Application requirements

Eligibility requirements for the 2027 AI Incubator

📋 Eligibility Criteria

A senior researcher can apply individually or with their team (up to 4 scientists) if they fulfill the following conditions:

• Conduct their research at an academic or non-profit institution based in one of the countries of the WHO African Region.

• Be currently working on a drug discovery project for Global Health (see below for more information on the scientific direction of the program).

• Have a clear use case for AI support.

• Be able to commit their time to participate in the Incubator activities (see below for details on what this means).

• Be able to work and communicate in English.

• PhD students can act as lead applicants if they have the explicit support of their Principal Investigator (PI), but involvement of senior team members is encouraged.

🔬Scientific project

The Program will accept project proposals that fall within participants' existing research scope and meet the following criteria:

• Drug discovery projects working with small molecules, including isolated natural products.

• Focus area: infectious diseases of Global Health relevance (for example: Gram-Negative infections, Malaria, Tuberculosis or Neglected Tropical Diseases)

Projects we are not likely to select:

• Projects using natural plant extracts without isolated components.

• A research proposal that opens up an entire new avenue of investigation inside the group. The aim of the AI Incubator is to support existing, ongoing projects.

• Projects where the AI use-case is not clearly demonstrated.

• Projects beyond drug discovery (for example, epidemiologics or epigenetics).

We are eager to learn about your research needs. If your project has a clear use case for AI but does not fully meet all requirements we still encourage you to apply.

🔐 Participation & Data Sharing Consent Agreement

All participants along with their PI or corresponding institutional representative must sign the Participation & Data Sharing Consent Agreement submitted at the end of the application process.

This agreement establishes that participants agree to share relevant datasets within the Program, ensuring responsible data use, confidentiality, and compliance with institutional and ethical requirements. It also covers the team's commitment to full participation in the Program, the financial stipend and disbursement terms, the PI's endorsement of the team's participation, and conduct and withdrawal terms.

You can download the Participation & Data Sharing Consent Agreement here. We recommend you to read it carefully in advance before applying.

AI Incubator_Participation & Data Sharing Consent Agreement.pdf

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💰 Financial Support

The AI Incubator provides operational and financial support for participation, covering travel, accommodation, and logistics for all in-person activities. In addition, each selected project will receive a grant of 10.000 USD to be used according to the expense policy. 50% of this amount will be disbursed prior to the start of the Program, and the remaining 50% will be provided once the Program finishes.

During the application process, each participant/team will need to provide an aproximative budget of what they would use the financial support for. Once the team is selected, they will be required to provide a more detailed budget.

You can download the approximative budget here. We recommend you to read it carefully in advance before applying.

• In the Disbursement Needed column, indicate whether you will use the financial support provided before or after the Program to purchase that item.

• You will find some lines already prefilled as an example. Please, delete them before submitting.

AI Incubator_Approximative Budget.xlsx

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🤝 Commitment

As detailed in the Participation & Data Sharing Consent Agreement, each participant agrees to participate actively in the Program for its full duration (24 weeks). Participants commit to:

1. Attend the in-person workshop and online meetings. If applying as a team, at least one participant must be present at the in-person workshop and each participant is required to attend at least 80% of the weekly meetings.

2. Properly preparing for meetings, and responding to emails within a reasonable timeframe.

3. Engage actively in the development of their work within the established deadlines.

4. Actively participating in meetings and showing interest in other participants' projects.

5. Treat fellow cohort members, mentors, and collaborators with respect, abiding by our code of conduct.

6. Answer to the surveys conducted before, during, and after the Incubator.

7. Help us build an alumni community open to collaboration opportunities.

We estimate the synchronous (meeting times) beyond the in-person workshop to be ~7h/month. Each project will require different asynchronous time investment, we anticipate a minimum of ~20h/month per project.