Open Fellowship Call for the Climate Sensitive Infectious Disease (CSID) Network

In 2023, the Wellcome Trust, in collaboration with the Code for Science and Society programs team, founded a multidisciplinary network of climate scientists, infectious disease practitioners, research software engineers, and potential end users of open source predictive modeling tools to understand how infectious diseases are impacted by climate variation and change. If you’re a community practitioner or researcher interested in contributing to the growth of an international network based on the principles of open science, this fellowship could be of interest to you.

Per the feedback from network participants and to strengthen the geographical representation and scientific rigor of the network, we are looking to collaborate with up to 6 fellows that serve as distributed, geographic anchor points to expand the network. We are focusing on expansion in the following macro-regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East and Central Asia, and the Pacific islands. We want to support our fellows in building local, interdisciplinary networks, promoting and implementing open knowledge and corresponding principles, and connecting their regional networks to the CSID Network at large.

CSIDNet is now an independent, fiscally sponsored project supported by the Wellcome Trust and excited for applicants to share their ideas, experiences, personal and professional networks, and relevant communities. Fellows will be supported by the Network in-kind to realize the larger vision of enabling network members to collaborate on co-designing and building CSID tools that are relevant and usable.

2024 CSID Fellowship Program Overview

This is a 12-month fellowship with an option to extend an additional 6 months, starting in April 2025. We are seeking to connect with community-builders who are drawn to interdisciplinarity and consider themselves passionate about climate justice, public health, and/or open source software. Rather than just a series of professional qualifications and accomplishments, we are interested in connecting with particular archetypes:

A non-exhaustive list of possible archetypes that could become CSID fellows:

• Scientists with rigorous understandings of critical theory, power dynamics, and geopolitics
• People who understand the challenges and opportunities of open approaches to scientific knowledge production, especially in global Souths¹
• Environmental science grad students interested in the intersectionality with public health
• Research software engineers who are pushing the boundaries of the field and questioning the status quo
• Activists with deep place-based community ties and lived experiences grappling with health and other effects of climate change

Commitment

The fellowship will be fully remote (i.e. you remain based where you are), but will require travel. We prefer fellows who can commit to a full-time engagement (36 hours a week) lasting for 12 months, but there may be part-time options available for the right candidate. Selected fellows will be offered a stipend and given programmatic support to establish a place-based CSID community.

Benefits

In tandem with how fellowships are evolving to take the whole person into consideration, the program structure offers flexible benefits to awardees. 

Fellowship Stipend

Each fellow will receive a stipend of $60,000 USD for full-time commitment. In addition to the fellowship stipend, each fellow will also have access to personal supplements, which are intended to support an individual’s wellbeing. Fellows will also have access to supplemental funding to advance their community-building work.

Expert Support

Fellows will have access to a cohort of CSID Fellows and other experts in the CSID network with strong expertise in various fields including but not limited to the art of gathering, infectious disease, climate science and activism, public communications and advocacy, open source science and software, co-design, democratic governance, and research software engineering.

Collaboration Committee

Fellows will be selected and supported by a Collaboration Committee whose purpose is to nurture the fellows’ work. This committee will help to facilitate connections for Fellows with like-minded leaders, partner organizations, and community members.

Showcasing Work

CSIDNet holds an annual community convening which brings together relevant stakeholders from around the world who are all working towards building and implementing better, collaborative CSID tools. This event provides a place and an opportunity to convene, facilitate or curate in a way that helps fellows raise the issues that are most pressing for them and their communities.

Communication Support

CSIDNet provides a range of communications training and public communications support for Fellows.

Wellness benefits

Flexible funding for Fellows to use for mental and physical health, childcare, or other needs.

Travel support

Funding to facilitate participation in in-person events, meetings, and other project work.

Event budget

Budget to use toward furthering the fellows’ community-gathering work.

Expectations

Language

The working language for the fellowship is English, and all meetings and events held by CSIDNet will be in English. That said, we also recognize that English is not a primary language for many and will do our best to accommodate specific language supports (such as translation or interpretation) as needed and on a case-by-case basis.

While the working language of the fellowship program is English, fellows are invited to publish their work in any language. We do, however, require that all fellowship reporting, such as any interim and final reports, be submitted in English.

Cohort and Individual Support

Fellows will convene virtually as a cohort for group working and feedback sessions, peer-to-peer support, and/or workshops; and meet 1:1 with CSIDNet staff for additional support.

Reporting Requirements

Fellows will participate in regular calls with the CSIDNet fellowship liaison to track progress and consult for support. At the onset of the fellowship, fellows will co-create a work plan with clear objectives and outputs. At the midpoint and end of the fellowship, fellows are expected to:

• Submit a final report, including a budget report
• Submit the work plan pre-work, updated with summaries post-execution
• Submit a copy of the report and/or other related media outputs made publicly available
• Fellows and host organizations will be encouraged and supported to share publicly about their work during the fellowship as well, at events and in media.
• Monthly calls with the fellowship liaison and your cohort

About CSIDNet

Climate change, an indisputable and stark reality of our time, impacts human health. The term “Climate Sensitive Infectious Disease” (CSID) is used to describe infectious diseases whose transmission and spread are directly influenced by changes and variations in climate and weather. In response to growing awareness about CSID as well as advances in technology such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, there has been an expansion of digital tools, such as climate-informed early-warning systems, to better understand and predict the impact of near-term and long-term shifts in climate on disease transmission.

If implemented well, such tools have the potential to support governments, grassroots
organizations, and individuals to proactively respond. However, to date, these tools and
related practices have been unequally distributed, disconnected, and primarily developed and directed by those based outside of regions most affected by CSID.

Thus, the new CSID Network (CSIDNet) looks to both connect a global community of actors contributing towards impactful CSID software tools and establish localized CSID communities that can link existing on-the-ground issues and initiatives to the development and maintenance of CSID tools.

Selection Process and Details

Key Dates and Deadlines*

• 09 October 2024: Ask Me Anything Q&A Session (register)
• 04 November 2024: Expression of Interest Deadline
• End of November 2024: Invitation to Submit Full Application
• 06 January 2025: Full Application Deadline
• March 2025: Notification of Results
• April 2025: Fellowship Begins

* These dates are subject to change depending on various factors including number of applications received, selection committee and team capacity, etc. Visit www.csidnetwork.org for the most updated timeline.

Who is Reading Your Application?

In dedication to transparency, and an understanding of the limitations of rubrics, we want to be clear and honest about the biases of the initial reviewers.

Angela Okune

I am looking for individuals interested in thinking and working collaboratively to seed and grow a community of practice that connects place-based nodes with other localized nodes. In other words, I’m not interested solely in someone’s individual accomplishments, but also in how the applicant fosters collaborations with and between others. In addition to relevant topical interests, I am looking for folks who have first-hand experience building community and therefore know well the inherent challenges and benefits. Strong organizing skills coupled with visionary leadership and deep knowledge of place-based context are big pluses in my eyes.

Isabel Fletcher

From being a CSID researcher myself for a number of years, I understand what this research field is about, including its challenges. This includes connecting disparate fields; climate science, health, epidemiology, environmental science, and software engineering. For me, a successful CSID fellow must embody more than just academic knowledge. They should be willing to share that knowledge with others and contribute new ideas to foster a diverse and engaging environment that champions innovation and thought leadership. I am looking forward to working with fellows who have an open mind and are capable of challenging my own perspectives.

Defining Our Terms

“Community” – We understand that the term “community” has long been critiqued as a development buzzword. While there are many different types of communities, we use the term in the sense of a “community of practice,” which often looks like a group of people who share a common interest, profession, or passion and actively engage in sharing ideas and experiences to learn from each other and improve their skills.

CSID: This abbreviation stands for Climate Sensitive Infectious Disease, which are infectious diseases whose transmission and spread are influenced by changes and variations in climate and weather. Factors such as temperature, human behaviors, precipitation, humidity, and extreme weather events can impact the lifecycle of pathogens or vectors, such as mosquitoes or ticks, that transmit these diseases. While mosquito-/vector-borne diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and dengue are commonly considered CSID, other diseases such as respiratory pathogens and water-borne diseases like cholera can also be considered CSID. The study and modeling of these diseases often require an interdisciplinary approach combining epidemiology, climatology, and other fields.

Tool: A software tool is a computer program or application designed to perform specific tasks or functions to assist users in accomplishing their goals. These tools are created to simplify, automate, or enhance various processes and activities related to computing, data manipulation, or problem-solving. In the context of CSID modeling, some of the existing tools include early warning systems like D-MOSS which aims to give beneficiaries several months advance warning of likely outbreaks of dengue fever; and disease surveillance and monitoring tools like the Disease Monitoring Dashboard, which is a web-based application in which data on West Nile Virus occurrence in Europe and the Mediterranean basin are collected from multiple sources and displayed on interactive maps (Savini et al. 2018).

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must be based in a part of the world heavily affected by Climate Sensitive Infectious Diseases with significant kinship and relational ties to the place.
• Applicants must be 18 years or older.
• Possess familiarity with or an interest in learning about open publishing, open science, or open source software and corresponding principles.
• Applicants should have an undergraduate degree or in lieu of a degree, significant experience in a relevant field (i.e. >5 years).
• Ability and time to commit to a full-time fellowship, including regular synchronous calls, and meetings (students are eligible to apply, but should detail why they believe they’d have time for the full-time fellowship).

How to Apply

The best responses will be specific and original. We do not advise using Chat GPT or any AI software, but if you must, we strongly encourage you to come up with your idea first and collaborate with the software to edify or proofread your answers.

“Ask Me Anything” Information Session

We will host an informal session during the open call period in case any questions arise about eligibility, scope of activities, or the application questions. There will be no preferential treatment towards an application based on attendance (or non-attendance) of this session.

Wednesday October 09, 2024 @ 7 PM Nairobi  – Register here

Come with your questions to discuss with the fellowship review team. This will be a Q&A format. We will publicly post an FAQ based on topics and themes that come up.

No late applications will be accepted. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to submit a full application. Shortlisted candidates will be notified by November 30, 2024. For questions not covered here, please email angela[at]codeforsociety.org.

Acknowledgements: This program is made possible thanks to the support of the Wellcome Trust. The fellowship program and this call were conceptualized and designed by Miliaku Nwabueze.