Request for applications for visiting senior research fellowships in Spanish centers of excellence.
Deadline for proposals submission 20th October 2020
The Women for Africa Foundation (FMxA), in line with its mission of contributing to the development of Africa through the drive of its women, is launching the 6th Edition of Science by Women programme, with the aim to promote African women’s leadership in scientific research and technology transfer and to foster the capacity of the research centres in their home countries.
The main goal is to enable African women researchers and scientists to tackle the great challenges faced by Africa through research in health and biomedicine, sustainable agriculture and food security, water, energy and climate change.
Considering the exceptional challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the fellowships are focused on the research and innovation carried out by African women scientists from the diverse and interdisciplinary approaches.
Women’s lives are significantly affected by the repercussions of uncontrolled development; however, social, structural and economic barriers limit their capacity to tackle the great challenges faced by the continent. The gender disparities in science and technology in both the public and private spheres affect Africa’s population as a whole.
Narrowing this gap, which has severe consequences on the balanced and sustainable development of African countries, is vital to achieve long-term progress and equal growing.
The programme´s ultimate goal is to enable African women researchers to play a leading role in the transition of Africa to a knowledge-based and innovation-led economy through research that can be transferred into products, processes, services and technologies having impact on people´s lives.
To achieve this ambitious goal, FMxA collaborates with the Spanish Centres of Excellence, whose prestige is unanimously recognized throughout Spain and internationally, thereby ensuring excellence in scientific research in various fields. In this 6th edition our associated research centres are:
- Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO)
- Vall d´Hebron Institut de Recerca (VHIR)
- Institute for Neuroscience (IN)
- Kronikgune Research Center
- Biocruces Bizkaia
- DeustoTech
- Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO)
- Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII)
- Donostia International Physics Center
- Spanish National Center of Biotechnology (CNB)
- Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT)
- Centre for Genomics Regulation (CGR)
- Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (BGSE)
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)
- Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN)
- Biomedical and Health Research Institute at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC)
- The Basque Center for Applied Mathematics – BCAM
- Basque Center for Macromolecular Design and Engineering POLYMAT Fundazioa
- Materials Physics Center (MPC-CFM)
Each of these centres will host 1 senior woman researcher with at least three years of post-doctoral experience for a six-month fellowship. Applications will be subjected to a rigorous selection process, evaluating the academic merits and leadership of the applicants as well as the scientific quality and expected impact of their research projects.
Selected candidates will receive training and integration in a dynamic, multidisciplinary and highly competitive working team, where they will be able to develop their research projects and acquire complementary skills, empowering them to transfer their research results into tangible economic and social benefits.