Shortly after our tenth anniversary, celebrated last year, CARTA now revels in surpassing the mark of 100 PhD graduates!

CARTA has contributed to developing a vibrant African academy capable of leading world-class multidisciplinary research that positively impacts public and population health. Our goal is to strengthen the research ecosystem of African universities and support early career researchers to undertake their doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships on the continent and become internationally recognized research leaders, influencing society.

As we celebrate this milestone of exceeding 100 graduates, we will look at the contribution of our fellows and graduates to the research ecosystem in their institutions and Africa at large.

CARTA was started over a decade ago at a time when Africa was facing a challenge of PhD capacity. Opportunities for PhD training abroad were dwindling, and the existing faculty in the continent was ageing, signaling a more significant crisis. In 2006, APHRC officials kicked off a series of meetings with University leadership in Nairobi, which ultimately led to the formation of CARTA.

The founding directors had in mind creating a program that could build the next generation of African scholars and researchers. They were motivated by the fact that there was expertise scattered all over the continent. Their focus was to bring this together to create an experience where someone going through doctoral training anywhere in Africa would experience the same set of quality support and training that others got elsewhere.

Upon forming the consortium, CARTA sought to sustain a critical mass of highly trained African scholars at the PhD level, advance graduate training through institutionalizing CARTA innovations at African partner universities, and secure the future of CARTA graduates by mentoring them to become leaders in their research fields.

The promotion of research excellence best illustrates CARTA’s achievements through fellows and graduates who together have authored over 1147 articles in refereed journals. CARTA has maintained a pipeline of high-quality early career researchers on the continent and created supportive research environments in African partner institutions to enable the mainstreaming of CARTA’s innovations.

Many of the graduates trained through our program have achieved great successes in their careers in academia and research. We will have them share their experiences, lessons, challenges, and successes in the coming days and months. Besides, “CARTA 100 Graduates” celebrations will showcase the positive impact that CARTA graduates are making in their work while contributing to the growth of public and population health in Africa.

Thank you to all of our partners for believing in our fellows and supporting the next generation of researchers in Africa.

NB: Tweet with us about the CARTA graduates using the hashtag #CARTA100.