Masters' research thesis funding opportunity

DIGITAL MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES TO STUDY TUBERCULOSIS: A MULTI-DISCPLINARY PROGRAM
A TRAINING PROGRAM SPONSORED BY FOGARTY INTERNATIONAL CENTER
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, USA

INFORMATIONAL SESSION

Makerere University School of Public Health under D43 multi-disciplinary training program in digital mobile technologies to study tuberculosis that was recently funded by the NIH, through the University of Georgia (UGA) has an opportunity for funding of a masters' research thesis. This is available to two (02) first year students of the Graduate programmes offered at Makerere University who have progressed to concept proposal development stage of their graduate program. These should be in good academic standing and have or are about to complete year 1 in Academic Year 2023/24. The support will start at the beginning of Academic Year 2024/25, i.e., end of August 2024 when the students are starting their year 2.  Students of geography and or digital health related courses are encouraged to apply, females too.  

Students will be provided with secondary data to address the following, or similar, issues relating to tuberculosis (TB):

a)    Characterizing mobility patterns between urban and rural areas of Uganda using archived cell-phone (CDR) metadata
b)    Correlation between self-reported geolocated mobility patterns of TB patients and CDR data
c)    Differences in mobility patterns of TB patient’s pre-diagnosis and post-diagnosis
d)    Gender differences and relationship between IGRA and TST in a prospective cohort
e)    Patterns of change in serial IGRA test results by sex, age, HIV status
f)    Temporal changes in contact, mobility and geographic networks in TB converters and non-converters
g)    Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) of social contacts and location patterns of movement by residents at risk for TB infection

Interested students are encouraged to attend an information session on Wednesday 17th July 2024 at MakSPH Annex Kololo where details about the research questions and funding opportunity will be provided to prospective applicants. Prospective applicants will be required to work with their mentors and training grant personnel to develop a 2-5-page concept that will be vetted for possible funding by training faculty of the training program.

Interested students should register their attendance with the training Coordinator, Mr Ivan Mutyaba by sending an email expressing interest in attending the session to imutyaba@musph.ac.ug by close of business on Thursday, 11th July 2024.