Welcome to another weekly update on the news and opinions across vaccine development for TB, leishmaniasis, melioidosis and leprosy. Last week was a spate of funding calls; this week lots of meeting dates have been released - and we're welcoming some new members! Here's the information you need to know:

Funding: 

• TED Fellows Program, 2019 cycle

Our external funding webpage lists lots of open calls that could be relevant to your research.

Training Opportunities:

• Introduction to Public Engagement course, Jan 2018

Lots of other training ideas here.

External meetings:

• LCNTDR Quality Research for Effective Policies - highlights from 2017, 31 Jan 2018
• World TB Day Symposium 2018, LSHTM (livestream available), 23 Mar 2018
• 2018 Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research, USA, 23 Apr 2018
• XII Congress of the Latin American Association of Immunology (ALAI), 14 May 2018
• TB2018, 22 Jul 2018
• 12th Vaccine Congress, Hungary, 16 Sep 2018
• 17th International Congress of Immunology, 18 Oct 2019

Job Opportunities:

• Research Fellow in TB/HIV Epidemiology, LSHTM

We've also spotted a few papers that might be of interest:

• Prevention of tuberculosis in rhesus macaques by a cytomegalovirus-based vaccine
• A novel tuberculosis pathogen, Mycobacterium mungi, closely related to human TB, infects and kills banded mongooses through a surprising route -- olfactory communication
• Harmonized clinical trial methodologies for localized cutaneous leishmaniasis and potential for extensive network with capacities for clinical evaluation

The last few weeks have seen us welcome some more new members to VALIDATE: 

Steve Cose (UVRI, Uganda/LSHTM, UK), Deborah Fraga (FIOCRUZ, Brazil), and Washington dos Santos (FIOCRUZ, Brazil) as Investigators.

Daniela Farias Larangeira (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil), Leopold Tientcheu (MRC The Gambia), Geraldo de Sa Oliveira (FIOCRUZ, Brazil), and Amanda Gibson (RVC, UK) as Associates.

And Francis Makoka (Mount Kenya University), Charlotte Kerley (PHE, UK), Amber Barton (University of Oxford, UK), Micheal Mugerwa (Aga Khan Health Services, Tanzania) and Enoka Corea (University of Colombo, Sri Lanka) as Affiliates.

Welcome everyone! You can see more information about our members and their research interests in our members directory.

This week on Twitter we've flagged articles on why the world ignores diseases of poverty, how satellites predicted a cholera outbreak, and how scientists can be kinder to each other; a news article that Irish badgers are being vaccinated against TB; the MRC's 12 top tips for writing a grant application; and our Director, Prof Helen McShane talking about VALIDATE at the Spring Acid Fast Club this week in London; as well as lots of retweets about relevant events and grant calls - we're @NetworkVALIDATE so do follow us if you are on Twitter.

Finally, don't forget about our open VALIDATE training grant call - Associate members can apply for up to £3,000 to attend a course/workshop, go on a lab exchange, or present a poster or talk at a conference. The call closes on 14 February, so get your applications in by then - further details, and how to apply, can be found here.

Published: 17 January 2018