Professor Tumani Corrah is the Director of the Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) - a charity aimed at strengthening health research capacity in Africa. In AREF, Tumani advances his personal passion for growing a new generation of outstanding African researchers working in Africa. AREF gives much-needed support to bright, early postdoctoral African scientists to compete and win grants, enabling them to develop their health research careers. Tumani is a Gambian with over thirty years of progressively senior-level research and leadership experience; ten years of which were as the Unit Director of the Medical Research Council’s Unit, The Gambia.