Author: Agnes Lutomiah

News, Calls and other Links #3/2019

Posted on by Agnes Lutomiah

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

Posted on by Agnes Lutomiah

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.

News, Calls and other Links #5/2018

Posted on by Agnes Lutomiah

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

  • The Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF)/The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) make a joint call on Preparatory Fellowships. Deadline is the 1. February 2019.
  • Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through DAAD calls highly qualified university graduates in all scientific fields; and graduates should have completed their final degree examination no longer than six years previously to apply for DAAD research grants. No deadline.
  • The Royal Academy of Engineering through invites the applications for UK-South Africa Industry-Academia Partnership Programme to build international links between industry and universities. Deadline 12. December 2018
  • Calls for PhD funding for international researchers from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. No deadline.
  • Call for Applications: Germany (DFG)/South Africa (NRF) on Partnership on International Research Training Group (IRTGs). Deadline is the 31. December 2018.
  • The UK Department for International Development (DFID), the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Wellcome make a joint call for global health trials. Deadline is the 5. February 2018
  • The Collaboration for Evidence-Based Healthcare and Public Health in Africa (CEBHA+), calls for applications of doctoral scholarship in the area of Non-communicable diseases, with the aim to build long-term capacity and infrastructure for evidence-based healthcare and public health in Sub-Sahara Africa”. Deadline is 26. November 2018.
  • The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) invites interested grantees to submit proposals for the Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) Programme. Deadline is 30. December 2018
  • The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Next Einstein Forum (NEF) Initiative invites applications for the NEF fellows. Deadline is 15. January 2019.
  • The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) calls for proposals of the German-African Innovation Incentive Award 2018. Deadline is 15. January 2019.

 

Conferences

  • The Society of Social Studies of Science’s (4S) annual meeting 2019 will be in New Orleans, USA. Call for papers, closed panels and others opens 15. December 2018.

 

Interesting Reads 

  • The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency partners with IDRC to “deepen and sustain the work of the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI). The SGCI aims to build capacity of 15 science granting councils in sub-Sahara Africa; as well as provide funding to the participating councils for administering research calls.
  • A new book on a comprehensive study on “the next generation of scientists of scientists in Africa”, providing thorough insights into the funding landscapes, the career perspectives, publication opportunities, and other important issues for the young generations of scientists.
  • A new book on Research Universities in Africa “provides the best analysis to-date on the state of higher education in Africa, and discusses key policies to steer their positive transformation.”
  • Strengthening the EU partnership with Africa initiative leads to a new training alliance between EU and Africa through the Erasmus plus programme. More than 100,000 African students and academics will benefit from this new Africa-European deal
  • van der Merwe reviews the bibliometric study that was conducted on African science. The study shows that African researchers tend to produce high impact research when they receive international funding.