African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) is calling for applications for its 2015 fellowships.
African women scientists who are citizens of one of 11 eligible countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, or Zambia) who have completed a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in an agricultural discipline, are encouraged to apply for this prestigious two-year program.
AWARD is a career-development program that equips top women agricultural scientists across sub-Saharan Africa to accelerate agricultural gains by strengthening their research and leadership skills, through two-year fellowships. Entering its seventh round this year, AWARD is offering 70 fellowships on the basis of intellectual merit, leadership capacity, and the potential of the scientist’s research to help improve food security and the livelihoods of African smallholder farmers, especially women.
The competition for an AWARD Fellowship is tight. Since the program began in 2008, 3,508 women have applied for 390 available fellowships.
By building science skills and leadership capacity, AWARD is addressing barriers that often prevent women agricultural scientists from advancing in their careers. Each fellow is matched with a suitable mentor, an experienced senior advisor who offers career guidance and scientific knowledge. About 50 percent of AWARD’s mentors are men.
AWARD directly invests in women scientists, empowering them to help close the gender gap across the agricultural value chain. Preliminary data collected from the first 180 AWARD alumnae revealed that:
· 84 percent experienced a significant increase in their confidence and motivation to excel, lead, and contribute toward a great vision for the future
· 87 percent improved their scientific skills and access to resources. This contributed to a significant increase in their scientific outputs, and a more than doubling of their annual publication rates in peer-reviewed journals.
· at least 80 percent are involved in the development of new methodologies and/or technologies, about half of which are being developed together with smallholder farmers
· 52 percent were promoted in their workplaces
AWARD is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.
The electronic application form is available at www.awardfellowships.org and the deadline for submission is August 8, 2014. Applications are to be completed and submitted online.
