Places have been awarded to 12 CONNECTED Network members to attend a new series of virology webinars running through until April 2021.

Organised by Innovative Network for Next Generation Training and Sequencing of Virome (INEXTVIR), these one-hour webinars will be held approximately fortnightly, and hosted by leading virology experts from institutions across the globe, including Australia, Brazil, Kenya, Peru, Uganda, UK, and the USA.

97 network members applied for one of the CONNECTED places on series, and as just 12 places were available, most applications were unsuccessful.

However, 12 early career researchers : six women; six men, were awarded places to the webinar series, which is now up-and-running:

• Chantal Nyirakanani, The University of Liege, Belgium (Ph.D. student), Rwanda
• Manal Hussein Mohamed Omer, Plant Protection Directorate, Sudan
• Elizabeth Ngadze, University of Zimbabwe
• Florence Munguti, Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service, Kenya
• Fetuga, Temilade M., National Agricultural Seeds Council, Nigeria
• Prisca Nwachukwu, IITA, Nigeria
• Osundahunsi Bolaji, IITA, Nigeria
• Eric Muguro, The Technical University of Kenya
• Serge Ologou, East-West Seed, Benin
• Ashebir Gogile, Wolaita Sodo University, Ethiopia
• Philani Dlamini, Agricultural Research Council, South Africa
• Mouen Piau, Institute of Agricultural Research for Development, Cameroon

Congratulations to these 12 who seem sure to benefit from this exciting initiative.