SCIENCE BY WOMEN Visiting Senior Research Fellowships 2024 for African Women (Fully-funded to Spain)

SCIENCE BY WOMEN Visiting Senior Research Fellowships 2024: The Women for Africa Foundation (FMxA), in line with its mission of contributing to the development of Africa through its women, is launching the 9th Edition of SCIENCE BY WOMEN programme, to promote African women’s leadership in scientific research and technology transfer and to foster the capacity of the research centres in their home countries

Application Deadline: 30th September 2023

Eligible Countries: African Countries

To Be Taken At (Country/university): Spain

In this 9th edition our associated research centres are:

• BioCruces Bizkaia Health Research Institute (BC)
• Deusto Institute of Technology (DeustoTech)
• The Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3)
• Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC)
• Vall d´Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR)
• Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO)
• Basque Center for Macromolecular Design and Engineering (POLYMAT Fundazioa)
• The Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM)
• Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN)
• Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC)
• Biomedical and Health Research Institute (IUIBS)
• Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB)
• Spanish National Center of Biotechnology (CNB)
• Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII)
• Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO)
• Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT)
• Centre for Genomics Regulation (CRG)
• The Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA – UAB)
• Institute for Neuroscience (IN)
• Material Physics Center (MPC – CFM)
• Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS)
• The “Fundación para la Investigación del Hospital Clínico de la Comunidad Valenciana” (INCLIVA)
• Campus of International Excellence in Agrifood (CEIA3) & Cordoba University
• Barcelona School of Economics (BSE)
• Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Valdecilla (IDIVAL)
• Castilla-La Mancha Health Research Institute (IDISCAM)

About the SCIENCE BY WOMEN Visiting Senior Research Fellowships: Each of these centres will host 1 senior woman researcher with at least 3 years of post-doctoral experience for a six-month fellowship. Applications will be subjected to a rigorous selection process, evaluating the academic merits and leadership of the applicants as well as the scientific quality and expected impact of their research projects. Selected candidates will receive training and integration in a dynamic, multidisciplinary and highly competitive working team. They can develop their research projects and acquire complementary skills, empowering them to transfer their research results into tangible economic and social benefits.

The main goal is to enable African women researchers and scientists to tackle the great challenges faced by Africa through research in Health and biomedicine, agriculture and food security, water, energy and climate change,  mathematics, Information and Communication Technologies as well as Economic Sciences.

Eligible Fields of Study: The preferred areas of research include:

1. Health and Bio-medicine
2. Energy, Water and Climate Change
3. Agriculture and Food Safety
4. Mathematics, Information and Communication Technologies
5. Economic Science

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: 

• Being a woman
• Nationality of an African country.
• PhD with at least 3 years of post-doctoral professional experience
• Contractual relationship with a university or a public or private non-profit organization based in Africa dedicated to significant scientific research in the areas indicated
• Excellent academic record and proven track of relevant research experience
• Solid working knowledge of English
• Proven experience leading a research group

Beneficiaries of first and second edition are not eligible. Candidates must have already contacted and identified research groups in the host centres to confirm that their proposed research can be carried out in collaboration with those research groups and, when needed, in their laboratories.

Selection Criteria: Applications for SCIENCE BY WOMEN Visiting Senior Research Fellowships will be subjected to a highly competitive selection process by the Women for Africa Foundation’s Scientific Committee. The jury will evaluate the following criteria:

• The candidate’s research career, curriculum vitae and experience as independent research group leader.
• The project’s scientific -technical quality and innovative potential.
• The expected and measurable economic or social impact of the research project.
• The candidate’s plan to communicate and disseminate the project’s results.
• The proper consideration of ethical issues where appropriate.

Successful applicants will present innovative research projects that respond to the needs of African populations and that are likely to be transferred into products or patents for commercial exploitation, or services and public policies which have a social impact in terms of people’s welfare and quality of life, as well as an economic impact in terms of companies’ productivity and competitiveness.

Number of Awards: 28

Value of Award: Successful candidates will have access to the following benefits:

• Flight from their centre of origin to the host institution and back
• Living allowance of 2.400 Euros gross per month to cover accommodation, personal expense and health and occupational accident insurance coverage.

Duration of Program: 6 months

How to Apply: Only applications submitted in English via the Science by Women microsite at www.mujeresporafrica.es will be accepted. They must include the following documents:

• Letter of Interest (max. 1 page)
• Full curriculum vitae • Fully filled form
• Brief but concise description of the project to be developed in the Spanish
• host centre (max. 2 pages)
• A letter of the prospective host group’s stating its interest to support the project proposed by the candidate.

APPLICATION FORM

Visit Programme Webpage for Details