Luca Maharavo, recipient of a GABRIEL grant, completed a week of training alongside the Mérieux Foundation’s experts Emilie Westeel and Jean-Luc Berland, in Lyon (France).
For one week, Luca Maharavo was supported by the Mérieux Foundation experts as he explored the R programming language, used for statistical analysis and data processing, as well as RStudio, the R development environment. The training enabled him to learn about data cleansing, analysis and visualization, discovering how to structure a dataset, spot possible errors, and produce clear graphs so that the results can be interpreted more easily. It helped him to develop his skills in the field, which is crucial for his thesis entitled “Development and Evaluation of New Diagnostic Tools for Leprosy and Other Neglected Tropical Diseases in Madagascar”, which he is carrying out under the joint supervision of the University of Antananarivo and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
“The chapters we covered helped me clarify the knowledge I already had, particularly around using basic scripts, organizing my data, and managing code. I also gained a better understanding of how to use ggplot and R Markdown, which has improved my data analysis and visualization skills. […] The session was very enriching, with direct, constructive discussions with the trainers. The training was very hands-on, and the teaching method was perfectly suited to my needs,” noted Luca.
The training was made possible thanks to the support of the GABRIEL Network, which awarded him a three-year thesis grant in 2024.
This initiative is one of many activities and projects set up by the Mérieux Foundation to fight leprosy in Madagascar. The Mérieux Foundation recently helped organize a workshop to draw up the country’s National Strategic Plan for the Fight against Leprosy and Neglected Tropical Skin Diseases for 2025–2030.
GABRIEL network: support for young researchers through doctoral grants
Laboratories in the GABRIEL international scientific network regularly report a lack of human resources and skills to develop their research programs.
The network has therefore set up a doctoral grant program aimed at strengthening the capacity of its member laboratories by encouraging young researchers to join them to work on a thesis, in conjunction with a funded project and international collaboration.
Doctoral grants are awarded for a three-year period, after selection of the research project.