Research year in maternal and child health at Bandim Health Project in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa
Application deadline: July 25. 2021
Would you like to spend a year doing global health research in a low-resource setting in West Africa? We offer an exciting year with hands-on research experience in an international research environment and the possibility for an adventure for life.
We offer
A research year at a Danish-Guinean research station, Bandim Health Project, in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. We are looking for pre-graduates to join us for one year preferably from October 2021 but at latest from early February 2022. We work on assessing the real-life effects of health interventions with a focus on maternal and child health. As a research year student you will be associated with a large trial that runs for several years while also being responsible for your own independent short-term project, which could form the basis for a master’s thesis.
You will enter a professional collaboration with several other pre-graduates, PhD students and senior researchers from Guinea-Bissau, Denmark, and other countries in a very active, fast-paced, and exciting research environment. At the same time, you will get to experience Guinea-Bissau up close, learn a foreign language, and make new acquaintances. We aim at giving our students the opportunity of publishing at least one scientific paper based on their research year. Funding for a scholarship and other expenses will be applied for jointly both before and after the starting date.
You are
Studying medicine or another relevant subject area (including but not limited to public and global health) at a Danish university and has completed at least the 6th semester. Furthermore, you
- have an interest in global health;
- feel like living a year in West Africa, Guinea-Bissau, and thereby experiencing another culture;
- would like to actively contribute to a dynamic, multidisciplinary, international research environment;
- are up for the challenge of learning Portuguese Creole;
- want to do research into how we can improve maternal and child health;
- have ambitions of writing scientific articles in English.
Bandim Health Project (www.vaccineschildhealth.com / www.bandim.org)
Has existed as a Danish-Guinean research project in Guinea-Bissau since 1978 and has published more than 1,000 scientific publications. The project is world leading in epidemiological studies of childhood vaccinations and their long-term effects on child health. The project regularly monitors more than 170,000 individuals in the country and registers mortality, morbidity, and a wide range of other factors, which allows to evaluate existing and new health interventions.
Application (in English) including motivation for applying, possible starting date, CV, and university transcript should be sent to Ane Bærent Fisker, MD, PhD, associate professor, afisker@health.sdu.dk, no later than July 25th, 2021. Interviews will be conducted in Copenhagen on August 2nd, 2021. If physical interviews are not possible due to the Danish corona restrictions, the interviews will instead be conducted online.
If you are interested in further information (including possible projects), please feel free to contact the following PhD students, who are both currently based in Guinea-Bissau:
Andreas Møller Jensen, MSc, amoellerjensen@health.sdu.dk
Julie Odgaard Vedel, MD, jvedel@health.sdu.dk