Growing Data science Research in Africa to Stimulate Progress (GRASP) program: Rationale and overview

Abstract

Brain health is pivotal to achieving overall health and all current sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, a dedicated training program in brain health research to unravel its complex determinants, especially genetic, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors is lacking in Africa. The Growing Data-science Research in Africa to Stimulate Progress (GRASP) is a three-year program designed to harness innovation potential to build sustainable data science (DS) research capacity among qualified African scholars through innovative partnerships and collaborations. This is aimed at promoting a learning environment for boosting knowledge, managing expectations, building support systems, and overcoming environmental barriers to create a sustainable system that will inspire innovative thinking for a remarkable transformation for producing Brain Health solutions for African and the world. Highlight of GRASP is its focus on improving the DS skills of selected scholars to explore sociodemographic determinants, dietary and lifestyle factors affecting brain health and cardiovascular risks, integrating sociodemographic data with cognitive, genomics, climate and geographical data. Ten African scholars from a cross-national/multidisciplinary postgraduate clinicians and researchers pool were selected during the 2024 cycle. Activities lined up during this program comprises of a nine-month Postgraduate Certificate program that includes six months virtual training activities, a compulsory 6-week residency at the University of Ibadan (UI), Nigeria (exclusive for five outstanding performing scholars), networking sessions at scientific meetings, annual mentor-mentee communication and research project. GRASP complements these attributes with the Master of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) degree including competencies for the clinical and translational research workforce. GRASP scholars are assessed with periodic monitoring within three years after program completion based on academic positions and publications; funding for investigator-initiated research projects or career development awards. Building DS research capacity among African scholars via the GRASP program will re-orient current understanding and inspire creative solutions in Africa’s approach to combating NCDs.

Background

Efforts to address the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa[1,2] have been hugely impaired by the vast deficit of sustainable and indigenous research capacities and adequately qualified personnel vital for articulating personalized, context-specific interventions for African populations[3]. Building a sustainable data science research capacity among African scholars through innovative partnerships offers a unique training resource that re-orients current understanding and inspires creative solutions in Africa’s approach to combating NCDs. Brain health, which determines brain capital, is central to achieving overall health and all sustainable development goals. Data science research training is a promising strategy to mitigate the rising toll of NCDs in LMIC[4]. The success of this strategy, however, hinges on sustainability. A sustainable approach to tackle the projected increase in the burden of NCDs in LMIC is to bolster the pipeline of individuals committed to academic research careers in health data science research in LMIC by exposing them to systematic research and formal coaching opportunities, thus raising their odds of becoming successful, independent researchers[5]. However, current programs do not have a dedicated training program in brain health research to unravel its determinants, especially sociodemographic and lifestyle factors which play a major role elsewhere[6]. The Growing Data-science Research in Africa to Stimulate Progress (GRASP) program is a training program funded by the National Institutes of Health, USA. It collaborates with other research programs between consortiums of U.S, African Universities and research institutes (including Data Science Initiative-African programs (DS-I) to improve the data science skills of selected scholars. The overarching goal is to harness innovation potential to build sustainable data science research capacity among qualified African scholars through innovative partnerships among institutions. Additionally, it aims to promote a learning environment for boosting knowledge, managing expectations, building support systems, and overcoming environmental barriers to create a sustainable system that inspires innovative thinking and remarkable change towards producing Brain Health solutions for Africans and the world.

GRASP program is of utmost significance. First, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) and cerebrovascular diseases (CBD), including brain diseases/disorders, cause tremendous suffering and have a major economic impact worldwide and, particularly in Africa[7]. Thus, strengthening the capacity for designing, conducting and leading NCD, especially Brain Health research in Africa, is crucial. Developing a continental network of well-trained data science-social determinants of cardiovascular, brain health researchers and leaders with contacts and support in several countries could be a viable way to spur new health discoveries, catalyze innovation in healthcare, public health, and health research on the continent. The development of GRASP is novel on the continent of Africa as it enhances sustainability; has great potential to enhance lasting career paths for young researchers, unleash discoveries and leadership in Africa. As an innovative program, GRASP incorporates a theoretical[7] and evidence-based foundation to empower trainees to explore brain health and its determinants[8]. It incorporates a formal training in health data science research with the attainment of a recognized credential – a Postgraduate Certificate in data science application for brain health: a unique independent training program at an African Institution. Additionally, it leverages on the commitment from a cadre of internationally distinguished investigators in neurology, brain health, clinical and health data science research, global health, statistics, and informatics some of whom are Africans themselves; with a congruent coaching system designed to cater to the needs of individual scholars optimally. GRASP has robust in-person and online networking activities aimed at enhancing professional advancement, provides access to large datasets for training and research projects, including large electronic health records (CHAIR[9] & ARISES[10], and others[11–14].); experiential learning opportunities through participation in training research projects and exposure to rotations in desired academic, government or other enterprises, comprehensive and rigorous program evaluation methods.

Program objectives

GRASP seeks to harness innovation potential to build sustainable data science research capacity among qualified African scholars through innovative partnerships among institutions. First, the program aims to select and train annually a team of ten promising African scholars from a cross-national and multidisciplinary pool committed to careers in leading and executing data science – to explore sociodemographic determinants, dietary and lifestyle factors affecting brain health and cardiovascular risk, including, genomics, climate and geographical data using various datasets in Africa. Second, the program aims to increase the scholars’ scientific knowledge, professional skills, motivation, and credentials in the field of data science research with a specific focus on Brain health with emphasis on the leading causes of death and disability [9,12–14] and their risk factors [15–17,18] and sociodemographic determinants in Africa. Other scientific foci include but not limited to genomics, brain imaging, Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping and public health[19–22] [See Table 1 on GRASP competency]. Third, GRASP aims to enhance training opportunities for Scholars by providing coaching activities which is enhanced via mentor matching (content & analytic area) and peer coaching networks. Fourth, the effectiveness of GRASP is evaluated at time points within three years after program completion based on 1) Scholar academic positions & publications; 2) funding for investigator-initiated research projects or career development awards.

Program organization

1. Program executive committee: This Committee (EC) plus a core group of faculties, provides a forum for program development, comprehensive oversight on the implementation, management & evaluation. There are a total of six EC members who are seasoned personalities in the field of neurology, epidemiology, genomics, data science, and determinants of health. The EC comprises of the Editor-in-Chief of Neurology; lead of WSO-Lancet Neurology Commission on Stroke, pioneer chair of the CHAIR resources to unravel CVDs in Africa (>55,000 participants) and the African Computational Genomics (TACG) Research group. They are accomplished researchers, mentors and leaders in the above disciplines.

2. Program faculty: These are comprised of members of the EC and a group of academic leaders with very strong training or administrative records whose expertise, interests are highly relevant to health data science research, training, and career development. They are drawn from multiple universities-to foster a teaching and mentoring environment that is expansive in skills and experiences. Also, their selection was based on their research interests, active or prior NIH research support, important positions, successful training, experience as they have trained >1000 visiting scientists, junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, predoctoral students, master’s students, and short-term trainees. These program faculties, established investigators with national, international recognition in academic genomics, biostatistics, bioinformatics, medicine, and public health, constitute the mentor and speaker pool for scholars in our program.

3. Pre-program activities: The various components and activities of the GRASP program are summarized in Fig. 1.0 as shown in appendix section. Each component are explained briefly below:

   1. Eligibility criteria: Scholars for this program includes those in an early career stage from a variety of disciplines, professions in Africa with at least a Master’s degree in any health-related discipline including (medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, advanced practice providers, social workers, nutritionists, medical law, demographers ethicists, etc.); biomedical, behavioural sciences, computer science, engineering, informatics, mathematics, physics, and statistics, ethics, law etc. Considerations are given to individuals with disabilities, from disadvantaged backgrounds, racial or ethnic groups underrepresented in the biomedical, behavioural and clinical sciences in the African context.
   2. Scholar Recruitment: GRASP is promoted whilst leveraging on the various existing resources and collaborations with US, African Institutions and societies. Some of these channels include the Human Health and Heredity in Africa (H3A), DS-I Africa Consortia respectively, African Stroke Organization, African Research Universities Alliance, World Federation for Neurorehabilitation, World Hypertension League e-newsletters, mailing lists, GRASP websites, social media of other professional bodies distributed to a broad swath of their memberships. Also, brochure/fliers were created and distributed at annual meetings of professional meetings that the GRASP executive committee and faculty panel members attended. Further opportunities to promote the program were through the national university networks in Africa, affiliated institutions of the GRASP executive committee and faculty panel members, personal contact/visit with African departments and institutions to explore research collaborations.
   3. Scholar selection: Each applicant must a) complete GRASP application form b) submit a resume/CV that includes a full list of publications, conference presentations, scholarships, honors, awards, and scientific associations or committee membership, that highlights a record of excellence and potential to exhibit professional or research trajectory in data science health research and training/teaching, c) have completed a relevant Master’s at an accredited university; d) attach a one page of a Specific Aims page for a research proposal of interest to the applicant e) must submit two letters of recommendation from faculty or employer with first-hand knowledge of their potential to conduct and teach health data science research, f) submit personal statements indicating their interest and suitability for the program in health data science research, g) submit a signed statement indicating that their attendance of all required training program evaluations and activities and commit the time needed for the program, h) provide a letter from the department chair (or equivalent) indicating support for the scholar to participate in the program, engage in the asynchronous online clinical research curriculum and attend monthly online calls (zoom/skype).

Upon collating these applications by the program coordinator, all applications are assigned to members of the Selection Committee, who critique the applications (based on program competency as shown in Table 2) and present feedback to the rest of the group during the regular biweekly meetings of the GRASP team. A Selection Committee includes members of the program EC. After discussion, all applications are scored and ranked. Highly ranked ten (10) applicants from the lists are considered accepted into the program. Virtual Interview with ten successful candidates is scheduled with the EC. This is designed to ascertain in more detail the research capacity of the candidates, their research or teaching interest; and expectations from participating in the program. These Information obtained during the interviews are used to evaluate the candidates. Additional candidates that are on a waiting list, are subjected to the above review process. This strategy is activated if a selected candidate declines the invitation. We have successfully adopted this strategy in previous funded training programs[23].

The GRASP program aims to enrol thirty trainees across three cycles (10) trainees per cycle. As of May 2024, and 2025, twenty (20) scholars (10 per cohort) have been enrolled in the first and second batch of GRASP [see Table 3 current summary of enrollees]. With the conclusion of the assessment, five successful trainees have commenced their residency program at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria while virtual lectures have commenced for cohort two.

Program activities

For a pictorial summary of GRASP program and associated activities, see Fig. 1.0 under the appendix section. A brief description of each of these are explained under the themes below:

1. Postgraduate Certificate in Health Data Science (PC-DS): selected GRASP scholars are required to participate and graduate and acquire competencies (Table 2) from the program with nine months of rigorous health data science research training that culminates in a Postgraduate Certificate in Health Data Science. This program takes two formats:

   1. Six months online training: This intensive 6-month online training aims to increase the scholars’ scientific knowledge, professional skills, motivation, and credentials in the field of data science research with a specific focus on Brain health. It also includes SCTR Training and Career Home (TEACH) is to increase the clinical and translational research workforce through innovative training opportunities. SCTR TEACH capitalizes on the training resources of MUSC in basic science, clinical research, community-based outreach, participatory research, unites them as an exceptional team with comprehensive expertise and a shared goal of excellence in clinical and translational research training and career development. These online courses include a 4-hour/day, 2-day weekly online training (by a multidisciplinary team). The curriculum is grouped (but not limited) into the following general areas:

      1. Data science, Genomics, GIS, Ethics, Law, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Bioinformatics Research Methods: Introduction to Data science, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Review; Data science Tools; Epidemiology; Genetics and Epigenetics; Evaluating New Biomarkers for disease; AI generalization and Bias; Confounding; Causality; Multivariate Analysis; Sample Size and Power.
      2. Small Group Discussion of Published Manuscripts: Population Survey; Case-Comparison; Cohort Study; Clinical Trial; Community Intervention; Evidence Translation/Policy Development.
      3. Research Career Development:
      4. Grants Development for Clinical Research
      5. Genomics Health Data and Bioinformatics
      6. Clinical and research data management, access, use and sharing policies (National/Regional)
      7. Geographical and climate change data and interaction with brain health
      8. Medical Law and Brain Health
      9. Leadership
   2. Compulsory Six-weeks Health Data Science for Brain Health Internship/Residency training at the University of Ibadan (UI) Nigeria: The above training approach is supplemented with a 6-week residency training on data science health research and monthly presentations to scholars/by scholars. This is exclusive for five outstanding scholars who are rated successful from their performance during the online training sessions and assessment. This intensive residential experience uses a seminar design focused on health data science research training and career development. The residency training addresses the core competencies critical to data science, epidemiology/prevention research and career success (See Table 4). These competencies are assessed in a pre- and post-residency training evaluation. The residency training spans the full spectrum of health data science research, from community health to tertiary care settings, including concepts related to patient-centred outcomes research[24]. The residency training curriculum includes lectures, small group discussions, journal clubs, and individual consultation sessions to reinforce classroom learning based on successful evidence-based practices[25–28]

2. Career Development Proposal/Manuscript writing and Review: To directly foster hands-on research experience, provide scholars with individualized guidance on grant writing, and acquaint them with the NIH review process, scholars participate in a guided K-type Review Process in the 4-months into their GRASP Scholarship, in which they will receive feedback on a career development grant proposal/manuscript.

3. Participation in Networking meetings: Networking is a critical component of success for young academicians[29] Networking among Scholars engenders a sense of community, for building support, opportunities for grooming/networking, shared social identity that allows them to exchange information on scientific advancement opportunities. Thus, the GRASP Program provides a program of networking events exclusively for the mentees including online interactions, one-on-one phone discussions, and online networks to enhance the long-term retention of the scholars in the program post-residency thus fostering peer networking and a sustained community of support.

4. Communications Network and Resources: GRASP creates an online forum or email listserv for immediate communications. This forum allows mentees to communicate with each other more routinely. The GRASP coordinator moderates this forum to ensure appropriate and relevant content. Through this activity, GRASP creates an online alumni network through which program participants – current and former – can share information, experiences and support each other’s career development. Also, dedicated Facebook and WhatsApp has been created to foster continued ongoing tutorship, networking, and communications with GRASP scholars. GRASP mentees who have developed professional relations with GRASP faculty are encouraged to maintain these relationships. Inter-cohort interactions are encouraged. To promote interactions between mentees, they are encouraged to use the GRASP web-based social network to enhance communication, send announcements, and discuss opportunities for diverse scientists. We expect the mentor-mentee and mentee-mentee relationships are transformed over time into peer-to-peer friendships that last beyond the program. Mentees also benefit from monthly GRASP webinars, where mentees are asked to present their research ideas, and/or preliminary data, or career development queries. During such webinars, they receive feedback from invited faculty and their peers.

5. Mentoring: One of the most effective methods for promoting retention in academia is the provision of mentoring and support systems[30]. GRASP is promoting this via the following approaches:

   1. Determining Individual Mentoring Needs: the GRASP Executive Committee (EC) assesses through an entrance interview, each Scholar’s needs and expectations. Where no preference for specific mentors was made, mentees are matched with mentors who are congruent in background, academic interests, specialty, and/or personal interests. Mentees who have pre-existing mentoring relationships are encouraged to maintain those relationships and propose to them as their primary mentors. Once a successful match is established, mentors and mentees sign a contract delineating mutually agreed upon expectations of each party and meeting schedules to achieve set goals; proposed modifications of this arrangement, when necessary, are discussed with GRASP Directors before implementation
   2. Mentor Recruitment and Mentor-Mentee Matching: Each year, mentors are recruited for the mentees from professional organizations, networks to which executive committee members and faculty panel members belong. Mentees are matched with mentors by the GRASP Program Directors. Program staff informs both mentee and mentor of the match, provide contact information, and strongly encouraged communication prior to the meeting. Matches are made based on the needs of the mentee and the resources/experience of the mentor, not solely based on shared research interests. We have assembled a group of outstanding faculty (mentors/advisors) in the field of health data science research and training (See Table 5). Most importantly, they are well-regarded and accomplished academicians who have a talent for motivating mentees to achieve their academic and professional goals.
   3. Overview of Mentorship Team: The program EC oversees the composition of the training team for each scholar, considering the scholar’s interests and preferences, as well as the bandwidth of the GRASP EC members and faculty. Based on their expertise and experience, the scholar’s mentoring team guides the scholar on research methods, content, global health practice, and academic career development. In addition, it allows trainers to focus on select areas in which their guidance is most valuable for the scholar while at the same time sharing the overall training responsibility and burden. As such, the primary mentor takes primary responsibility for coordinating the training team and works directly with the scholar to ensure that a training agreement is signed and adhered to (e.g., schedule of monthly Zoom calls). The primary mentor supports scholars to meet the training goals. GRASP activities are congruent and complementary to interactions between the home mentor and GRASP. Each scholar is assigned an EC member (if their primary mentor is not an EC member) with whom they will meet onsite or via Zoom to coordinate activities with the EC, home mentor, and scholar.
   4. Mentoring the Mentor: During the residency training, a two-hour “Training the Trainer” workshop has been set aside to discuss best practices, tools and techniques of effective mentoring. This workshop leverages on a curriculum from a successful UCSF training workshop specific to working with early career investigators [31]
   5. Executive Committee (EC) Mentors: Members of the EC also serve in a training capacity. They are expected to contact a cohort of mentees twice during the program period and inquire about mentees’ research, plans, and their GRASP experience. Members are encouraged to offer support and share their own experiences. Committee members then report on their communications at subsequent EC meetings.
   6. Peer Mentoring Network: Communication between cohorts of mentees and clusters outside of GRASP events is encouraged.

Program evaluation and monitoring

GRASP aims to improve program performance, ensure optimum use of resources and provide feedback for programmatic decision-making[32,33]. In addition, we seek to provide information to the NIH and critical stakeholders regarding the progress and results of the program. GRASP trainees are followed and assessed annually with the Evaluation Assessment Instrument developed for the project. In addition, regular contact with the scholars for years after the training program to evaluate long-term career effects, form an alumni and ambassador network. GRASP evaluation plan (as shown in Table 6 under the appendix section) includes:

1. Completion of PC-DS Courses: This involves a successful defense of a proposed research concept relating to the field of data science and completion of all assigned courses during the program.

2. Entrance and Exit interviews: Shortly after Scholars have been selected, the Program Coordinator and/or the Program Directors conducts an entrance interview with each scholar, using a set of questions to gather information about their professional skills development needs, a self-assessment of their degree of mastery of professional skills, current mentoring situation and needs, expectations for the program, etc. The information obtained is used both to maximize each scholar’s training experience and provide baseline data.

3. Post-residency training survey: Current Scholars are asked to complete a brief online questionnaire following the residency training. The purpose is to determine what the scholars believe they have gained from experience and to obtain feedback on the various activities offered to the Scholars. The survey is standardized to enable direct comparison across years and to inform any necessary program adjustments.

4. Annual progress report: For each year, all current Scholars are asked to submit an online report that includes information about the CSCR or MSCR program, including its usefulness and whether they would recommend it to other Scholars. Scholars report on other aspects of their professional development, including scientific/professional meeting attendance; abstract submission and presentation; manuscript submission and acceptance; and fellowship/grant proposal submission and funding with amounts indicated. Results are used to track the progress of Scholars and for program evaluation.

5. Survey of Mentors and trainers: A brief online questionnaire is disseminated administered annually to elicit feedback from mentors regarding their experience and the progress of their mentees. In addition, the “home” advisors/mentors are contacted once in three months, asked about the Scholars’ progress and to comment on the perceived impact of the program on the Scholars’ professional growth.

6. Three-year program assessment: During the end of the second year of the grant, the Program collects and analyzes data related to the current funding cycle, report on the achievement of outputs and outcomes. The assessment report are included as part of the final year’s progress report and any funding renewal application.

7. Qualitative Assessment: GRASP makes every effort to contact past Scholars, encourage them to participate in the online alumni network, related communications and networking activities. Once a year, past Scholars and Faculty are asked via e-mail to update their contact information and profile.

Challenges

1. A weakness for many African scholars is an inability to compete successfully for independent funding. This aligns with report by the Foundations for the Future[34] which stated that access to research funding is somewhat difficult thereby leaving many scholars bereft of securing the most basic grants to support their work. Usually, this might be due to inadequate exposure to comprehensive research training programs as demonstrated by the numerous applications received during the first and second call for application into the GRASP program.

2. Reduced grants received from funding bodies puts a huge restraint to the number of potential applicants and trainees that can be accepted into the program and extent of funding support for each scholar. African stakeholders including government do not make priority, the need to support research with funding allocation. This places a huge strain to the extent of commitment to research by trainees across African countries[35]. Where some fundings are received from the global North including NIH, such funded programs in the region offer superficial and limited exposure to their African scholars to clinical research training. This can reduce interest and capacities of scholars to contribute to knowledge.

3. GRASP virtual sessions have occasionally been plagued by technical difficulties including internet disruptions. The effect of these unstable internet connectivity included disruption of live teaching sessions, delays in downloading course materials, wobbled internet communication which makes communication with faculties and real-time access to video and other coaching resources difficult among others. These issues can demotivate trainees’ participation, comprehension, and overall learning outcomes[36]^.

4. Relatively low percent salary effort for directors/faculties/admin staff on the program: The funding support for the GRASP as a training program mandates that aspects of the program are fully supported and optimized. The structure of the program and conditions of the funding (salary and fringe benefits should not exceed 30 % of total direct costs) makes it extremely challenging to reward faculties and staff for their time effort on the program. Nonetheless, all Directors, EC members and faculties have continued to dedicate twice the amount of stipulated effort charged to the grant in the form of gratis effort (i.e. no salary or stipend will be charged to the grant).

5. The multi-faceted nature of the program seems unwieldy: Our program has several different components (training, mentoring, networking) and formats (online asynchronous learning, online interactions/calls, phone calls/in-person interactions with mentors. This presents a complex and/or unwieldy concern. The EC believes that the various incorporated components are critical for successful academic career development of scholars and have made conscious efforts to simplify the activities/components to ensure optimum retention by scholars.

Summary

We are optimistic that the aims of the GRASP will be achieved with a significant impact on the diversity in the clinical neuroscience research workforce[37]. This will inevitably promote a learning environment for boosting knowledge, managing expectations, building support systems, and overcoming environmental barriers to create a sustainable infrastructure that will inspire innovative thinking for a remarkable paradigm shift for producing Brain Health solutions for African and the world.

Appendix

Fig. 1, Table 1,2,3,4,5,6

Fig. 1.

Flowchart summarizing GRASP program activities.

Table 1.

Overall core competencies to be acquired by GRASP trainees.

Competency	Description
Data Science for Brain Health	Introduction to Data Science & Data science tools; Data science methodology; Introduction to R programming; Statistical Computing/Programming; Data Science Using R; Python for Data Analysis and Scientific Computing; Big data science foundation; Statistical modelling using R and Python; Data Exploration and Visualization using R and Python; Introduction to C language programming; Fundamentals of Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence
Genomics for Brain Health Data	Introduction to Genomic Technologies Genetic variation and its detection Genomic data handling Genome-Wide Association Studies Genetic prediction of complex disease Mendelian Randomization Nutrigenomics
Geographic Information	Abilities needed to prepare Public Health studies and policies which integrate data from GIS, population migration and historical events into Electronic Health Records
System and sociodemographic nexus	Ability to identify and quantify sociodemographic determinants within public health context
Law and Ethics	Understanding of Current legal and legislative requirements in African countries Understanding of Health Equity Understanding AI biases Understanding Ethical implications
Stakeholder engagement	Capacity to engage local, regional, and international entities in informative and goal-directed discussions around priority setting for the development of health data science research programs and projects; and implementation of evidence-based interventions relevant to Africa.
Research context	Intellectual framework for conceptualizing an appropriate approach for functioning effectively in a novel environment, determining how one’s own skills/knowledge and newly learned skills/knowledge can be applied there
Research Funding/Grantsmanship	Capacity to identify relevant funding opportunities, apply for, secure and successfully execute research grants
Research methods & management	Broad understanding of current and old methods and tools available to health data science researchers, ability to determine which methods are indicated in a given situation and to identify additional expertise
Professionalism	Ability to develop a project evaluation plan as well as an evaluation of their own professional development
Responsible conduct of research	Demonstrate the ability to understand and apply principles of bioethics in the responsible conduct of program development and implementation in the global health arena
Research communication & impact	Ability to generate academic and entrepreneurial products (publications, patents, guidelines, policy briefs, blogs, etc.) from results of research and translate research evidence to practice and policy
Collaborative & networking skills	Ability to establish and function within multidisciplinary, international networks and teams
Leadership skills	Ability to lead a multidisciplinary research team toward attaining pre-specified goals and effectively/efficiently manage a grant program

Table 2.

Domains to be used in assessing applicants to the GRASP program.

Item	Description
Track record	Creativity of the candidate and ability to work in a multidisciplinary environment; Training experience, teaching record, grants, pubs, presentations, and leadership positions
Research Plan	Scientific merit, significance to the field, potential clinical importance, and feasibility of the proposed research plan
Training Plan	Quality and appropriateness of mentors; time commitment to interact with a mentoring team
Resources	Institutional commitment and resources available to develop and complete proposed research projects and suitability of the available clinical and laboratory infrastructure
Career Potential	Likelihood that candidate will develop a career as an outstanding investigator and have an important impact in their respective field and on health data science research in particular

Table 3.

Brief summary of current GRASP program scholars.

COHORT ONE ENROLLEES
SN	TRAINEE ABBREV. NAMES	GENDER	COUNTRY	INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION
1	SM	Male	Tanzania	Dodoma University
2	AM	Male	Nigeria	University of Ibadan
3	OG	Male	Nigeria	University of Ibadan
4	BTA	Female	Uganda	Soroti Regional Referral Hospital
5	AO	Female	Nigeria	University of Ibadan
6	IO	Male	Nigeria	University of Ibadan
7	OA	Male	Nigeria	University of Ibadan
8	AO	Female	Nigeria	University of Ibadan
9	JRSM	Male	Burundi	International People’s Health University
10	CO	Female	Nigeria	University of Ibadan
	COHORT TWO ENROLLEES
1	WO	Male	Nigeria	University of Ibadan
2	MA	Male	Tanzania	Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences.
3	BH	Male	Nigeria	Bayero University Kano
4	JAA	Male	Ghana	Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
5	OE	Female	Nigeria	David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences
6	MMN	Female	Senegal	National University Hospital Center
7	AA	Male	Nigeria	University of Ibadan
8	AM	Female	Zambia	Zambian National STEM Foundation
9	BOA	Male	Tanzania	Benjamin Mkapa Hospital
10	OC	Female	Nigeria	University of Calabar

Table 4.

A sample of GRASP Six-weeks residency training curriculum.

Day	AM 1 (8:30–9:30)	AM 2 (10:00–11:30)	Lunch (11:30–12:30)	PM 1 (11:30–12:30)	PM 2 (1:30–2:30)	PM 3 (2:30–3:30)	PM 4 (4:00–5:00)	PM 5 (5:00–6:00)	Evening
(Sun)								6:30-Orientation	Opening Reception
(Mon)	Biostatistics Review – 1	Population Surveys (Groups)	Box Lunches	Study Design (Groups)	A, B, C, & D’s of Epidemiology	Clinical Trials (Groups)	Introduction to Data science and Data science tools I	Community Engagement	Guest Lecture Dinner
(Tue)	Biostatistics Review – 2	Case-Comparison (Groups)	Box Lunches	Study Design (Groups)	Social Determinants of Health	Introduction to R (Groups)	Introduction to Data science and Data science tools II	Sample size and Power	Guest Lecture Dinner
(Wed)	Basics of “R” Programming	Cohort Studies (Groups)	Box Lunches	Introduction to Python (Groups)	Genomics Health Data & Bioinformatics - 1	Policy (Groups)	Genetics & Epigenetics	Comparative Effectiveness Research	Scholar Only Dinner
(Thu)	Multivariate Analysis I	Reading/Consultation	Box Lunches	Reading/Consultation	Genomics Health Data & Bioinformatics - 2	Quality of Life Research	Good Clinical & Laboratory Practice	Ethics and International Bioethics	Dinner on Your Own
(Fri)	Multivariate Analysis II	Quality of Care and Outcomes Research	Box Lunches	Research Career Development	Presentation of Study Proposals (1:30 – 3:30; break 3:30–4:00)	NGOs & You	NIH & You	Evaluation (4:30 – 5:00)	Introduction to Cloud Computing

Table 5.

Overview of expertise and research training of executive committee and select faculty.

Country/Study Sites	PIs &/or Co-Investigators	Grants	Focus/Patients Population
Ghana	• Ovbiagele • Sarfo	R21TW010479	Cardiovascular Disease: Study to characterize the presence of vascular risk among 240 HIV subjects on cART in SSA (vs 240 cART-naïve HIV patients & 240 HIV-uninfected subjects).
African wide	• Ovbiagele • Owolabi • Lackland	D43TW012030	Training Africans to Lead and Execute Neurological Trials & Studies (TALENTS): African wide Certificate and MSc training and mentorship program for postdoctoral fellows equivalents in Neurosciences research
Ghana	• Ovbiagele • Sarfo	R21NS103752	Implementation Trial: Study to determine the impact of a polypill (Polycap DS ®) containing fixed doses of antihypertensives, a statin, & antiplatelet therapy taken once daily vs usual care in reducing vascular risk in 120 recent stroke patients in Kumasi, Ghana.
Nigeria & Ghana	• Owolabi • Ovbiagele • Sarfo • Tiwari	R01NS107900	Genomics: Study to discover, validate & functionally characterize novel genetic variants associated with ischemic stroke in people of African ancestry.
Nigeria, Ghana, & USA	• Owolabi • Ovbiagele • Sarfo	U54HG007479	Epidemiology: Multidisciplinary research network focused on identifying genetic & environmental risk factors for stroke in people of African ancestry.
Nigeria	• Akinyemi • Owolabi • Ovbiagele	U01HG010273	ELSI: The study uses a community-based participatory mixed met hods research approach involving the various levels of the social-ecological model to develop novel, context-relevant ELSI interventions.
Nigeria	• Ogunniyi • Owolabi	D43TW010140	Medical Education Partnership Initiative in Nigeria (MEPIN): Designed to increase capacity to carry out locally relevant research that contributes to improved health.
Nigeria	• Ogunniyi • Owolabi • Sammet	R25NS080949	Innovative brain research methodology training partnership between neurologists & neuroradiologists from the University of Ibadan & a multidisciplinary team of clinicians & scientists from Northwest ern University in Chicago.
Nigeria	• Owolabi • Ovbiagele	R01 NS115944	African Rigorous Innovative Stroke Epidemiological Surveillance. The goal is to deploy & validate a first-of-its-kind scalable mHealth community-based interactive Stroke Information & Surveillance System (SISS) for reliable measurement & real-time tracking of the population burden of stroke
Ghana	• Ovbiagele • Sarfo	R01HL152188	Hybrid study was designed to demonstrate the efficacy in a randomized controlled trial of a theoretical-model-based, mHealth technology-centred, nurse-led, multi-level integrated approach to substantially improve longer-term BP control among 500 recent stroke patients encountered at 10 hospitals in Ghana.
Africa	• Ovbiagele • Owolabi • Akinyemi • Sarfo	R13NS115395	Dedicated cross-national scientific forum focused on cerebrovascular disease in Africa, with the overarching goal of bringing together key stakeholders, identifying gaps in knowledge, setting priorities for stroke research, & identifying/supporting promising young investigators with interest in Stroke research.
United States	• Ovbiagele • Lackland	R25 NS098999	Training in neurological research for underrepresented minority individuals in medicine in the US
United States	• Lackland	T35DK007431	To provide short-term (3 months) research training to medical stud ents in the areas of diabetes, metabolic diseases, and endocrine disorders, as well as the basic biology & pathophysiology of kidney, digestive, urologic & hematologic diseases.
Africa & United States	• Rajesh Vedanthan	5URTWO12121	To develop future leaders in data science who are equipped to develop and analyze data to better leverage deep and rich surveys as well as internet and other digitized data sources that can help us capture information on the social determinants of health.
Africa & United States	• Ogundiran	5U01MH127693	To develop new and innovative governance frameworks to support data science health research in Nigeria. We will also implement mixed research methods to prospectively evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of data scientists and ethics committees to current and emerging ELSI of data science research in Nigeria.
Nigeria	• Ogbole	–	Professor of Radiology at the University of Ibadan Nigeria, leads imaging in SIREN with core expertise in neuroimaging & Radiology Information Systems. He has directed large African neuroimaging studies in stroke, epilepsy & neurocognition by employing computational imaging analysis & machine learning techniques
Nigeria	• Ogunniyi	–	Professor of Medicine & Head of Neurology Unit at UI. Led several NIH-funded community-based research on dementias of the elderly since 1992. Leads an innovative NIH-funded brain research methodology training program for African scholars
Nigeria	• Aribisala	–	Professor of Computer Science & Director of ICT in Lagos State University (LSU) Nigeria. His research expertise extends across machine learning, data science, medical image analysis & mathematical modelling. He combines his skills to conduct translational clinical research in Africa.
Nigeria	• Taiwo	–	Senior lecturer with interests in land use/cover dynamics and its drivers, and the identification of spatial drivers of human health; use of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing for the operationalization of research using publicly available open data repository.
Nigeria	• Akinyemi	–	Professor of Medical Statistics/Demography with expertise in medical biostatistics and statistical demography, demographic estimation and statistical modelling, regression decomposition; small area estimation techniques;data science and allied topics such as statistical and machine learning; advanced statistical modelling and multi-country analysis of complex nationally-representative household surveys.

Table 6.

GRASP PROGRAM Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Framework.

	INDICATOR	DEFINITION	BASELINE	TARGET	DATA SOURCE	FREQUENCY	RESPONSIBLE	REPORTING
Goal	To build sustainable data science research capacity among qualified African scholars	- Select & train annually a team of five promising African scholars from a cross-national and multidisciplinary pool committed to careers - A 9-month Postgraduate Certificate program that includes online training activities & a compulsory intensive residency, - Brief research project - Mentoring opportunities for Scholars	Ten (10) African scholars selected across African institutions	Five (5) outstanding scholars selected from the ten during virtual learning assessment	Scholars are enrolled from African Institutions	- Annually - Six months virtual interaction - Six-weeks residency program - Lifelong	Program Executive Committee	- Annual funders’ report - Regional consortium meetings - Scientific publications - Mid-year briefs/report
Outcomes	Increased scholars’ scientific knowledge, professional skills, motivation, & credentials in the design, conduct and leadership of data science research and Brain health.	- Broad understanding of current and old methods & tools available to health data science researchers: Ability to use data science tools, methodologies and conduct relevant analysis. - Ability to determine which methods are indicated in a given situation - Ability to establish & function within multidisciplinary, international networks & teams - Ability to identify and quantity sociodemographic determinants within public health context - Ability to lead a multidisciplinary research team toward attaining pre-specified goals & effectively/efficiently manage a grant program - Demonstrate the ability to understand & apply principles of bioethics in the responsible conduct of program development & implementation in the global health arena - Ability to generate academic & entrepreneurial research evidence - Capacity to identify relevant funding opportunities, apply for, secure & successfully execute research grants.	Ten (10) African scholars selected across African institutions	Five (5) outstanding scholars selected from the ten during virtual learning assessment	Assessed during practical, hands-on sessions and activities per lecture	- Six months virtual interaction - Six-weeks residency program	Program Faculties	- Annual funders’ report - Regional consortium meetings - Scientific publications - Mid-year briefs/report
Outputs	- Scholar academic positions	Total number of students who were present on both the first and last day of the summer reading camp.	Ten (10) African scholars selected across African institutions	Five (5) outstanding scholars selected from the ten during virtual learning assessment	Routine data collection from scholars	Annually	Program Coordinator	- Annual funders’ report Regional consortium meetings - Scientific publications - Mid-year briefs/report
	- Publications	- # of abstracts developed, submitted, accepted and presented in meetings; # of manuscripts developed, submitted & accepted for publication in peer review journals;	Ten (10) African scholars selected across African institutions	Five (5) outstanding scholars selected from the ten during virtual learning assessment	Routine data collection from scholars	Annually	Program Coordinator	- Annual funders’ report Regional consortium meetings - Scientific publication - Mid-year briefs/report
	- Professional/scientific development	- # of scientific/professional meetings attended	Ten (10) African scholars selected across African institutions	Five (5) outstanding scholars selected from the ten during virtual learning assessment	Routine data collection from scholars	Annually	Program Coordinator	- Annual funders’ report Regional consortium meetings - Scientific publication - Mid-year briefs/report
	- Funding for investigator-initiated research projects or career development awards.	- # of fellowship/grant proposal developed; submitted & funding with amounts indicated.	Ten (10) African scholars selected across African institutions	Five (5) outstanding scholars selected from the ten during virtual learning assessment	Routine data collection from scholars	Annually	Program Coordinator	- Annual funders’ report - Regional consortium meetings - Scientific publications - Mid-year briefs/report