Opportunities

Many of you may remember a lecture we recently hosted given by Dr Daniel Mograbi from Brazil: Exploring self-awareness through neuroscience: studies with clinical groups and psychoactive substances.

The Mograbi Lab, based in Rio, Brazil have a postdoc position available to focus on psychoactive substances and self-awareness.

The fellowship is for one year.

It pays R$5200 monthly (roughly R200 000 for the full year), sufficient to live in Rio as a single student. Although the fellowship does not include travel costs, Dr Mograbi has kindly offered to cover the SA-Brazil-SA airfare with some of his other funding.

The ideal start date would be in March, but they can be flexible in terms of the arrival date, with the possibility of starting work remotely for the first few months.

No previous research experience with psychoactive substances is needed, but ideally someone with a solid methods background and experience in studies with humans. 

Candidates should send a CV and information on previous research work to danielmograbi@puc-rio.br.

Please share widely with anyone that may be interested.

The Takeda Innovators in Science Award with Nature is now open for applications.  

Takeda and Nature have partnered together on this international award programme for early-career researchers who are advancing transformative research in three distinct areas:  

• Oncology 

• Neuroscience 

• Gastrointestinal and Inflammatory Diseases 

Three carefully selected winners will receive an unrestricted prize of US$75,000 each. There will be an additional prize of US$175,000 for one grand prize winner. Nature is responsible for the evaluation and administration of the programme. 

The application can be submitted online before the deadline on 16 September 2025. You can also recommend a colleague to apply. 

Please contact programme manager, Maria Lippant, with questions: maria.lippant@springernature.com 

We are offering a Masters research project in Clinical Neurosciences by dissertation for a suitably qualified candidate, hosted in the African Brain Child Research Initiative (ABC - UCT Division of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience Institute), a multi-disciplinary research group focused on clinically translational research, and all staff and students work across the clinical and research domains. ABC has been the recipient of the 2024 National Research Foundation Science Team of the Year Award and received multiple prestigious Wellcome Trust research grants for their work on tuberculous meningitis (TBM), the most fatal form of tuberculosis disease.

Call for Application:

The proposed project is based on investigating mechanisms of injury and disease in children with TBM, which currently remain poorly understood. ABC offers the unique opportunity to study rare site-of-disease samples which offer important opportunities to generate novel insights that could improve patient management and lead to better outcomes in these children. This study will investigate various potential biomarkers including proteins, metabolites, inflammatory mediators, DNA or RNA. The student is expected to recruit patients, collect study data, collect study samples and process them for biobanking, conduct sample and data analyses, prepare data for dissertation and publication, and contribute to general research-related activities within the ABC group.

Conditions:

The successful incumbent will be required to register for full-time study and must comply with the University’s approved policies, procedures, and practices for the postgraduate sector. Successful candidates may not hold scholarships and salaried/full-time employment concurrently but will be permitted to take up part-time employment (specified maximum hours per week).

Value and tenure:

Funding of R150 000 for this project is available for one MSc student. Applications for further funding as per UCT prescribed funding limits will be supported. Funding carries no fringe benefits and is available for full time study.

Academic criteria:

Students from backgrounds in biomedical sciences are encouraged to apply. Applicants will need to demonstrate competency in the laboratory, as well as relevant and meritorious research or work experience. Applicants should be South African citizens or already hold a valid student visa for South Africa.

Application requirements and selection process:

Please send through a letter of application stating your areas of expertise and research interests as well as a full CV, copies of academic transcripts, and the names of 2 referees. Eligible and complete applications will be considered by a selection committee within the Paediatric Neurosurgery Unit. All positions are available to commence study by latest February 2026 .

Contact details for submission of applications and for enquiries: Please send all applications to Dr Jill Combrinck at j.combrinck@uct.ac.za by closing date 30 September 2025.

We are offering a Masters research project for students interested in global health of neurological disease or clinical neuroscience. Disorders affecting the nervous system impact more than 40% of the global population and represent the greatest overall disease burden in the world. Yet data from Africa remains scarce. This is a Master’s by dissertation for a suitably qualified candidate, hosted in the African Brain Child Research Initiative (ABC - UCT Division of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience Institute), a multi-disciplinary research group focused on clinically translational research, and all staff and students work across the clinical and research domains. ABC is the recipient of the 2024 National Research Foundation Science Team of the Year Award and is considered a world-leader in traumatic brain injury research.

Call for Application:

Injury accounts for more death than HIV, TB and Malaria combined, and the most dangerous injury is trauma to the head. However, to date we have poor data to quantify the mortality of that injury. These data are essential to motivate for national and international policy change including effective prevention and care strategies. The proposed project is based on quantifying head-injury fatality rates in patients with trauma-related death. This will be a multi-center project involving data collection and analysis across African sites, supported by ABC’s extensive research connections continentally and internationally. The student will be expected to liaise with study sites, engage in study meetings, drive data collection, conduct data quality control, conduct data analysis, write up findings for publication as well as dissertation, present findings at academic meetings, and contribute to general research-related activities within the ABC group.

Conditions:

The successful incumbent will be required to register for full-time study and must comply with the University’s approved policies, procedures, and practices for the postgraduate sector. Successful candidates may not hold scholarships and salaried/full-time employment concurrently but will be permitted to take up part-time employment (specified maximum hours per week).

Value and tenure:

Funding of R150 000 for this project is available for one MSc student. Applications for further funding as per UCT prescribed funding limits will be supported. Funding carries no fringe benefits and is available for full time study.

Academic criteria:

Students from backgrounds including global health, epidemiology, data science, or biomedical sciences are encouraged to apply. Applicants will need to demonstrate relevant and meritorious research or work experience. Applicants should be South African citizens or already hold a valid student visa for South Africa.

Application requirements and selection process:

Please send through a letter of application stating your areas of expertise and research interests as well as a full CV, copies of academic transcripts, and the names of 2 referees. Eligible and complete applications will be considered by a selection committee within the Paediatric Neurosurgery Unit.

Closing date and contact details for submission: Please send all applications to Dr Jill Combrinck at j.combrinck@uct.ac.za by closing date 30 September 2025.

Worldwide applications NOW open! Phase 1 of the PiTCH Fellowship Program.

Partners in Teaching (PiTCH) train-the-trainer mentorship program: skills exchange and strengthening microscopy capacity. (Upon completing Phase 1, teaching pairs may be invited to apply for Phase 2, where they will co-deliver their workshop (designed in Phase 1) at the African Partner’s institution. This is subject to the availability of resources and proposal strength.)

Applicants in Africa:

Researchers aiming to apply microscopy in their research & strengthen local capacity through teaching and workshops.

Application guidelines:

training.microscopy.africa/phase1application  

Application form for African partners:

https://forms.gle/cEZyNCn4dDZdFQv78

For enquiries e-mail: contact@microscopy.africa

DEADLINE for ALL applications:

20 September 2025

Notification of outcomes: 

by 30 November 2025

Information Session​

AMI will host an online information session for prospective PiTCH applicants. This information session is open to everyone interested in applying for the PiTCH fellowship as either an African or Global Partner. The session will provide information on the application process as well as the review and selection process, which will be helpful for prospective applicants. Additionally, general information about the objective of the first call will also be shared, helping to contextualise this novel mentorship program for those unfamiliar with PiTCH.

• Date: 7 August 2025
• Time: 12.30pm UTC / GMT [time zone converter]
• Online Zoom meeting [Please register here]

Join our mission to democratize medical imaging through AI innovation

The Shocklab, picoPET, and SoLow research groups at the University of Cape Town (UCT) invite suitably qualified candidates to apply for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in AI for low-cost medical imaging. The fellowship advances research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, image reconstruction, and multimodal neuroimaging, with applications to global health and diagnostic equity in low-resource settings.

What you'll do:

• Develop AI-based PET/MRI reconstruction algorithms for low-resource settings
• Create innovative image fusion pipelines combining cutting-edge hardware
• Validate technologies that could transform diagnostic accessibility worldwide

What we offer:

• R500,000 per annum (tax-exempt) + R50,000 travel allowance
• Interdisciplinary collaboration across Mathematics, Physics, and Biomedical Engineering
• Access to UCT High Performance Computing resources
• Opportunity to make real impact in global health

Requirements: PhD in AI, biomedical engineering, medical imaging, applied mathematics, or physics, completed within the last 5 years. Strong experience in medical imaging/computer vision and deep learning required.

Application deadline: 15 September 2025
Start date: Immediately available or early 2026

Ready to use AI for meaningful global health impact?

Download full application details (PDF)

Applications & Queries: Associate Professor Jonathan Shock, jonathan.shock@uct.ac.za

The GBD Fellowship is a prestigious early-career training program designed for individuals with a doctoral degree (PhD, MD, DPhil, MBBS) who are eager to advance their expertise in health metrics. This two- to three-year program offers a unique combination of interdisciplinary academic research, education and training, professional work, and mentorship from IHME faculty and researchers. Fellows will develop and refine their skills to be able to conduct and lead in-depth methodological research across a variety of health metrics topics. 

Applicants must apply through the University of Washington. And the direct link for the application can be found on the GBD Fellowship website. 

Questions regarding the program can be directed to Kris Larsen and Carleen Ratcliffe (gbdfellowship@uw.edu). 

Please feel free to share this opportunity with interested applicants! They are keen to have people from our part of the world in their cohort.

Recent global advances in medicine, genomics, neuroscience, molecular biology, robotics and artificial intelligence promise to transform humans’ ability to preserve health and wellbeing. They also have the capacity to radically alter what it means to be human. Taken together, these developments raise profound ethical questions relating to justice, relationality, autonomy, the role and governance of science in society, the rights and duties of individuals and communities and ultimately, what it means to live well together

If you’re excited by new and emerging health technologies, and eager to explore how concepts and thinking from the African humanities can help us address these complex ethical questions, then we want you!

Applications are now open for UCT’s new Master of Science in Global Health Ethics: a two-year, coursework and dissertation programme offered by the Department of Medicine’s EthicsLab, based in the Neuroscience Institute

Applications close 30 September 2025.

For more information, contact heidi.matisonn@uct.ac.za

Be part of the next generation of scientists working on biomedical informatics, computational omics, data science, and imaging to improve healthcare and public health in Africa.

applyonline.uct.ac.za for 2026 enrolment before the 30 September 2025 deadline!

A limited number of full scholarships are available on a competitive basis

Please note that applying for a scholarship is separate from applying for the programme, and only those accepted into the programme will be considered for a scholarship. If you've applied for enrolment in the programme (link above), you may proceed to apply for a scholarship.

Send an email to chipcobip@gmail.com with:

• A letter of motivation (max 500 words) outlining your research interests and why you should be considered for the programme and scholarship
• Your full CV
• Copies of your academic transcripts