Applications are currently being received for the Science by Women Fellowship Program. The Women for Africa Foundation, in line with its mission of contributing to the development of Africa through the drive of its women, launched the SCIENCE BY WOMEN program, with the aim of promoting African women’s leadership in scientific research and technology transfer and fostering the capacity of the research centers in their home countries.

The Science by Women Fellowship Program’s ultimate goal is to enable African women researchers to play a leading role in the transition of Africa to a knowledge-based and innovation-led economy and thereby in the transformation of people’s daily lives. The Science by Women program will fund several visiting senior research fellowships for experienced African women researchers in any of the following research centers of excellence based in Spain

In general, the duration of the research stays will be of six continuous months to be completed within two years from the publication of the final selection of beneficiaries. Exceptionally, some centers admit to splitting the six-month fellowship into two periods to be completed within two years from the publication of the final selection of beneficiaries. However, some centers apply special conditions.

Programme Details

• Host institutions: Centres of Excellence in Spain. Please check the full list below.
• Area: Health and Bio-medicine, Energy, Water, and Climate Change, Sustainable Agriculture and Food Safety. Mathematics, information and communication technologies, as well as physics, astrophysics and materials physics, and all STEM disciplines, are instrumental to research in the above areas.
• Number of awards: Not specified.
• Duration: Six-month.
• Target group: Open to African Women.

Science by Women Fellowship Program Benefits

This foundation fellowship programme will provide successful candidates with the following benefits:

1. Return flight from their centre of origin to the host institution
2. Living allowance of 2.400 Euros gross per month to cover accommodation, personal expenses, and health and occupational accident insurance coverage.
3. Women for Africa Foundation, in collaboration with the research centre, will help beneficiaries with the compulsory formalities in order to obtain the visa with Spanish Embassies and Consulates.

In general, the duration of the research stays will be of six continuous months to be completed within two years from the publication of final selection of beneficiaries. Exceptionally, some centers admit to split the six-month fellowship in two periods to be completed within two years from the publication of final selection of beneficiaries.

Beneficiaries might be asked to formalise their relationship with the research centre in writing. In compliance with the local laws, the Woman for Africa Foundation or the research centre (as the case may be) will, if so required in each particular circumstance by the tax and/or social security regime, retain or withhold the compulsory amounts from the living allowances. Fellows are strongly discouraged to take along their families, since we cannot assure any financial, logistic or administrative support for families.

Partner Research Institutions

Below is the list of Spanish Centres of Excellence, associated with the 9th edition of the Science by Women Fellowship Program.

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

Science by Women Fellowship Program Eligibility

Any person who meets the following requirements can apply for this program:

• Being a woman;
• Having the nationality of an African country;
• Having a PhD. Post-doctoral experience is preferred;
• Contractual relationship with a university or a public or private 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.

Similar opportunities

1. Government of the Czech Republic Scholarships;
2. Turkish Government Research Scholarship;
3. Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS).

Application instructions

Eligible candidates who wish to apply for this foundation program need to click on the apply button below and follow the given instructions to submit their applications. Candidates must submit the following documents:

1. Letter of Interest (max. 1 page)
2. Full curriculum vitae (Europass format is recommended)
3. Fully filled form. Click on the Apply button below to access the form
4. Passport or NID
5. PhD Diploma
6. Research proposal (Brief and clear description of the project to be developed in the Spanish host centre (max. 2 pages)).

Research proposals should fall within the main research strands of the chosen centre. Applications must be submitted in English only. For further information, please contact the Foundation at: [email protected].

Applications will be subjected to a highly competitive selection process by the Women for Africa Foundation’s Scientific Committee. The jury will evaluate the:

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

The deadline to submit applications has been extended to September 30, 2023. For more detail on the Science by Women Fellowship Program, please visit the official page. To be the first to see latest opportunities, please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.