TDR Clinical Research Leadership (CRL) Fellowship Programme

Benefits & funding

• Up to 24 months of support in total: six to twelve months at the training partner, then up to twelve months of reintegration at the home institution.
• One economy-class return flight, home to training partner and back.
• A monthly stipend set by the placement location. The call publishes no figure.
• Health insurance for the placement.
• Support to present at a relevant international conference during the fellowship.
• Provisional reintegration funds, released once TDR approves a progress report and a reintegration plan.
• Access to the TDR alumni network.
• Placements cover areas such as clinical trial design and conduct, vaccine development, epidemiological studies, drug assessment, diagnostics, biostatistics, data management and pharmacovigilance.

Eligibility

• Applicants must be nationals of, and resident in, a low- or middle-income country.
• The call names no country list. On the World Bank income classification for the 2027 fiscal year, the low, lower-middle and upper-middle income economies are: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Colombia, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, DR Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• Applicants must hold a postgraduate PhD or MD, or an MSc in pharmacy, with evidence of clinical research work within TDR’s scope.
• The first degree must have been obtained within 15 years of the date the application is submitted.
• Applicants must have spent the previous 24 months employed as a researcher or clinical staff member at an institution with a registered legal entity in a low- or middle-income country. That institution must conduct clinical research on poverty-related infectious diseases, emerging infectious diseases, pandemic preparedness, antimicrobial resistance or neglected tropical diseases.
• Fellows must return to the home institution and work there for at least two years after the fellowship.
• The programme takes active measures for fair participation of women, men and people who do not fit those binary gender identities.
• A flexible placement, mixing remote and on-site training with structured mentoring, can be arranged for candidates with young families.
• The call publishes no age limit and no language test requirement.

Application process

1. 1
   Watch for the next call. TDR publishes a call listing the training partner placements available in that round, and applications are accepted only while a call is open.
2. 2
   Register at the WHO survey site named in the call. Registration returns a personal link to the online application form.
3. 3
   Complete the form, naming the placement or placements applied for and the clinical research training being sought.
4. 4
   TDR’s secretariat screens each application against the eligibility criteria.
5. 5
   Eligible applications go to the participating training partners, and each partner shortlists up to five candidates for interview.
6. 6
   Interviews are held between the home institution, the candidate and the training partner, with TDR present.
7. 7
   Partners rank the candidates they interviewed, and TDR runs the final matching of candidates to partners.
8. 8
   Matched candidates are notified, and the contractual arrangements between the parties begin.

Program timeline

1. Third-cohort applications close, 17:00 CET.

   Mar 30, 2025

2. Reopened deadline for the third cohort.

   Sep 15, 2025

3. Third-cohort fellows begin training at their partner organizations.

   2026

4. Reintegration projects begin at the home institutions.

   2027

5. Third cohort completes the fellowship.

   2028

6. Next call

   TDR has not published a fourth-cohort call.