TDR: training grants

Training Grants One of the ways in which TOR helps tropical countries is by making training grants widely available to well-motivated research-workers 1L he UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Pro-gramme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) has recruited into its worldwide network some 5,000 scientists from 135 countries. They include men and women working in a wide range of disciplines, from molecular biology and pharmacology to epidemiology and sociology. TDR has a two-fold objective: to support research directly, and to strengthen the capability of countries to carry out research. In this second field, it is clear that research directly related to the control of tropical diseases should begin and end with the reality of field conditions; and it should ideally be carried out by scientists most closely in touch with that reality. On these pages we show some of the eager young scientists who have benefited from TDR training grants, with the intention of then returning to their home countries to "plough back" what they have learnt in very practical applications in the field. 16 Above: Mr Pradya Somboon from Thailand, Eliza- beth L. Makubalo from Zambia and Mrs Manisri Puntalarp from Thailand - research trainees at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Above right: A research grant-aided worker exam- ines a blood sample in Cote d'lvoire for signs of sleeping sickness infection. Right: Dr Thomas C. Nchinda, from Cameroon, vetting grant applicati~ns with two other members of the TOR staff in Geneva. Institutions usually find that it takes as much as a year for their applications for research grants to be processed. WORLD HEALTH. June-July-August 1990 A social worker discusses the control of lymphatic filariasis with villagers in Kerala, India. Priority is given to field-related research training in the context of strategies to control one or more of TOR's target diseases. Applicants for grants must have an aptitude for research, and must be willing to return home after training and work there for at least three years. 17