ABBOTT PANDEMIC DEFENSE POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

An important aspect of GVN’s mission includes training future virologists to meet the current, and future, need of highly qualified, well-trained virologists worldwide. Since late 2019, through the GVN Corporate Partnership program, Abbott and GVN have been working collaboratively to mitigate viral threats and subsequently the current pandemic. Last year, Abbott established the Pandemic Defense Coalition, the first-of-its-kind, industry-led, global scientific network dedicated to the early detection of, and rapid response to, future pandemic threats. The Coalition comprises 14 entities, including networks, governments, and public health organizations on five continents that are actively identifying, analyzing, tracking and testing viral threats.

In this context, GVN and Abbott launched The GVN – Abbott Pandemic Defense Postdoctoral Fellowship Program to nurture junior scientists in pursuing their careers in virology and to build global scientific network in response to the early detection and mitigation of future pandemic threats. The Fellowship supports one-year post-doctoral training fellowship for applicants with a MD, PhD, or DVM degree(s) with the potential to extend to a two-year program. This program ensures junior scientists receive elite training in the identification of unknown diseases through surveillance, viral genomic sequencing analysis and bioinformatics. It also helps build research capacity by enhancing participants’ research portfolio and creating and establishing connections with scientists from developing nations.