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West African Sustainable Leadership and Innovation Training in Bioinformatics Research (WASLITBRe) Training Program Summary. It is evidently clear that NIH has audaciously stimulated and is supporting research in human health and heredity in Africa, which is further, enhanced with informatics tools development and short-term training in bioinformatics. However, the long-term sustainability of the initiatives remain a doubt if effort is not directed to African Universities to develop innovative, future-looking- oriented data science academic education to perpetuity maintain the scientific research leadership in data science. We therefore proposed here to develop a West African Sustainable Leadership and Innovation Training in Bioinformatics Research (WASLITBRe) to support the H3Africa consortium. The proposed WASLITBRe is a collaborative program between Covenant University (CU), Nigeria, University of Bamako (UB), Mali and the University of Ghana/KNUST. The program will have two tracks – a training leading to award of MSc./ PhD, junior faculty (post doctorate) fellowships, and networking and mentorship training in advanced bioinformatics and data science research. Trainees for the MSc/PhD will be selected from pool of graduates with diverse background (clinician, information Science, computer science, mathematics, data Science, statistics/biostatistics, biology, physics and engineering), junior faculty fellowship will be selected from a pool of highly motivated graduates with less than 5 years of research experience post PhD training. The unifying theme of both tracks is that trainee must express and demonstrate interest in bioinformatics and data science research. Our long-term goal is to produce a sustainable network of individuals who are well trained in various aspects of advanced bioinformatics and data science research, ready to assume leadership roles at academic, health care and research institutions in West Africa.

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