Early-career African drug discovery researchers writing in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry put Africa’s share of global scientific output at 2 to 3 percent, against a continent holding more than 85 percent of the world’s neglected tropical disease cases.
Scientific output can increase with a hands-on mentoring program designed to support scientists who want to apply open-source AI tools to their drug discovery projects for infectious diseases.
AI Incubator for African Principal Investigators
AI Incubator is a six-month program with biweekly mentoring, sponsored travel, and a $10,000 fellowship for senior researchers, or teams of up to four scientists, at an academic or nonprofit institution in the WHO African Region.
They should be using AI in an existing drug discovery project on small molecules, including isolated natural products, for infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, Gram-negative infections, or neglected tropical diseases. PhD students can lead an application with written PI support.
The fellowship covers laptops, internet costs, conference registration, article processing charges, reagents, molecule purchases, and stipends. Teams keep ownership of their data and results under an agreement that cites the African Union Data Policy Framework.
Apply Now: Deadline is October 19, 2026.
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