The International Plant Biotechnology Outreach is inviting African women to its 2024 Open Doors Fellowship for Women Researchers in Africa.
The Open Doors Fellowship Program for women researchers in Africa is a holistic program that targets women researchers in Africa to help them acquire the necessary hard and soft skills to strengthen their placements within their hosting institutions and, ultimately, avoid dropping out before their consolidation stage.
The ODFP targets post-doctoral and mid-career women researchers conducting agricultural research in African (inter)national research centers. Our program aims to contribute to the consolidation of mid-career researchers and avoid them leaking from the scientific pipeline. Therefore, through its unique conceptualization and implementation, the program is tailored to our participants’ training needs to provide a fulfilling, nurturing, and empowering learning experience.
This program is structured in two phases. In Phase 1 (1-4 months), the fellows expand their research horizons and scientific network in Belgium through a fully-funded short research stage of three months. This stage occurs in a laboratory where fellows can use equipment not accessible in Africa and learn new techniques and skills relevant to fast-tracking their research.
Duration: 20 Months
Benefits
The Open Doors Fellowship for Women Researchers in Africa supports our fellows’ scientific and public visibility because if research outputs are not visible, our fellows aren’t either. To this end, participants receive training on scientific communication, financial incentives to attend congresses, and open-access publication fees.
Eligibility
Applicants have to be women researchers fulfilling all the following criteria:
- Applicants are post-doc female scholars (minimum one year after defending their PhD) or in mid-career positions who experience challenges in progressing in their career path due to limited access to training, infrastructure, and international networks. There are no age limits.
- Applicants’ research fields must be plant breeding, agrobiotechnology, molecular biology and genetics, microbiology, chemical ecology, plant and soil health, livestock, or aquaculture.
- Scholarship candidates should be national and resident in one of the VLIR- UOS scholarship countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda) or employees of a target organization in one of these countries (candidates who are exceptionally national can have a different nationality).
- Applicants must have an active employment contract in a high education institution or an international research centre in any of the countries listed above for the duration of the fellowship, where they conduct research and teach.
- Applicants are supervising MSc or PhD students and supporting staff.
Application Process
To apply for 2024 Open Doors Fellowship for Women Researchers in Africa, click here
Deadline: January 31, 2024.
For more information on the 2024 Open Doors Fellowship for Women Researchers in Africa, visit the official site.
