A warm welcome awaits Fleming Fund fellows from Southern and Eastern Africa

January 2025: The University of Edinburgh is looking forward to hosting 22 visitors from Kenya, Uganda and Malawi, for two weeks of training and collaboration.

A very warm Welcome to the Fleming Fund Fellows from Malawi and Kenya to their visit in Edinburgh. This is an important milestone of the programme and tremendous opportunity for the fellows and their partners at the University of Edinburgh to learn and exchange approaches to better understand and tackle AMR in a One Health context. We are further looking forward to an exciting  Fleming Fund Fellows Symposium which includes a fantastic line up of invited speakers across disciplines and sectors.  

The Fleming Fund is a UK government initiative that is building capacity and expertise to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in low and middle income countries.  

39 fellows from Zambia, Uganda, Malawi and Kenya are currently being supported by clinical and academic mentors in Edinburgh to undertake training that addresses surveillance of AMR and antimicrobial use, and stewardship of antibiotics.  

Group of people outside EFI
Fleming Fund fellows from Zambia and Uganda visited the University of Edinburgh in November 2024.

Training to support AMR National Action Plans

The fellows are taking a One Health approach to address AMR, and represent a number of government-led beneficiary organisations working in Human, Animal and Environmental sectors, including national ministries of Health and Agriculture.

Mentors come from across the University Edinburgh, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh Napier University and Royal Holloway University of London.

17 fellows from Zambia and Uganda visited Edinburgh in November 2024, and we are delighted to be welcoming a further 22 from Uganda, Malawi and Kenya will visit over the next two weeks.  

During their stay the fellows will visit a range of microbiology and diagnostics facilities at the University and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, join bespoke training in data analysis and presentation, and attend sessions in policy development and advocacy.

They will also participate in meetings with the Scottish Government and present insights from their current work at a symposium on 31 January.

We are excited to welcome the fellows from Kenya and Malawi, along with with some of their colleagues from Uganda, to the University of Edinburgh over the next couple of weeks. This is a great opportunity for them to network and participate in the tailored AMR training programme—so make the most of it! Take some time to enjoy the city of Edinburgh – if not the weather!

Group of poeple in front of a building
Following their orientation workshop in August, the Kenyan fellows met again in December 2024 to plan work on their collaborative project.

Delivering sustainable impacts

Work in the four fellowship schemes began with orientation events for fellows and their Edinburgh mentors in-country in May and August 2024.  

The fellows from Zambia and Uganda travelled to Edinburgh in November.

The training visits to Edinburgh are part of the fellowship activities devised by each fellow, that also include a collaborative project, networking building activities and local stakeholder engagement.  

In addition to the formal training during the visit, the sessions will offer fellows a unique opportunity to explore strategies and solutions from other countries in the region, helping to foster strong professional networks that will support fellows to implement sustainable interventions that effectively reduce the burden of AMR.

The fellowship period will finish in December 2025.

A group fo people standing on grass
The Malawian fellows first met in Lilongwe to attend the fellowship orientation meeting in August 2024.

Growing Fleming Fund Fellowship family

During Phase 1 of the Fund (2018-2023) we worked with 19 fellows from Uganda, Malawi and Kenya.  In the expanded Phase 2 of the scheme we are supporting a total of 39 new fellows, including the new cohort from Zambia, and also the family of alumni fellows in all four countries.

The programme is directed by Prof Till Bachmann (IRR) and Dr Adrian Muwonge (Roslin Institute), with Deputy Director Dr Stella Mazeri (Roslin Institute).

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