Agreement expands mentorship program to support young African scientists, enabled by FAIR
Thursday 27th November 2025
The University of Catania has signed an agreement, as part of its participation in the FAIR project (Spoke 10), with the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) Society - one of the most prominent international scientific societies in the medical field – to launch a joint mentorship program for young African researchers funded by FAIR.
Through this agreement, 15 young scientists from across Africa will receive support, offering them the opportunity to apply and advance their scientific research in the medical field. The program offers dedicated mentorship pathways led by international experts, who will provide guidance and foster the professional growth of these emerging researchers.
The initiative aims to promote equity, inclusion, and access to opportunities within the global scientific community, with the goal of valuing local expertise and contributing to the development of innovative projects in African contexts.
In this framework, the University of Catania will play an active supervisory role, working alongside the MICCAI Society, to coordinate the program. Selected students for the program will receive financial and travel support to attend MICCAI 2026 in Abu Dhabi, UAE if their papers are accepted to the conference.
Prof. Concetto Spampinato (University of Catania, FAIR Spoke 10) emphasized the importance of this agreement and the value it can generate for the new generations of African scientists: “This program was created to build stable, two-way bridges between Africa and Europe. We want to provide young researchers with tools, mentorship, and international networks so they can grow and become key players in their own contexts. As the University of Catania and as FAIR Spoke 10, we are committed to structured pathways, open science, and targeted mobility: talent is everywhere, opportunities are not — our task is to close this gap. The mentorship will also serve as a testbed to transfer and validate FAIR’s innovations in resource-constrained settings: limited annotated data, intermittent connectivity, and low-cost edge hardware.”
MICCAI Society President, Prof. Marius George Linguraru, highlighted the strategic significance of this collaboration and its impact on the international scientific community: “We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the University of Catania for the generous support provided through the FAIR project. Their financial backing and collaboration will help us to empower the next generation of MICCAI innovators in Africa through the mentorship program.”
With this project, FAIR reaffirms its commitment to supporting the development of international scientific research and to promoting a truly inclusive scientific community.