Event Details

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) was established in 2006 to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. In 2015, the NIHR Global Health Research portfolio was established to support applied health research for the direct and primary benefit of people in low and middle income countries (LMICs) using UK aid from the UK government.

NIHR currently has five programmes running open calls to award research funding to equitable partnerships between groups of researchers and institutions both in LMICs and the UK.

Research Managers and Administrators from higher education and research institutions in the UK and in LMICs are cordially invited to a webinar, hosted by ARMA and ACU, to share information about current programmes and open calls, and share experiences of applying for and managing NIHR grants.

Hear from Sarah Puddicombe who will cover the NIHR GHR programme awards and tips for success; Martina Savio who will be covering ‘The 5 things we wish we had known’ during the application stage and Seth Amanfo who will be covering ‘The crucial first six months – make, not break’.

Speaker Panel:

Sapna Marwaha (Chair) – Director with responsibility for oversight of ARMA’s role in the African capacity-building programme in partnership with the African Academy of Sciences.

Sarah Puddicombe – Assistant Director, Global Health Research, NIHR Evaluation Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, University of Southampton.

Dr Sarah Puddicombe is Assistant Director, Global Health Research, based at the NIHR Evaluation Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC), University of Southampton. She is responsible for the NIHR Global Health Research Programme activities managed within the centre on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care, and funded using UK Government Aid since 2016. She has an established background in management of applied health research programmes within NIHR. Prior to this she led a number of translational health research programmes in both academic and commercial research environments in the area of chronic respiratory disease at the University of Southampton. She has PhD in cancer biochemistry.

Martina Savio – Research Manager, NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Lung Health and Tuberculosis in Africa (IMPALA), Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM)

Martina Savio joined the IMPALA Unit as Programme Manager in 2017 and she is responsible for the effective operational management and execution of the NIHR Unit. Prior to joining IMPALA, Martina worked as Research Information Manager at LSTM supporting Research Committee and the REF Coordinator in the preparation for REF2021. Martina worked at the University of Liverpool (2012-2015) where she coordinated financial and non-financial aspects of research projects throughout their lifecycle for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science and Mathematical Sciences. Originally from Italy, Martina has a BA in International Development & Cooperation (University of Padova, Italy) and an MPhil in Peace & Conflict Transformation (University of Tromsø, Norway).  She has served as an advocate for child protection in relation to child labour and has worked overseas for International NGOs, as well as the UN in Ecuador, Cameroon, Cambodia, and DRC.

Seth Amanfo – Research Coordinator, NIHR Global Health Research Unit Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA), University of Edinburgh.

Seth Amanfo is a Ghanaian and the Research Coordinator for the NIHR Global Health Research Unit Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa involving the University of Edinburgh and 13 institutions in nine Africa countries. Seth has experience of conducting global health research in the context of infectious diseases including malaria and schistosomiasis. His PhD in Immunology and Infection Research from the University of Edinburgh examined the host and parasite factors that drive heterogeneity in human malaria in African population. He also holds an MSc in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Nottingham and a BSc in Medical Laboratory Technology from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.