LSHTM CREATIVE Fellowship 2026 (Historical Reference): 30-Month Clinical Research Fellowship in Sub-Saharan Africa

LSHTM CREATIVE Fellowship 2026 (Historical Reference): 30-Month Clinical Research Fellowship in Sub-Saharan Africa

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) CREATIVE Fellowship 2026 is a closed fellowship call and is retained here as a historical reference. LSHTM’s official CREATIVE Fellowship page gives the application closing date as 29 May 2026, the expected interview period as July 2026, and the expected start as October 2026. LSHTM’s distance-learning funding table also lists the CREATIVE MSc Fellowship and work placement as closed. The official material I checked does not announce a later intake, so this page should not be read as an invitation to submit a late application.

CREATIVE stands for Clinical ResEArch Training fellowship with Industry involVEment. The scheme was designed as a multi-country clinical research capacity-strengthening programme in Sub-Saharan Africa, coordinated by LSHTM and funded by the European Union through Global Health EDCTP3. It combined a work placement at an African health research institution, distance-learning postgraduate study at LSHTM, structured mentorship, and the opportunity to apply for a competitive industry internship.

Official status and key facts

The funding description needs a careful reading. LSHTM calls the fellowship fully funded and states that it is funded for 30 months, but the public advert does not give a currency amount, stipend rate, allowance schedule, or itemised benefits. It would therefore be inaccurate to attach a guessed value to the award. Candidates from the closed intake would have needed to rely on the formal funding offer or direct clarification from the CREATIVE team for financial details.

What the fellowship covered

The central feature was the connection between supervised research work and formal academic training. Fellows were to be based at one of six research institutions in their own country of nationality. During the placement, they would engage in clinical research at the host institution rather than move to London for the whole programme. LSHTM described the work placement as lasting for the three-year duration of the fellowship, while the funding description says the fellowship is funded for 30 months. The academic element was to be completed within that broader fellowship period.

The academic route was a Distance Learning MSc at LSHTM. Applicants could indicate Clinical Trials, Epidemiology, or no preference. The advert states that nine fellows would pursue the MSc in Clinical Trials and three would pursue the MSc in Epidemiology. A stated preference had no effect on an applicant’s chance of success, although LSHTM warned that an applicant might not receive the first choice if one option became oversubscribed.

The scheme also included structured mentorship. The official description connects mentorship with MSc completion, career development, professional networks, and preparation for post-fellowship opportunities. Industry exposure was an opportunity to apply for a competitive internship, not a guaranteed placement for every fellow. That distinction matters when describing the award: the internship was an additional competitive opportunity within a larger fellowship, not the basic condition of every award.

Host institutions and countries

The placement was organised around six named institutions, with two fellowships allocated to each institution according to the official advert:

1. Haramaya University in Ethiopia.
2. Kintampo Health Research Centre, Ghana Health Service, in Ghana.
3. The Medical Research Council Unit in The Gambia.
4. The Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit in Uganda.
5. Zambart in Zambia.
6. Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Zimbabwe.

Applicants could only apply for a fellowship based in their country of nationality. This was not a broad regional award where a candidate could freely choose any African host site. A prospective applicant therefore needed to check both nationality and the matching institution before preparing an application. LSHTM was the coordinating university and the provider of the distance-learning MSc, but the fellowship’s African work placement was tied to the relevant home-country host institution.

Eligibility requirements

The official criteria for the 2026 call were specific:

• The applicant had to be a national of Ethiopia, Ghana, The Gambia, Uganda, Zambia, or Zimbabwe.
• The applicant could apply only for a fellowship based in the country of nationality.
• The applicant needed a first- or second-class honours degree from a recognised university in a discipline relevant to the programme. LSHTM gives natural or life sciences, epidemiology, statistics, and medicine as examples, while allowing similar relevant disciplines.
• The applicant needed at least one year of experience working within health research in an organisation responsible for conducting health research. The advert says this could include a non-governmental, governmental, academic, or industry organisation.
• The applicant needed to be able to meet LSHTM’s Band B English language requirements. The advert says an English test result could be absent at application stage, but a test result could later be made a condition of a scholarship offer.
• The applicant needed to be available to commence the fellowship full time at the start of October 2026, based at the relevant host research institution in the home country.
• The applicant needed two reference letters, including one from the current employer, confirming suitability for the fellowship.

These requirements describe an early-career clinical or health research professional rather than a general student applicant. The degree alone was not enough: the minimum period of health research experience and the employer reference were both part of the published criteria. The country restriction was equally important. Someone who met the academic requirements but was not a national of one of the six listed countries was outside the stated eligibility rules for this intake.

Application materials and process

For the closed call, LSHTM instructed applicants to complete the online application form linked from the official fellowship page. The required uploads were:

1. A curriculum vitae.
2. Academic transcripts for all completed degrees.
3. Academic certificates for all completed degrees.
4. Two letters of reference.
5. Proof of nationality.

The personal statement had its own required content. Applicants were asked to explain why they wanted the fellowship, how their work, academic background, and professional experience made them suitable, what they hoped to achieve during the fellowship, and their career plans after completion. They also had to state a preferred MSc programme: Clinical Trials, Epidemiology, or no preference. LSHTM asked for specific details of proposed study plans and intended post-fellowship activities.

The application was therefore more than a document upload. A credible submission needed to connect prior health research work, the selected academic route, the proposed host-country setting, and a realistic career plan. The CV could establish experience, transcripts and certificates could support academic merit, and references could confirm professional suitability. The personal statement had to explain why those pieces formed a coherent reason to join CREATIVE.

How LSHTM assessed applications

The official shortlisting criteria were:

1. Academic merit, based on qualifications and grades shown in the transcripts.
2. Relevant work experience, based on the professional experience detailed in the CV.
3. Motivation for the fellowship and the quality of plans during and after the fellowship, based on the personal statement.

This gives a useful way to understand the intended applicant profile. Strong grades without relevant work experience would not address the whole assessment. Conversely, practical experience without a clear academic record or a convincing plan would leave important parts of the criteria unsupported. The best application would have made the relationship between those three areas easy for a reviewer to follow.

The statement also needed to avoid treating the MSc as an isolated qualification. The programme was built around applied clinical research, so applicants could explain the research responsibilities they had already handled, the skills they wanted to develop through Clinical Trials or Epidemiology, and how they would use the fellowship in their home-country research environment. Specific examples were more useful than broad claims about wanting to improve health.

Timeline for the closed intake

The published timeline was:

• Application closing date: 29 May 2026.
• Expected interview period: July 2026.
• Expected fellowship start: October 2026.

Those dates belong to the completed 2026 call and should not be repurposed as a live application schedule. The official page does not state that applications remain open after the closing date, and LSHTM’s distance-learning funding table marks the CREATIVE award closed. The archive retains the deadline because it is the correct historical date, while historicalReference = true makes the page’s status explicit.

What is and is not confirmed about funding

The public official source confirms that the fellowship is fully funded and funded for 30 months. It does not publish a numerical award amount. There is also no public itemised breakdown in the advert for stipend, tuition handling, travel, research costs, or other allowances. This page consequently records the confirmed funding description without converting it into a made-up monetary figure.

The academic and placement components are clearer than the financial detail. LSHTM names the two MSc options, the six host institutions, the number of available fellowships, and the competitive industry-internship opportunity. A successful applicant would have needed to review the formal award information for the precise financial terms. That distinction protects readers from confusing “fully funded” with a specific stipend amount that LSHTM did not publish on the page.

Why keep a historical entry

Although the intake is closed, the page remains useful to researchers and institutions in the six participating countries. It records the nationality rule, the host-site model, the minimum experience threshold, the required employer reference, the MSc choices, and the shape of the personal statement. Those details can help a reader recognise the programme if LSHTM publishes a later call, but they should not be treated as evidence that a later call exists.

Anyone looking for a future round should begin with the LSHTM funding pages and confirm that a new advert names a new cycle, deadline, eligibility set, and application link. The current official page is the authoritative place to check whether the CREATIVE scheme returns and whether any conditions change. Until LSHTM publishes such an announcement, this record should remain an archive of the 2026 opportunity.

Official links

• LSHTM CREATIVE Fellowship page
• LSHTM Distance Learning funding and scholarships table

The official CREATIVE page is the source for the closed deadline, fellowship structure, eligibility, required documents, selection criteria, and expected timeline. The linked distance-learning table independently labels the CREATIVE MSc Fellowship and work placement as closed. No later cycle is stated on either official page reviewed for this update.