CONTRIBUTORS
Topistar Karani
Communications Officer
Ann Waithaka
Senior Communications Officer
Marta Vicente-Crespo
Head of Ecosystem Capacity Strengthening
Alypio Nyandwi
Program Coordinator
Benard Ondiek
Virtual Academy Coordinator
Naomi Njenga
Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
Across Africa, a growing number of early- and mid-career researchers are eager to lead scientific discoveries and innovations that address the continent’s most pressing challenges. Yet, many struggle to attract competitive research funding, a gap rooted in limited access to structured skills training, mentorship, and research support systems. To address the skills and mentorship gaps, APHRC is implementing the Afrique Research Support Hub (ARSH), an initiative supported by Wellcome to bridge Africa’s capacity gap in research grantsmanship in Discovery Research (see Wellcome’s strategy on Discovery Research) and to reimagine research support for African Researchers. Through resources, targeted training, mentorship, and a platform for collaboration and knowledge sharing, ARSH strengthens African researchers’ ability to conceptualize, develop, and submit competitive grant proposals.
A baseline study conducted at the project’s inception revealed that African researchers face a complex mix of systemic, institutional, and individual challenges that limit their global competitiveness. Many researchers operate in underfunded research systems and within environments shaped by external funding and language barriers that disadvantage non-Anglophone scholars. Within institutions, weak
research infrastructure, limited mentorship, and cumbersome administrative processes further constrain productivity and access to funding. At the individual level, researchers, particularly early-career and women scholars, struggle with heavy teaching loads, limited time for research, and gaps in grant-writing and publishing skills, compounded by caregiving responsibilities (largely women) that affect work–life balance and professional growth.
Central to ARSH’s strategy to bridge Africa’s research capacity is a comprehensive approach that engages researchers across disciplines and languages. The initiative focuses on post-PhD early- and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) and offers open-access resources and online learning across career stages to nurture the next generation of African scientists. ARSH integrates these efforts through interconnected levels of engagement, forming a vibrant ecosystem for research support across the continent. From open-access learning to mentorship and localized collaboration platforms, each layer strengthens researchers’ skills and confidence in grant writing, particularly in discovery research. As a hub, ARSH serves as the nerve center connecting individuals, institutions, and resources in a shared effort to advance Africa’s research ecosystem.
Regional Support Stations
To make grantsmanship and research capacity strengthening more locally relevant and accessible across barriers, ARSH produces resources for trainees across the continent and is establishing three satellite stations across Eastern, West/Central, and Southern Africa. The Eastern and West/Central stations are already operational, while the Southern station will be operationalized in early 2026. Each station serves as a focal point for targeted training and mentorship, building networks that reflect regional research priorities and linguistic diversity. To operationalize each station, they are strengthened and supported to run grant writing workshops and provide mentorship to EMCRs. Regional core team committees are engaged to shape the training agenda and support the recruitment of facilitators, reviewers, and mentors.
Further, ARSH runs a Trainer-of-Trainers (ToT) workshop alongside the ARSH Grant Writing Workshop (ARSH-GWW), equipping regional experts to lead future sessions and expand support within their contexts. To date ARSH has trained 18 new facilitators across the three regions, with seven of them bilingual. Through the core teams, ARSH has also been able to mobilize a network of experts who have provided
feedback on the EMCRs’ proposals and are mentoring the East and West/Central Africa cohorts (183 expert reviewers and 50 mentors). This exercise has been enabled by leveraging the strong networks and long-term collaborations of APHRC in the continent and beyond, and to the great commitment of graduates from the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) and the African Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship program (ADDRF).
Targeted Grant Writing Training and Mentorship
To pilot the support of the regional stations, ARSH will enroll three groups of 25 post-PhD researchers who will receive a package of intense 12-month support. The cohort initially participates in a week-long immersive ARSH-GWW, heavily inspired by the CARTA Graduate Grant Writing Workshop. The workshop guides participants through the entire process of conceptualizing a research program and developing a
competitive grant proposal, with support from experienced African facilitators and external reviewers. The researchers in the cohort are matched with experts who act as their mentors for a period of 10-12 months. During the current pilot, 10 high-performing participants of each cohort are awarded seed grants to support pilot data collection, collaborative engagement, further training, or other activities that can enhance the trainee’s capacity to submit a strong proposal. Selection of the cohorts, as well as the subsequent seed grant awards, intentionally prioritize country diversity within each region to ensure broad representation across the continent.
To date, ARSH has implemented intensive week-long ARSH-GWW for two regional cohorts in Eastern and West/Central Africa, training 50 researchers from 18 countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda). The third workshop for the Southern Africa cohort is planned for early 2026, completing the first round of regional capacity-strengthening workshops.
Virtual Learning
To provide access to resources for African EMCRs across the continent, ARSH runs an array of online capacity-strengthening interventions. These include a self-paced e-learning course on research grant writing hosted on the APHRC Virtual Learning Academy (VLA), and virtually facilitated grant writing sessions to complement the e-course through guided, interactive learning. On its debut, the self-paced research grant-writing e-course attracted an overwhelming 6,000 applications from across the continent, reflecting strong demand for grantsmanship training. To allow all qualified applicants to participate, ARSH has adapted its delivery approach to a cohort-based rollout of the course between 2025 and early 2026. As part of the training journey, participants develop and submit concept notes through VLA, where they receive structured peer review and feedback. Those with strong concepts are then invited to participate in bi-monthly, virtually facilitated sessions to refine their ideas over a three-month period before resubmitting their improved proposals.
Monthly Open Webinars
Since its inception, ARSH has delivered 20+ monthly bilingual (English and French) webinars, attracting close to 4000 attendees and fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation among emerging researchers across Africa. The sessions feature seasoned African researchers who share insights on funding landscapes, proposal development, research leadership, and advancing discovery research. In
addition to the webinar series focused on grantsmanship, ARSH has also organized three webinars focused on discovery research, and there are plans underway to strengthen the resources shared in this area since the project has shown that there is great demand for them.
Community of Practice
Participants in all the ARSH activities are invited to join a virtual Community of Practice focused on Grant Writing. The community has so far attracted more than 870 members for information exchange, peer interactions, and exclusive access to resources.
Looking Ahead
At a time when global funders are being urged to rethink their models and invest more equitably, ARSH is steadily redefining what effective grant writing and research support looks like in Africa. The program’s efforts reflect a commitment to long-term impact, building local expertise, embedding grantsmanship support within African institutions, and ensuring that capacity strengthening remains both continuous and accessible. As it strengthens mentorship networks, builds inclusive training environments, and scales digital learning opportunities, ARSH continues to demonstrate that Africa’s research future is not only in motion but being shaped from within.
Links to Resources
● Watch the webinars on grantsmanship in English [here]
● Watch the webinars on grantsmanship in French [here]
● Watch the webinars on discovery research [here]
● Enroll in the self-paced grant writing online course [here]