Status: Closed
RSIF PhD Scholarship
Description
RSIF is the first Pan-African science fund that provides doctoral scholarships for African scientists in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology. Scholarships are tenable at selected African universities in partnership with advanced international partner institutions.
Timeline: The call for applications for Cohort 4 will be opening in 2021.
Eligibility: citizen of a sub-Saharan African country; relevant Master’s completed less than six years ago; meeting admission requirements of the RSIF African host university; research goals aligned with RSIF priority thematic areas and contributing to Africa’s development.
Priority for the scholarships will be given to women and young academic faculty without PhD.
Research Fields: Candidates apply for a scholarship to conduct PhD research at one of the African Host Universities in a PASET Priority Thematic Area: (1) ICT including big data and artificial intelligence, (2) Food security and agri-business, (3) Minerals, mining and materials engineering, (4) Energy including renewables and (5) Climate change.
Duration: 3-4 years, including 6-24 months in a ‘sandwich’ training at an international partner university, research institute or private company.
Objectives: RSIF aims to train quality PhD students and post-doctoral researchers at selected African universities (‘African Host Universities’) to address the human resource gap of highly qualified specialists in the fields of applied sciences, engineering, and technology and to contribute to improving research and innovation capacities in those fields in Sub-Saharan Africa. RSIF focuses on transformative technologies that have a far-reaching positive impact on society.
Funders: The doctoral scholarships are funded by African Governments and key partners (World Bank, Government of Korea) through the Partnership for skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET). More investors are encouraged to join. RSIF is implemented by icipe as the RSIF Regional Coordination Unit.
RSIF also awards competitive research and innovation grants that complements the PhD training at African universities by supporting research that promotes scientific excellence and use of knowledge for development impact.