AAS: Developing the next generation of scientists

: Jan 18, 18:25 pm; Hits: 2230

Discover some funding programmes for African scientists in their early career

After the YASE meeting, July 2018, Quarraisha Abdool-Karim who was a plenary speaker, and who is also an African Academy of Science fellow, shared with us informations about activities of this organization aimed toward young scientists.

Building R&D infrastructure

Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS) Africa

DELTAS Africa is a US$100 million programme supporting the Africa-led development of world-class researchers and scientific leaders in Africa.

This is a long-term programme, which, over an initial period of five years (2015-2020), is supporting 11 collaborative teams headed by world class researchers and spanning 54 lead and partner institutions from across the continent to invest in research infrastructure and offer training fellowships and mentorship.

DELTAS Africa’s ultimate goal is to produce researchers with the capacity to publish and lead locally relevant and high-quality research to impact health science, policy and practice in Africa. This new generation of scientists will play a major part in shaping and driving a locally relevant health research agenda in Africa, contributing to improved health and development on the continent.

Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3AFRICA)

The vision of H3Africa is to create and support a pan-continental network of laboratories that will be equipped to apply leading-edge research to the study of the complex interplay between environmental and genetic factors which determines disease susceptibility and drug responses in African populations. Data generated from this effort will inform strategies to address health inequity and ultimately lead to health benefit in Africa.

Grand Challenges Africa

The scheme seeks to promote Africa-led scientific innovations to help countries better achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by awarding seed and full grants to the continent’s most impressive solutions.

Post Doctoral Programmes

AESA-RISE Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme

The AESA-RISE Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme will build on the foundation of the Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE), which has for a decade prepared PhD- and masters-level scientists and engineers in sub-Saharan Africa through competitively selected, university-based research and teaching networks, to respond to an urgent need to increase the number of researchers in Africa.

The AESA-RISE Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme ultimately seeks to support globally competitive research in universities and research institutes in Africa and to contribute to the creation of knowledge-based economies on the continent.

With an initial US$2 million funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY), the programme seeks to deliver the next generation of Africa’s research leaders by providing postdoctoral fellowships to academics based in African institutions to be mentored by senior academics in a three-year fellowship programme researching critical issues to sustainable development in Africa.

As part of the fellowship, the researchers will benefit from three to six months research and mentorship visits at institutions outside their host institution. The institutions to provide the research visits include the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, the Cambridge-Africa Programme at the University of Cambridge, the Africa Oxford Initiative, the African Research Universities Alliance, the International Science Programme at Uppsala University in Sweden, and the University of Basel in Switzerland in the framework of the Swiss – African Research Cooperation (SARECO).

The Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) of the African Academy of Sciences has launched a closed call for application for the Carnegie-funded AESA-RISE Postdoctoral Fellowship (AR-PDF) programme. This is a closed call because only PhD-graduates of the Carnegie-supported Regional Initiative in Science and Education (RISE) programme can apply.

Future Leaders – African Independent Research (FLAIR) Fellowships

FLAIR Fellowships are for talented African early career researchers who have the potential to become leaders in their field. These fellowships provide the opportunity to build an independent research career in a sub-Saharan African institution and to undertake cutting-edge scientific research that will address global challenges facing developing countries.

Each FLAIR Fellowship will be for two years initially and will offer up to £150,000 per year, alongside a programme of support to develop fellows as independent research leaders including training and mentoring, and opportunities to network both regionally and with the UK and to develop international collaborations.

This is a partnership between the AAS and the Royal Society, supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

African Postdoctoral Training Initiative (APTI)

A post doctoral training programme where fellows will spend 2 years at the US National Institutes of Health and an additional 2 years at their home institution in sub-Saharan Africa with a 50 % salary support for an additional 2 years to protect their time and their transition into independent researchers. The research priority areas are in infectious diseases, nutrition, and reproductive, maternal, and child health and developing skills for clinical and translational research.

The call opens again in 2020 to biomedical researchers based in Africa and awarded a PhD no more than 15 years earlier.

Promotion of mobility for early career scientists

Science and Language Mobility Scheme in Africa

The Science and Language Mobility Scheme Africa is a five-year programme that funds researchers from Anglo and Francophone Africa to undertake scientific research in language regions other than their own. The programme seeks to build language skills and cultural capabilities of researchers as they undertake their projects, a strategy towards addressing one of the barriers to intra-Africa scientific collaboration. It is a collaboration between the African Academy of Sciences, Wellcome and Institut Pasteur providing travel grants for short term visits of up to six months to African researchers.

The call will open to scientists across Africa in the first quarter of 2020. Applicants must have PhD and a contract in an African institution.

Africa-India Mobility Fund (AIMF)

AIMF is a two-year programme designed to provide researchers from Africa and India with opportunities for short visits in either direction to explore opportunities for building and strengthening scientific collaboration.

The AIMF initiative by the African Academy of Sciences and the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance (India Alliance) intends to encourage South-South collaborations and learning between the two ecosystems. This is in recognition of the fact that Africa and India face similar challenges, both in the diseases that affect their populations and socio-political issues as well as the leadership required to address these. The exchanges are expected to enhance their skills and contribute to the growth of knowledge and leadership towards common health challenges.

Applications accepted every month from PhD holders.