With funding from Carnegie Cooperation of New York (CCNY), RUFORUM-Carnegie supports doctoral alumni for 24 months post-doctoral fellowships to be based at a member university in Africa. The 24 months post-doctoral fellowships builds on, and helps to scale up, the RUFORUM commitment to strengthen postgraduate training and academic mobility in Africa. Since 2012, RUFORUM with support from Carnegie Cooperation of New York and other agencies has facilitated, mentored and contributed to a growing number of doctoral graduates who upon successful completion of their studies return to their home countries and integrate back in teaching and research. Thus, the goal of this Fellowship is to increase and ensure high retention rate of these graduates in Africa to help strengthen African universities and research institutions to meet the growing demand for higher education and research for creating knowledge and prosperity in the continent. The emphasis is on facilitating recent PhD graduates in ways that will improve their teaching, research, leadership and mentoring skills. It is important that they are supported in ways that contribute to increasing the critical mass of dedicated scientists that are working together to transform higher education in Africa and contribute to the global knowledge commons. At the individual level the post-doctoral fellowship is intended to provide an opportunity for the Fellows to establish their credentials and develop connections and skills to raise research resources and improve career prospects in the future. It is also aimed at building their capacity so that they in turn are able to guide and create a new generation of scientists for the continent through supervising and mentoring Masters and PhD students.
Eligibility and Requirements
- This Fellowship usually targets the recent PhD graduates (not older than 3 years) in RUFORUM Member universities.
- The Fellow would be attached to a RUFORUM University faculty for the Post-Doctoral fellowship.
- As part of the Fellowship, the Post-Doc Fellow funds are linked to supporting research activity of at least one PhD and two Masters Students. The research areas could be directly linked to the field of training of the Post-Doctoral Fellow but could also cover new areas to broaden the perspective of the Fellow and promote inter- disciplinarity
The Impact of RUFORUM-CCNY Supported Graduates
Over the past nine years RUFORUM has with funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) supported 334 early career scientists to find their footing within the academic and research environment and to have opportunity to advance their work and initiate new research. Cumulatively, as of 2021, RUFORUM has supported the training of 2857 (PhD 608, MSc 2010, undergraduate 239) students and the release of over 300 technologies. Of the graduate trained, 97.6 % of them are working in their home countries. Below are profiles of some of CCNY supported alumni who have been able to directly impact the agricultural research and development in Africa. Read the details
