Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p> Background Sub-Saharan Africa bears a disproportionate share of the global disease burden yet contributes less than 4% of global scientific publications. Most research capacity-building efforts are dominated by short-term workshops that hardly translate into sustained impact. We describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of the CRENC–IeDEA Monday Research Calls, a peer-led, longitudinal virtual research training program for early-career health researchers in Central Africa. Methods The program delivered 10 modules across 46 weekly one-hour sessions via Zoom during 2025. Early-career researchers delivered presentations and responded to audience questions under structured senior faculty mentorship. An end-of-program survey (N = 42) assessed satisfaction, self-reported research self-efficacy across 14 competency domains, skill application, and research outputs using the Kirkpatrick evaluation framework. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with Holm–Bonferroni correction and Cohen's d effect sizes were used for pre–post comparisons. Results The program received 227 applications, with 55 participants selected for synchronous training. Respondents were predominantly aged 25–34 years (62%), male (55%), and from Cameroon (83%). Thirty-six percent attended more than 75% of sessions, and 90% would definitely recommend the program. Overall satisfaction was high (mean 4.43/5; Cronbach’s alpha = 0.82), with content applicability rated 4.60/5. Composite self-efficacy increased significantly from a pre-program mean of 3.10 to 4.20 (mean change = 1.10; <italic>p</italic> < 0.001), with large effect sizes across all 14 domains (Cohen’s <italic>d</italic> range: 1.02–1.48). The largest gains were in critical appraisal of literature ( <italic>d</italic> = 1.48), conducting literature reviews ( <italic>d</italic> = 1.46), and implementation science concepts ( <italic>d</italic> = 1.41). Eighty-three percent reported at least one tangible research output, including research proposal development (38%), manuscript contributions (31%), and peer-reviewed publications (14%). Conclusions A peer-led, longitudinal virtual training program grounded in adult learning theory and community of practice principles may achieve significant medium-term competency gains and tangible research outputs among early-career researchers in resource-limited settings at modest cost. Practical exercises, bilingual delivery, and prospective evaluation with a comparison group are critical next steps. </p>