AFRO-NETS> Call for Applications for the Next MIM Secretariat

[Andrea Egan <egana@mail.nih.gov>]

Call for Applications for the Next MIM Secretariat
--------------------------------------------------

Deadline: 1 May 2002

Dear Colleagues,

The Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the U.S. National Institutes 
of Health (NIH) has been privileged to host the Secretariat of the Mul-
tilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) for the last two years, following 
from The Wellcome Trust's stewardship of the MIM ending in 1999. When 
the MIM was initiated in 1997, the view on the Secretariat was that it 
would rotate among MIM partners at regular intervals in order to main-
tain the multilateral nature of MIM and to represent all MIM partners. 
This thinking was reconfirmed at the MIM Conference Executive Committee 
meeting in Paris on September 24, 2001. The current tenure of the MIM 
Secretariat at FIC will come to an end after the MIM Pan-African Con-
ference in Arusha, Tanzania in November 2002. Therefore the decision 
regarding the transfer of the MIM Secretariat to the next organization 
should to be made by early summer to allow a sufficient transition pe-
riod and to ensure that the next Secretariat is functional in early 
2003. We would like to invite applications for the position of the next 
MIM Secretariat.

Selection of the Next MIM Secretariat

Voting Method
 
To ensure that the transfer of the Secretariat is conducted in a fair 
and transparent manner, a group of representatives will vote on the MIM 
Secretariat candidates. These representatives have been selected by the 
current Secretariat to represent the alliance of funding partners, sci-
entific organizations, and research institutions that make up MIM. 
These representatives consist of an approximately equal number from 
funding partners in the North and from institutions in Africa conduct-
ing malaria research. These voting members were identified based on 
their significant and direct involvement with MIM, either through major 
support of conferences, workshops and initiatives or through in-country 
activities.

Candidates & Candidate Criteria

Applications can be made from an organization or agency in the North 
involved with malaria research, research funding and research capacity 
strengthening in malaria endemic countries, and from research institu-
tions in Africa conducting malaria research. Applications have to be 
made on an institutional level. Applications can be made by an alliance 
of organizations and/or institutions. Candidates will be required to 
give details on the following: 
1) Willingness and ability to support the Secretariat functions
2) Proposed activities to be carried out by the Secretariat over a 3 to
   5 year period
3) Proposed budget for the Secretariat and its activities
4) Demonstrated ability to fund the Secretariat budget
5) Information regarding capacity to maintain the communications, in-
   cluding easy email access
6) Demonstrate organization/institute/agency has good organizational
   capacity
7) Demonstrate organization/institute/agency has strong scientific
   capacity

Organizations without sufficient internal resources may apply and be 
selected if there is evidence of an external grant of support to cover 
the Secretariat functions for a minimum period of three full years.

Duties and Responsibilities of the MIM Secretariat
 
The new Secretariat will decide to what level they will fund Secre-
tariat activities. It is expected that core support will be provided 
for administrative costs and salaries of personnel, the organization 
and financial support of one MIM Pan-African Conference, as well as 
support for raising funds from other sources. In addition to core func-
tions, it is expected that the Secretariat will also support workshops, 
meetings and symposia to promote research and networking, and support 
the travel of developing country scientists to attend these. The duties 
and responsibilities are detailed in the Terms of Reference below.

Transfer of Duties
 
To aid the transfer of knowledge and enable the Secretariat to become 
functional as soon as possible after the transfer, it is recommended 
that there is a period of overlap with a coordinator from the newly 
elected Secretariat working with the current Secretariat for 2-5 
months.

Transfer Procedure 

The position of the Secretariat will be advertised in February 2002. 
Application deadline is 1 May 2002. The voting members will review the 
applications during May 2002. Votes will be cast at the end of May 
2002. An announcement of the new Secretariat will be made early June 
2002. Optimally, the new coordinator will join the Secretariat by Au-
gust 2002. Transfer of the Secretariat is expected one month after the 
MIM Pan-African Conference i.e. at the end of December 2002.

The following is the Terms of Reference for the MIM Secretariat, which 
serves as a guideline for the functions that are required of the Secre-
tariat:

The MIM Secretariat Terms of Reference

The MIM Secretariat maintains coherence, collaboration and communica-
tion among the different MIM activities, serves as the spokesperson for 
all MIM activities and raises support for MIM activities.

The Secretariat rotates among partners at a regular interval, approxi-
mately every two to three years as determined by the involved partners, 
to maintain the multilateral nature of MIM and to represent all MIM 
partners. Decisions regarding rotation will be made at a MIM Partners 
meeting with input from scientists in endemic countries in advance of 
each of the MIM Pan-African Malaria Research and Control Conferences.

Specific Functions of the MIM Secretariat include:

A) Fostering Communications with MIM Constituents, the Scientific Com-
munity, and the Public 

1) Communicating MIM activities to all constituents through the MIM 
newsletter in English and French. Activities include the timely and 
regular production of the newsletter (currently produced four times a 
year), producing or soliciting the text from the MIM partners, format-
ting, printing and distribution of the newsletter.

2) Maintaining and updating the MIM web site in English and French.

3) Maintaining the MIM list serve, by email and fax, regularly provid-
ing information on the latest opportunities in research funding, train-
ing, job opportunities etc especially relevant to the African malaria 
research community.

4) To raise the profile of MIM by publicizing MIM activities, holding 
meetings and symposia, giving presentations at national and interna-
tional meetings and conferences, producing publications addressing ma-
laria research capacity development needs and gaps in malaria research, 
produce press releases, brochures etc of MIM activities.

B) Organizing and Conducting the MIM Pan-African Conferences
 
Organize and conduct a periodic international conference on malaria to 
bring world attention to malaria providing an important venue for sci-
entists and control groups from all over Africa and the world to share 
information, to define new research needs, and to form collaborations. 
Each MIM Secretariat is responsible to provide financial support of one 
MIM Pan-African Conference and identify additional appropriate sources 
of funding to support the conference and to organize and conduct the 
conference on behalf of all the MIM partners. The MIM Secretariat iden-
tifies further support for a substantial number of scientists from Af-
rica to attend the conference.

C) Garnering Support for MIM 

To convene funders to raise support for various MIM activities, the 
parties responsible for the various MIM activities will be responsible 
for fund raising for those activities in conjunction with the Secre-
tariat. The MIM Secretariat will also help in identifying new funding 
opportunities and partners for MIM.

D) Fostering Dialogues between Research and Control Communities 

To work with partners to convene the research and control communities 
in meetings and conferences to engage the malaria research community 
and the control community to identify research needed for control. 
Identify gaps in research, set priorities, and develop strategies to 
support these activities.

E) Strengthen Research Capacity in Malaria-Endemic Regions 

1) To engage the African malaria research community in the identifica-
tion of research training needs and to develop training workshops and 
programs.

2) Support African scientists to travel to malaria research and train-
ing meetings, conferences and workshops organized by MIM.

Governance of MIM Activities MIM activities are carried out by four 
main components, the MIM Secretariat, the MIM research grants adminis-
trated by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical 
Diseases at the World Health Organization (MIM/TDR), the Malaria Re-
search and Reference Reagent Resource Center (MR4), and MIMCom. The al-
liance is stimulating collaborative research to answer the needs of 
public health and malaria control programs, modernizing communications, 
and strengthening institutional research capacity and human resources 
where the need is greatest. The Secretariat provides cohesion between 
the MIM activities and ensures coordination through frequent exchange 
of information between various parts of MIM, joint workshops, and joint 
efforts to mobilize support for activities of each part. However, the 
MIM Secretariat does not govern the MIM/TDR, MR4 and MIMCom activities 
of MIM. The MIM Secretariat, MIM/TDR, MR4 and MIMCom activities each 
have a program director that governs the respective activities. MIMCom, 
MR4, and MIM/TDR are autonomous structures but linked to the overarch-
ing goals of the MIM. The transfer of the Secretariat does not affect 
structure and function of the MIM/TDR, MR4 and MIMCom. The MIM Secre-
tariats have not had a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and this could 
be explored for future Secretariats. For now, the MIM Secretariat is 
represented at the annual MIM/TDR Task Force meetings and at monthly 
meetings of the MR4 and MIMCom administrators. MIM/TDR and the MR4 have 
their own SABs (called "Task Force" for the MIM/TDR) to decide their 
activities.

Budget of MIM Activities 

The support for the functioning and activities of the present MIM Se-
cretariat comes from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and 
specifically from the Fogarty International Center (FIC) and the Na-
tional Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). This 
amounts to roughly US$ 420,000 per year, and is considered as part of 
the NIH contribution to MIM. When the MIM Secretariat was based at The 
Wellcome Trust, it was also financed solely through that organization, 
and The Wellcome Trust's support for the Secretariat was part of its 
contribution to MIM. Financial support of the next Secretariat would be 
expected to come from the host organization (or collective). The MIM 
Secretariat also attempts to raise financial support to co-fund work-
shops and other activities it organizes. The funds for the MR4 program 
are from NIAID at the NIH. Funds for MIMCom are from the National Li-
brary of Medicine (NLM) at the NIH and from the local recipient pro-
grams or their Northern sponsors. Funds for the MIM/TDR program are 
from a variety of sources - NIAID, the World Health Organization (TDR, 
AFRO, RBM), the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Bank and contribu-
tions from the governments of Norway and Japan. The MIM Secretariat 
helps convene funders to raise support for various MIM activities (such 
as MIM/TDR), but the parties responsible for the various MIM activities 
are responsible for fund raising for those activities in conjunction 
with the Secretariat. The MIM Secretariat also helps in identifying new 
funding opportunities and partners for MIM. The MIM Secretariat is 
fully responsible for funds related to effective functioning of the MIM 
Secretariat. Other programs such as MR4, MIM/TDR, and MIMCom, have a 
decentralized decision-making and fund-raising structure, but they all 
work to support broad goals of the MIM. All research grant decisions 
are made by the MIM/TDR Task Force. MR4 has a SAB to decide on workshop 
funding etc. The MIM Secretariat and MIMCom identify priorities and re-
lated funding decisions through broad but informal consultative mecha-
nisms.

Please send your application to 
Dr. Andrea Egan
MIM Coordinator
mailto:egana@mail.nih.gov

by 1 May 2002. We strongly encourage you to discuss candidature re-
quirements with Dr. Egan (Tel: + 1-301-402-6680) before submitting your 
application.

We look forward to hearing from the MIM Secretariat candidates!

Sincerely,

Dr. Gerald Keusch
Director of the MIM Secretariat

--
Andrea Egan, PhD
Coordinator
Multilateral Initiative on Malaria
Fogarty International Center
National Institutes of Health
31 Center Drive MSC 2220
Building 31, Room B2C39
Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
Tel: +1-301-402-6680
Fax: +1-301-594-1211
mailto:egana@mail.nih.gov
http://mim.nih.gov

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