ISID and the Swiss Society for Infectious Diseases (SSI) jointly sponsor the SSI/ISID Infectious Diseases Research Fellowship Program.

The purpose of this Fellowship Program is to support infectious disease physicians and scientists from developing and middle income countries through multidisciplinary clinical and laboratory training at select biomedical institutions in Switzerland. The objectives of the Fellowship Program are:

• to train promising young physicians and scientists from developing and middle income countries for clinical and research positions in infectious diseases
• to foster partnerships between Fellows and infectious disease leaders in Switzerland
• to increase scientific research capacity in low income/high disease burden countries

Opportunities for training and research in a variety of areas ranging from basic studies of the mechanism of disease to studies in public health, epidemiology, diagnostics, therapeutics or vaccine development, are available through this program.

The term of the Fellowship is for one year. The start date of the will be determined by arrangement between the host institution and the Fellow.

A financial stipend of up to 36,000 SF per year (approximately $35,500 USD) will be given to Fellows to cover travel costs and living expenses.  The program intends to award two fellowships every year.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:  Language skills of French or German are necessary according to the institution chosen (German for Basel, Bern, Zurich and St. Gallen; French for Geneva and Lausanne).  Please indicate in your application your speaking and writing proficiency of these languages and of English. SSI/ISID Fellows will be placed at one of six collaborating research centers in Switzerland according to technical interests and skills. All infectious diseases programs at each institution offer experience in clinical infectious diseases, including HIV, and microbiology. The technical research interests at each site include:

• Bern: Meningitis. Brain injury in CNS infection. Molecular pathogenesis of respiratory pathogens. Epidemiology and resistance of pneumococcus. (Tauber MG, Leib SL, Aebi C, Muhlemann K)
• Geneva: Clinical infectious diseases in adults or children. Prevention and control of infections; Antibiotic stewardship. Clinical trials in HIV infection. Osteomyelitis and bone prosthetic infections. Genomics, molecular biology and pathogenicity of S. aureus.
  Infections in transplant patients. Emerging and respiratory viruses. (Hirschel B, Gervaix A, Kaiser L, Kelley W, Lew D, Pittet , Schrenzel J, Uckay I, Van Delden C ) [additional information is available at http://www.geneve-infection.ch/]
• Lausanne: Antibiotic stewardship and monitoring of antibiotic use. Complicated bone and joint infections. Surgical implant associated-infections. Cytomegalovirus. Epidemiology, diagnosis, prevention and therapy of bacterial, fungal and viral infections in immunocompromised and critically-ill patients. Emerging pathogens. Immunogenetics, genetic epidemiology. Infections due to intracellular bacteria. Innate immunity, cytokines and sepsis. Molecular epidemiology of nosocomial infections. Molecular pathogenesis of endocarditis. Resistance, pharmaco-epidemiology, and therapeutic drug monitoring in HIV. Transplant infectious diseases. (Bochud, Calandra T, Erard V, Greub G, Manuel O, Marchetti O, Meylan P, Moreillon P, Telenti A, Trampuz A, Zanetti G)
• Basel: Infectious diseases, hospital hygiene and epidemiology. Full clinical service in all areas of infection diseases and hospital hygiene and epidemiology. Pathophysiology and clinical research including health economy. HIV: pathogenesis and course of disease. (Battegay M, Flckiger U, Widmer A, Erb P) [additional information is available at http://www.infektiologie.uhbs.ch/content_allg/main.asp]
• Zurich: Clinical trials in HIV. Molecular biology of HIV, latent reservoirs, and anti-HIV immune response. HIV epidemiology. Intestinal infections. Zoonotic infections. Hospital epidemiology. (Weber R, Ruef C, Guenthart H, Opravil M, Trkola A, Flepp M, Speck R, Ledergerber B)
• St. Gallen: Sexual transmission of HIV (Vernazza P). [additional information is available at http://www.infekt.ch]

The program is open to applicants who are citizens or permanent residents of developing countries or Eastern Europe.  Applicants should have a M.D. or a Ph.D in a relevant field and should hold a position at a medical, research, or public health institution.  An endorsement by the home institution is required for participation in the program. Application materials are available for download in PDF format or in Microsoft Word.

	SSI/ISID Fellowship application in PDF
	SSI/ISID Fellowship application in Word

Applications will be reviewed by a joint SSI and ISID committee. Selection will be based on the applicant's academic potential, career plans, previous clinical/research experience, letters of reference, and relevance of training to home institution and home country. Personal interviews will be arranged with selected applicants as the final step in the application process.

The annual application deadline for Fellowship applications is 1 April. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by 1 July.

Requests for application materials and additional information should be directed to:

International Society for Infectious Diseases
Professional Development Working Group
9 Babcock Street, Unit 3
Brookline, Massachusetts 02446
USA

Fax: (617) 278-9113
E-mail: program.coordinator@isid.org