Scholarship Advertisement
Intra-Africa Academic mobility Project: Partnership for Training Scientist in Crop
Improvement for Food Security in Africa (SCIFSA)
What is the program about?
The EU under its Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme has provided funding to support training of graduate students in African universities. In this mobility programme, five African partner institutions and one EU technical partner will collaborate in the training of professionals to achieve sustainable crop production that shall lead to increased yield and enhanced food and nutritional security. A total of 24 Masters (6 credit seeking, 18 degree- seeking) and 12 Doctorates (4 credit seeking, 8 degree-seeking) will be trained in the thematic areas of Plant breeding and seed systems, Biotechnology, Seed science and technology, Agronomy and Vegetable crop production, Pesticides and plant protection and Plant and microbial technology. The project will provide fellowships for full degree programs (PhDs and MSc) as well as short-term mobility (credit seeking) for students and staff and will run from 1 st November 2017 until 31 st October 2022.
The project is expected to contribute to
a) enhanced quality of graduate training that will lead to innovative and fit-for-purpose professionals in Crop production improvement
b) improved skills and competences of academic staff in, research, training and supervision,
c) improved skills and competences of administrative staff in implementing international mobility.
Subsequently, a procedure/platform to support the harmonisation and internationalisation of Crop improvement and production programmes among African Universities shall be achieved.
The Call for applications is open from 14th February 2018 and will close on 5th April 2018. All interested candidates should download the application form, fill it and submit through either email or postal services. The application for scholarship should be sent to the project coordinating office (scifsascholarships@gmail.com, ruthiemutyaba@gmail.com) with copy to the coordinator at the sending institution. Admission criteria and application forms are available on the program website (http://www.scifsa.org). In order to facilitate and fasten the mobility process, each applicant is advised to apply to the hosting university for admission.
The scholarships are open to candidates from Target group 1 (Applicants who are currently registered at or have done their degree at one of the partner institutions: Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana – Legon (Ghana), University of Eldoret (Kenya), Cairo University (Egypt) and Chiek Anta Diop de Dakar (Senegal)) and Target group 2 (Applicants who currently registered at or have done their degrees from any other institutions within Africa including institution from Uganda, Ghana, Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sudan, Tunisia, etc. Please note that applicants are only allowed to apply to study in an institution outside of their home countries. Female and candidates with disabilities are particularly encouraged to apply.
Specific programmes on offer:
| Host institution | Programme | Number of scholarships | Language of instruction | Website | Contact person |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Makerere University | PhD in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology;
MSc in Plant breeding and Seed Systems |
5
7 |
English | www.mak.ac.ug | Dr. Thomas Lapaka Odong
thomas.l.odong@gmail.com |
| University of Ghana Legon | PhD in Plant Breeding | 4 | English | www.wacci.edu.gh www.ug.edu.gh | Prof. Eric Danquah edanquah@wacci.edu.gh |
| Cairo University | MSc in Vegetable crops
MSc in Agronomy |
5 | English | www.cu.edu.g | Prof. Hany El-shemy
helshemy@hotmail.com |
| University of Eldoret | PhD in Seed Science
MSc in Seed Science and Technology |
3
6 |
English | www.uoeld.ac.ke | Prof. Julius Ochuodho
juliusochuodho@gmail.com |
| Universite Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar | MSc in Pesticides and Plant Protection
MSc in Plant and Microbial Technology |
3
2 |
English/French | www.ucad.sn | Prof. Noba Kandioura
kandioura.noba@ucad.edu.sn |
A two stage process will be applied in selection of the students to benefit from the SCIFSA project. The first stage will be pre-selection by the sending institution (centred on eligibility based on for nationality, authenticy of academic document) and the second stage will be the selection by the project selection committee. The project management team will set-up a committee of at least five people to conduct the selections. The contact persons in the respective host institutions or any other designated host institution will be responsible for initiating the process of setting-up a committee to evaluate the admissibility of the candidate in their institution.
What does the scholarship cater for?
Stipend: The scholarship includes a subsistence allowance of 900 € per month for PhD candidates and 600 € for MSc candidates. Each scholarship recipient will also receive a one- month subsistence allowance for settling in. For the female candidate additional one-month subsistence allowance will be provided for each extra academic year for mobility of two or more years.
Insurance: Insurance coverage (accident, travel, health) will be provided for the duration of the grant within the limits of the grant provisions.
Travel costs: The candidate will be provided with a return ticket between his/her home Airport and the airport at the hosting institutions.
Tuition fees and Research: The Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme scholarship scheme “Partnership for Training Scientist in Crop Improvement for Food Security in Africa (SCIFSA) under participation and research costs will cover the costs of the fees following the MOU signed by the beneficiaries and such costs to cover library, student unions, laboratory consumable costs, etc. on an equal basis as the local students.
For more information on the SCIFSA contact Dr. Thomas Odong email:
Website: http://www.scifsa.org
Note: PDF of the bursary information is also available for download here.