SOFAR'S Second Annual Meeting in Mozambique

The Southern African Research Capacity Network (SOFAR) hosted its annual meeting from the 14th to the 18th of September in Maputo, Mozambique. With its fellows, primary investigators and a range of trainers all in attendance, the conference was a platform for the fellows to seek advice as their trials and research progress, for site visits, for soft skill development, and for a little bit of bonding on the beach. 

SOFAR fellow, Miguel, practicing public speaking and slide design during the conference

Over the course of the five days, SOFAR arranged to have feedback sessions and career advice about funding opportunities and the world of publishing in the healthcare field. Trainers also taught the fellows how to prompt AI effectively for scientific communication and language translation, make engaging slides for presentations, and how to communicate research and health content for an audience without a scientific background, meaning fellows can present to funders and stakeholders.

Additionally, each fellow across all levels of their career, presented the latest updates on their research studies. With such a diverse range of students from Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, not only do their projects cover a large geographical space, but also topics from hypothermia for neonates, the genealogy of ‘adolescence,’ and evaluations of typical healthcare interventions. 

Each fellow concluded by highlighting their next steps, asking for specific feedback tailored to their study designs and answering questions from the other supporting institutions, Zambart Research, Instituto Nacional de Salud (INS) and The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU-Zim).

During their presentations, each fellow was scored on their presentation, how they developed their research studies, and the answers to their questions. 

We are proud of our following winners: 

🦠 Our MsC fellow: Emmanuel Mukambo for his presentation on “Predictors of Syphilis Seropositivity and the Association of HIV Among Adults with Neurological Manifestations at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia.”

🌡️ Our PhD fellow: Richard Mwape for his presentation on “Validation of host response biomarkers as predictors of disease.”

🧠 Our Post-Doctoral Fellow: Nyasha Dzavakwa for her presentation on “Neurocognitive impact of HIV in children and adolescents growing up with HIV.”

Left to Right: Richard Mwappe, Nyasha Dzavakwa, Emmanuel Mukambo