STARS Fellowship to ensure African health sovereignty

The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for Africa, which found itself at the back of the queue when it came to vaccines. This has led to the determination to never rely on others when it comes to health issues. The latest effort in this direction, the STARS Fellowship in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, is producing a generation of scientific leaders also equipped with business acumen and institutional capacity.

Every week, I walk into a room of 40 of Africa’s brightest young medical scientists and ask them to imagine something audacious: twenty years from now, some of you will be CEOs of major pharmaceutical companies. Others will serve as Ministers of Health. A few might lead continental health agencies. And all of you will be part of the generation that built Africa’s health sovereignty.

This isn’t aspirational rhetoric. It’s the explicit goal of the African STARS Fellowship, developed in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation—a $9m investment in training the genomics, diagnostics, and vaccine development leaders Africa will need in the decades ahead.

We received over 3,000 applications for the first 40 positions. These are the talented young scientists who lived through COVID-19’s vaccine inequity and decided: never again.

Here’s what makes this program different. We place entrepreneurial skills at the heart of what we do.  We teach the fellows how to sequence a genome and develop a diagnostic – but also how to write project proposals, manage finances, make compelling pitches, and create business plans. We’re training entrepreneurs as much as we’re training scientists.

The COVID-19 pandemic was Africa’s wake-up call. When the continent received less than 2% of early vaccines while other nations stockpiled doses, we confronted an uncomfortable truth: we cannot depend on others for our health security.

But the response that followed—through the Mastercard Foundation’s Saving Lives and Livelihoods initiative and Africa CDC—proved what’s possible. Over 35 million vaccines administered, genomic sequencing capacity expanded across the continent, and over 25,000 jobs created. Health security and economic security are inseparable.

Responding to this new reality meant moving beyond research training to developing a generation of scientific leaders with business acumen and institutional capacity.

The African STARS Fellowship runs four program tracks over six months to two years: an MBA in Health Leadership, a Master’s in Pathogen Genomics, Advanced Translational Training, and a Young Professional Program.

Half of our young professionals receive training on transforming ideas into business plans, then get placed in companies within our ecosystem to apply what they’ve learned.

Our approach reflects our track record of capacity building. Our previous Stellenbosch programs trained over 700 fellows from 50 African countries—some for just a few weeks of technical training, others for full degrees spanning years. Many now lead major genomics programs across the continent, directing scientific initiatives in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.

They succeeded not just because they mastered laboratory techniques, but because they learned to lead teams, secure funding, and build institutions.

Pan-African network

We are fundamentally opposed to brain drain. When fellows complete their training, they return home—but they don’t return alone. They carry networks of peers across the continent, connections to investors and industry leaders, and the confidence that comes from seeing what’s possible.

At Stellenbosch, we’re surrounded by over 500 companies in a town of just 50,000 people, including CubeSpace—a frontrunner to become Africa’s first university spinout $1bn unicorn. STARS Fellows attend weekly presentations from successful biotech entrepreneurs. They tour facilities.

You believe it’s possible to create a company when you see hundreds thriving around you, not when you’re attempting it in isolation.

The African STARS Fellowship is one pillar within a broader continental transformation. Consider the MADIBA program, which is building vaccine manufacturing infrastructure in Senegal and developing a training hub for young Africans.

Last year alone, over 130 people from Institut Pasteur de Dakar were trained in vaccine manufacturing. Many travelled to France to learn cutting-edge techniques, then returned home to apply them in Senegal.

Both programmes share a common philosophy: invest in people, build networks, and create opportunities. Each trained professional generates a multiplier effect. A genomic specialist establishes a laboratory back home. That lab trains others. Those trainees lead national programs, mentor students, and advise governments. One investment becomes ten opportunities, then a hundred.

I’m more optimistic now than at any point in my career, and here’s why: Africa has expertise controlling diseases that would devastate other regions. We can manage epidemics more effectively than wealthy nations in many areas because we’ve had to—we’ve been on the frontlines for generations. Now we must translate that expertise into production capacity, developing our own diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.

The pathway is clear but requires sustained commitment. Every university, every research institution, every government ministry must ask: are we building the next generation of health scientists, or waiting for others to solve our problems?

The 40 fellows in our first African STARS Fellows cohort represent just the beginning. They’re learning to run research programs, raise funding, manage teams, and launch companies. Just as importantly, they’re building relationships that will last decades—a pan-African network that can mobilise fast when the next crisis hits.

If, and when, the next pandemic comes, Africa will not wait in line for vaccines. We will lead the response, drawing on continental networks of scientists we trained, laboratories we built, and companies we incubated. That future is being forged today in Stellenbosch, Dakar, and institutions across our continent.

The young scientists I meet with each week understand this. In 20 years, when they’re running pharmaceutical companies and advising presidents, they’ll remember that it started with a simple belief: Africa has the talent, the expertise, and the determination to secure our own health future. We just need to invest in it.