News, Calls and other Links #3/2019

Calls for Applications (Grants, Fellowships, scholarships and awards)

  • EDCTP invites applications for The Clinical Research and Product Development Fellowship jointly implemented by both EDCTP and TDR for research and training in Tropical Diseases in Sub – Saharan Africa. Deadline 7. March 2019.
  • UKRI invites proposals for a new Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) call under the theme of food security to reduce the global burden of malnutrition.  Deadline 7. May 2019.
  • TWAS is open for applications for research grants. Eligible are scholars from developing countries. Deadline is the 22. April 2019.
  • If you plan to attend the 11th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health which takes place on 16-20 September 2019 in Liverpool (UK) and if you come from low- and low and middle-income countries, you can apply for travel grants (Deadline: 31.3.2019).

Conference

  • A call for papers for the 5th Joint Nordic Development Research (Nor-Dev) conference on “Knowledge production in North-South collaboration: Challenges in an Era of New Global Divides.” Deadline is the 3. March 2019.

Interesting reads 

  • Jennifer Byrne argues that despite use of software that uncovers suspicious papers, there is  need to “confront organized research fraud” where the scientific community is willing to have discussions about it.
  • South African Higher Education Minister “defends HE fee policy against World Bank’s” suggestions that  despite the policy being attractive it is unsustainable and might strain the public treasury.
  • The Newton Fund has enabled female researchers in achieving remarkable fields such as health sciences, renewable energy and sustainable water management.
  • David Payne proposes “Universal Basic Research Grant (UBRG) as a solution to the problems faced in funding early stage research” as this might result to high-return of the research performed in the scientific community.
  • Ervjola Selenica reports in detail on the development policy, commercialization and liberalization in higher education, citing the cases of South Africa, Zambia, Colombia and Kosovo.
  • The UK government announces a scheme to combat antimicrobial resistance in Commonwealth countries and has selected projects to run across four African nations
  • Craig Nicholson reports that the scientific community and other officials endorsed the Madrid Declaration on Science Diplomacy as they argued that greater use of science diplomacy will help address “global challenges and improve international relations.”
  • The South African Department of Science and Technology and the developers of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Phoenix-1B sounding rocket talk about the lessons learned from their unsuccessful launch and how they will be used to develop and launch another sounding rocket in 2020.
  • Gitura Mwaura  discusses the publication landscape in Africa.

News, Calls and other Links #2/2019

Calls for Applications (Grants, Fellowships, scholarships and awards)

  • UKRI, invite proposals for a new Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) call under the theme of equitable resilience.  The aim is to fund 10 research proposals of up to 36 months duration. Deadline 17. April 2019.
  • The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)  in collaboration with The Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL), KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) and Strathmore University announces offers of up to  5  PhD scholarships in Health Management. Deadline 24. February 2019.
  • The UK Medical Research Council and the UK Department for International Development announce a further call for proposals for the prestigious African Research Leader awards. This MRC/DFID jointly funded scheme aims to strengthen research leadership across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Deadline 9. April 2019
  • UK Medical Research council and UK Research and Innovation announces a GCRF a funding call ‘Understanding the mechanistic links between nutrition and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low and middle-income countries (LMICs)’. The “aim of the call is to develop new programmes of research and partnerships between UK and LMIC-based researchers. Deadline 4. April 2019
  • The UKRI GCRF Health and Context call seeks for proposals for interdisciplinary research addressing wider contextual factors contributing to the burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Deadline 2. April 2019.

Conference

  • The 17th International conference on scientometrics and informetrics will be held September 2-5, 2019 in Sapienza University, Rome Italy with a special emphasis on the future of scientometrics and informetrics  and on its links with other disciplines. The deadline of submission of full papers, research-in-progress, and workshop/tutorials ends on 8. February 2019.

Interesting reads 

  • Laura Owings summarizes how US shutdown could deeply hurt African science. It is argued that much of the collaborations on the African continent are “with US academics and partners and most of … funding originates from the US.
  • The Economist discusses issues of scientific ethics. The paper highlights on “recent events of an unpleasant scientific practice” where developed countries conduct questionable experiments in poor countries, especially in medical research.
  • US funders have named the first batch of African science leaders. This African health researchers will receive training at a host NIH lab.
  • University of Nairobi launched a grants and opportunities portal. This portal is intended to give researchers seeking research funds, grants and fellowships a new scope.
  • The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) has introduced a ‘good practice’ tool “that it hopes will boost funders’ willingness to pay grants directly to African researchers and improve African research institutions’ grant governance.”
  • Kee Chen explains why some researchers choose to return to their countries of birth despite there being promising careers abroad in nature.