The work of the Scientific Advisory Panel is integral to our success.
It ensures that we only fund research that is of high scientific merit, relevant to our research strategy, original and likely to succeed.
You can read our peer review procedure here.
What does the Scientific Advisory Panel do?
The Panel:
- Assesses every research funding application.
- Assesses annual progress reports for existing research grants.
- Gives advice on our research strategy and research conferences.
Panel members are international scientists working at the top of their field. They conduct worldwide research and generously give their time and expertise for free. They bring great insight and dedication to the funding process.
We are enormously grateful for their commitment, which can only serve to further research into meningitis.
Meet the Scientific Advisory Panel
Professor Caroline Trotter (Chair)
Professor Caroline Trotter (Chair)
Infectious disease epidemiologist, University of Cambridge and Imperial College London
Professor Anne Von Gottberg (Vice-chair)
Professor Anne Von Gottberg (Vice-chair)
Laboratory lead at the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Johannesburg, South Africa and Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
She leads a laboratory team responsible for reference diagnostics for respiratory and meningitis pathogens nationally and regionally. The laboratory is the regional reference laboratory for the World Health Organization (WHO) Vaccine-preventable Invasive Bacterial Diseases (VP-IBD) Coordinated Global Surveillance Network for the southern African region; a National Influenza Centre (NIC); and a global WHO RSV and regional SARS-CoV-2 reference laboratory.
She is currently a member of several committees and technical advisory groups for AFRO, Africa CDC and WHO. Her main interests include surveillance for meningitis and respiratory pathogens, assessing vaccine effectiveness where relevant. She has authored or co-authored more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, she supervises a number of Masters and PhD students. Dr von Gottberg obtained her MBBCh and PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand, and trained for her specialisation in clinical microbiology (FC Path[SA] MICRO) at the National Health Laboratory Service (former South African Institute for Medical Research) and at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Dr Suzanne Anderson
Dr Suzanne Anderson
Community child health paediatrician, University College London
From 2007 to 2016 she worked in sub-Saharan Africa, latterly running the clinical services department at the MRC Unit The Gambia for five years. Since returning to the UK she works as a consultant paediatrician with Evelina London Children’s Community Services and with the UCL MRC Clinical Trials Unit on a multi-centre treatment and outcome trial of TB meningitis.
Dr Merijn Bijlsma
Dr Merijn Bijlsma
Paediatrician and researcher at Amsterdam University Medical Centres
He combines national surveillance data, with large clinical cohorts and bacterial genetic sequencing, with the aim of improving diagnostics and prevention. Merijn is a member of the Dutch guideline committee and has co-authored the latest national guidelines on bacterial meningitis diagnosis and treatment.
Professor Dominique Caugant
Professor Dominique Caugant
Director of Research at the Division for Infection Control, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Meningococci, Oslo, Norway
She is responsible for the National Reference Laboratories in Norway for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis.
She is Adjunct Professor at the University of Oslo since 1999, first at the Faculty of Dentistry (until 2009), presently at the Section for International Health, Faculty of Medicine.
Her main fields of research are population genetics and molecular epidemiology of pathogenic bacteria, developing molecular tools for the study of infectious disease transmission, the development of antibiotic resistance and the evolution of pathogens. She is also involved in vaccine research, especially against meningococcal disease, including development of outer membrane vesicle vaccines, testing potential coverage of new vaccines and evaluation of impact of vaccination. She is involved in several international research projects, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Professor Hannah Christensen
Professor Hannah Christensen
Infectious disease epidemiologist, University of Bristol
Professor Nora Groce
Professor Nora Groce
Director of the UCL International Disability Research Centre at University College London
Now holding the Cheshire Chair at University College London she was previously on the faculties of Harvard University (1984-1990) and Yale (1990-2008), where she helped establish and run the Global Health Programme before coming to UCL in 2008. Widely published, Groce also serves on a number of national, international and United Nations committees and advisory boards.
Dr Brenda Anna Kwambana-Adams
Dr Brenda Anna Kwambana-Adams
Brenda Anna Kwambana-Adams is a Wellcome International Intermediate Fellow and Senior Lecturer (Academic Career Track) at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Clinical Research Programme
In the process of doing this, Brenda is also developing tools for early, rapid, and accurate diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) that could improve case ascertainment in resource limited settings. Brenda also works with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Regional Reference Laboratories supporting surveillance of acute bacterial meningitis across Africa. Brenda contributed to the development of the current WHO guidelines on controlling pneumococcal outbreaks in the African “meningitis belt” and the WHO Defeating Meningitis 2030 Global Roadmap. Brenda has won numerous awards including the first prestigious MRC-LSHTM West Africa Global Health Research Fellowship.
Dr David Meya
Dr David Meya
David Meya is an Associate Professor at the College of Health Sciences, Makerere University and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota.
Peer Review Procedure
Meningitis Research Foundation undertakes structured peer review of research applications submitted for funding. This process fulfils the Association of Medical Research Charities’ (AMRC) rigorous peer review principles and those of the Irish Medical Research Charities Group.
1. Application and deadline
Each grant round starts with a public call for applications. Applicants have around two months to submit their research proposal. During this time, our research team is available to answer questions and guide applicants on eligibility and scope of the open grant call.
2. Eligibility
After the deadline, the research team conducts an initial check on all applications for eligibility and conflicts of interest with our Scientific Advisory Panel. Any issues are resolved before moving to review.
3. Review process
Applications are assigned to reviewers based on expertise and conflict-of-interest checks.
Every application is reviewed by:
- Scientific reviewers for quality and feasibility.
- Lived Experience Advisors (LEAs) to ensure relevance and real-world impact.
Reviewers score applications against clear criteria, such as:
- Relevance and clinical benefit.
- Scientific design and methodology.
- Originality.
- Feasibility of achieving objectives, including within the proposed timeframe.
- Ethical considerations and cost realism.
4. External review
For larger grants or where several conflicts exist, further external peer review experts may be contacted to provide additional reviews. These are experts that do not sit on our Scientific Advisory Panel, but who are asked to offer their time to support the review process. These reviewers follow the same process to provide written feedback, scores and recommendations on research applications.
5. Panel meeting and decision
After individual reviews are submitted, all panel members meet to discuss the applications in detail. During the meeting, each proposal is introduced by its lead reviewer, who summarises the key strengths, weaknesses and any external referee feedback. A second reviewer adds further insights. Any panel member with a declared conflict steps out during discussion of that application to maintain fairness and transparency.
The panel collectively evaluates the application against agreed criteria, considering both scientific merit and input from Lived Experience Advisors. This ensures decisions reflect both technical quality and real-world relevance. Applications are ranked based on overall scores, reviewer comments and alignment with the grant call’s priorities. Where demand exceeds available funds, ranking helps prioritise which projects should be recommended.
The panel’s recommendations are documented and forwarded to the Foundation’s Trustees. Trustees make the final funding decisions at their next scheduled meeting.
6. Conflict of interest
All panel members must declare any conflict of interest and withdraw from reviewing affected applications. Panel members are excluded from considering:
- Their own applications.
- Applications where they are listed as a co-applicant or collaborator.
- Applications where the applicants or co-applicants are from the same department, regardless of institution.
- Applications involving individuals they have recently supervised, managed, or closely collaborated with on the same topic.
- Applications where they feel they have a conflict of interest.
Panel members identified to have a conflict do not receive any related documents, the identity of its reviewers or reports, and do not score or view scores for the application. They must leave the room during its assessment, and any related discussion is removed from the minutes they receive.
7. Ongoing monitoring
Funded projects are monitored through progress and final reports. Lead reviewers provide feedback throughout the project lifecycle.
This process ensures that every funding decision is robust, transparent and shaped by both scientific evidence and the voices of those affected by meningitis.
Contact us
For research-related inquiries or collaboration opportunities, please email us at researchteam@meningitis.org.
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