London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has received three major funding awards for programmes that will enable clinicians (including doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals), to develop the skills, networks, and insights to tackle challenges across global and public health.

It follows Wellcome announcing that LSHTM has been awarded two out of 14 of its new doctoral training programmes:

AI and digital tools for better health

The doctoral training programme ‘Enabling better use of digital tools and artificial intelligence approaches for better health' will be co-led by Sinéad Langan and Dorothea Nitsch, Professors of Clinical Epidemiology and LSHTM Medical Directors and Honorary Consultants in Dermatology at St John's Institute of Dermatology, Guys' and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust and Nephrology at the Royal Free hospital respectively. The programme is in partnership with King’s College London and Queen Mary University London.

It will support healthcare professionals to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data science skills with clinical insight to create ‘digital health leaders’.

In particular, the programme will help doctoral students investigate clinical, governance and policy questions while recognising that poorly-designed digital and AI systems amplify inequalities, ensuring consideration of ethics, equity, and bias is embedded at every stage of their work.

It will also run a data science bootcamp and offer dedicated cohort training and postdoctoral support to ensure health professionals from a wide range of backgrounds have an opportunity to develop and take forward their research ideas.

Equity at its core: CREATE

The doctoral training programme ‘Africa-Asia Health Research Training Programme’ (CREATE) will be led by Rashida Ferrand, Clinical Professor at LSHTM, in partnership with the University of Bristol, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, University of Sussex and six research institutions and universities in Asia and Africa.

CREATE will support matched PhD students from African and Asian Partner Institutions (AAPIs) to create a blended South-North cohort, providing a mutually supportive, networked community of Fellows.

Fellows will conduct their research at one of the AAPIs and will be co-supervised by both a UK institution and an AAPI supervisor with access to a mentorship programme, international networks, and a comprehensive programme of educational activities and training courses. This will include a Digital Global Health Academy that we have developed to build the skills required to foster inclusive research cultures and address inequalities in global health.

Launchpad for clinical researchers

Alongside the two Wellcome awards, the Medical Research Council has funded LSHTM’s participation in the London Launchpad Medical Research Council Regional Account for Clinical Researchers (RACR) led by University College London (UCL).

Michael Marks, Professor of Medicine at LSHTM and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases will lead LSHTM’s involvement in RACR. The programme is designed to help clinical academics navigate key transition points in their careers and build long‑term research independence and aims to increase the diversity and resilience of the clinical academic workforce.

RACR will support health professionals to undertake research activity by providing protected time away from their clinical duties to prepare fellowship or grant applications funded by a Research Council, Charity or NIHR. It will also support those with a PhD returning to research, for example after at least two years of working in clinical service roles or after parental leave.

Find out more about RACR.