African Researcher Fellowships

Started by sparrow, Jan 10, 2011, 07:01 AM

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The Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) is today launching its second fellowship call for the next generation of researchers working on the future of agriculture in Africa. The Early Career Fellowship Programme is designed for professionals who have recently completed post-graduate studies and are beginning their careers. The programme is a key step towards strengthening the research capacity of young graduates to carry out high-quality research and engage in pro-poor policy making.

The first call (in 2010) resulted in fellowships awarded to an exciting group of researchers from nine countries including Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and France. These researchers are working on a variety of important African agricultural issues including land grabs, gender and social protection, political economy of cotton, Maasai pastoralism, and legume value chain innovations. Each fellowship winner is partnered with an FAC professional researcher to further develop and support their work.

As with FAC's first call, successful applicants will be linked up with FAC members who will provide mentoring support during the fellowship. Applications should be in line with one of FAC's eight thematic areas:

1.   Political economy and policy processes
2.   Agricultural commercialisations
3.   Growth and social protection
4.   Science, technology and innovation
5.   Climate change
6.   Land
7.   Pastoralism
8.   Youth and agriculture

This second call for fellowship applications includes three types of awards:

1.   One-year full-time post-Masters or post-doc appointment for African nationals
2.   One-year part-time post-Masters or post-doc appointment for African nationals
3.   Six-month full-time post-doc appointment for researchers based in the UK

FAC is committed to supporting women researchers and is eager to have applications from women.

How to apply

Further information and the application form are available on the ECFP pages via this LINK. The application can be completed by downloading the ECFP - Application Form and submitting by email to FAC-Fellowships@future-agricultures.org. The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2011.

Applications must include a personal profile, proposed area of research, institutional affiliation and the FAC theme and mentor with whom the candidate proposes to work. Further details of FAC themes and researchers are available on the FAC website: http://www.future-agricultures.org. Applications from female candidates are strongly encouraged.

Further questions about the programme should be addressed to Gem Argwings-Kodhek, a FAC member associated with Tegemeo Institute of Egerton University in Kenya. He can be contacted at FAC-Fellowships@future-agricultures.org.

The Future Agricultures Consortium is supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and has a secretariat currently based at IDS. 

David Hughes is Communications and Networking Officer at the Future Agricultures Consortium.

African Researcher Fellowships

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