Fellowship Training Program

Principal Components of the Training Program

The GloCal Health Fellowship Training Program has four principal components:

  • Research Project Design - A 12-month, hands-on research project on-site with one of our 22 well-established, international collaborative partners
  • Mentorship - A strong, interdisciplinary mentored research experience
  • Global Health Education - Instruction in global health and related topics provided through online or onsite courses;
  • Career Development - Career development to help ensure that fellows attain their short-term career goals and transition to the next career stage

Component 1: Research Project Design

Each fellow will design, develop and conduct a mentored, hands-on research project at his/her respective international site location. Candidates must meet with their potential mentors to design and develop a specific research project prior to submitting their application. Generally, fellows will be at their international research sites for 11-12 consecutive.

Component 2: Mentorship

Mentorship is the foundation of success for each GloCal fellow and the overall program. Each fellow works with three mentors using our innovative and successful trans-mentorship model. Trans-mentorship facilitates interdisciplinary research by pairing fellows from one discipline with senior investigators from a different discipline. This approach provides fellows with multiple sources of intellectual, practical and career guidance. Fellows will establish one UC mentor (from within the UC GloCal Consortium campuses) with expertise in the fellow's research field, one mentor from the international site, and one trans-mentor.

Mentors are expected to provide guidance for fellows during the program, as well as ongoing support for subsequent career development. To provide a solid foundation for mentoring, each fellow will complete an Individual Development Plan (IDP) with his or her mentor team, including a mentor compact, baseline goals, and a series of appraisals. The mentor compact sets expectations for both mentors and fellows, including short-term goals, planned data collection, abstracts, manuscripts and grant proposals. It also provides a basis for the mentor and fellow evaluations that occur at the program midpoint and at completion.

Component 3: Global Health Education

A variety of online instructional programs in global health are available through the UC GloCal consortium campuses for trainees residing abroad. Online course topics include:

  • Clinical epidemiology
  • Classical epidemiology
  • Experimental design
  • Drug/device development
  • Cost-effectiveness analysis
  • Qualitative research
  • Implementation and dissemination sciences
  • Ethical conduct of research

At the beginning of their fellowships, all fellows will be required to take the six-week CTSI Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) online course, unless they demonstrate that they have taken a comparable course within the previous 24 months. Fellows can subsequently take additional courses for academic credit or non-credit during the year to fill in gaps in their methodological training.

Fellowship Handbook 2024-2025

GloCal Fellow Handbook 2024-2025

Component 4: Career Development

The GloCal Fellowship provides career development to ensure that each fellow reaches the next stage of his/her career. Regardless of the current stage of a fellow's career, the program provides an understanding of several key topics: pathways to a successful academic career; obtaining funding from various sources; and managing a professional life of research, clinical care, education and service — all essential to excel in academia. GloCal career development activities focus on the conduct of scientific research, the basics of career trajectories, management of a research team, and best practices in giving and receiving constructive feedback.

During the fellowship, predoctoral fellows will be expected to generate one abstract and at least one dissertation manuscript. Postdoctoral fellows will be expected to generate one abstract and one or two manuscripts, and are also encouraged to submit a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Career Development Award (K-grant), or similar grant, to fund a global health faculty position after completion of the program. International postdoctoral fellows who are not eligible for an NIH Career Development Awards will be required to apply for eligible NIH-based research (e.g. Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) pilot grants or NIH/D43 in-country developmental pilot grants).

Component 5: U.S.-based training and mentoring program (TMP) for LMIC fellows

LMIC fellows will be required to participate in a 1-3 month TMP in-residence at UC to ensure that they take full advantage of unique resources and capacities of UC that may not be available in some LMICs. LMIC fellows will also strengthen their relationship with their UC mentors and their research teams with the goal to positively impact fellows’ long-term career trajectory following GloCal. In addition to spending critical time with their primary UC mentor, this program will be tailor-made for each fellow’s specific needs and provide structured-learning (such as UCSF’s Training in Clinical Research (TICR) courses), skills development, and scientific network and community strengthening that includes LMIC fellows, other postdoctoral trainees at UC, faculty, and the GloCal Leadership Group. 

As part of your application, you will need to develop a draft plan with your UC mentor to spend 1-3 months of your yearlong fellowship at your mentor’s UC campus. Of note, once an applicant is accepted to the program it takes GloCal about 4 months to process forms, for a fellow to schedule a visa appointment at the US embassy, etc. Thus, while you will come to the US for orientation around the middle of July, it may not be possible for you to extend your stay in the US to visit UC following orientation, and you may need to return later in the fellowship year to complete this requirement.

Component 6: UPCH/GloCal Certificate in Global Health Research

GloCal additionally has an optional opportunity to obtain a UPCH/GloCal Certificate in Global Health Research alongside the GloCal Health Fellowship. This optional certificate leverages the existing training and mentoring opportunities available through the fellowship. It is a 12-credit hour certificate program, accredited by GloCal partner Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Peru. The certificate is currently open to all GloCal fellows as well as fellows from other LAUNCH consortia. The certificate is comprised of three components:

  1. UCSF online Designing Clinical Research Course (2 credit hours), or equivalent course with approval from the certificate leadership.
  2. GloCal/UPCH Seminar (16 weeks, 6 credit hours) involving didactic lectures and moderated discussion and essays. The seminar is led by a diverse team of faculty from various global settings. This seminar will occur every 2 weeks, consisting of a 75-minute lecture followed by a 90-minute discussion session. Lectures will start in mid-August and finish in mid-December. Probable topics for the seminar are: instruments, global health decolonization, reproducibility, implementation science, paper writing and publishing, mental health, research funding, and grant writing.
  3. Mentoring Course (4 credit hours), aimed at improving mentorship-related activities during the fellowship and also enhancing the fellow's mentoring skills. This course will involve meetings with UC/LMIC mentors, and participation in research group meetings, UC lectures, conferences, seminars, and peer mentoring.