect with other VALIDATE members on LinkedIn

All Associates must sign the VALIDATE Confidentiality Agreement before they will be given full membership rights, including attendance at meetings, due to the nature of the unpublished data that are shared.

Affiliate membership is for anyone, anywhere, who is interested in our Network’s research, and in vaccine development for these complex neglected diseases. We welcome all comers, including interested members of the general public, post-graduate and undergraduate students, research assistants and technicians, project managers, scientists in other research fields… and anyone else! Affiliate membership is granted automatically upon application, and once a member you can be added to our mailing list to receive our monthly newsletter. In between these, you can join many of our events, keep up to date with all our news on our website and Twitter/X accounts, and connect with other members on LinkedIn. We look forward to hearing from you, and to hearing your views.