2019/2020 PhD Fellowships for African Researchers

The call for application for the CARTA PhD Fellowships 2019/2020 is now open. During the 2019/2020 academic year, the CARTA program is planning to offer up to 25 PhD fellowships.

The fellowship, which is open only to staff at one of the participating African universities (complete list below), includes the cost of fellows’ participation in the advanced seminars; a modest monthly stipend; small grants for research activities; a laptop loaded with relevant software; funds for travel to conferences, as well as costs for participating in joint program activities. The fellowship runs for a maximum of four years.

CARTA PhD Fellowships Description.

The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) is an initiative of eight African universities, four African research institutes, and select Non-African partners. CARTA offers an innovative model for doctoral training in sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen the capacity of participating institutions to conduct and lead internationally-competitive research.

The multi-disciplinary CARTA program is open to staff of participating institutions who are interested in conducting their PhD research on topics relevant to the broad fields of public and population health. We welcome applications from any discipline, such as public health, demography, anthropology, communication, and economics, among others, as long as the research question aims to contribute to public and population health issues in Africa.

Participating African Universities:

1. Makerere University, Uganda.
2. Moi University, Kenya.
3. Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria.
4. University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
5. University of Malawi, Malawi.
6. University of Nairobi, Kenya.
7. University of Rwanda, Rwanda.
8. University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Participating Research Institutes:

1. African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Kenya.
2. Agincourt Health and Population Unit, South Africa.
3. Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), Tanzania
4. KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya.

Eligibility Criteria

• A Masters degree in a relevant field.
• Prior admission into a PhD program is not required for application but awards are contingent on such admission being obtained at one of the participating African universities.
• Applicants for this program must be teaching or research staff at one of the participating African institutions and should be committed to contributing towards building capacity at their institutions.
• Applicants’ PhD research proposal must be related to public and population health.
• Fellowships are only open to people who have not yet registered for a PhD or are in the very early stages (first year) of the PhD program.
• Applicants must commit to participation in all four annual residential Joint Advanced Seminars (JASes), and to engage in inter-seminar activities designed to keep fellows actively engaged and in continual communication with peers and mentors.
• Male applicants must be under the age of 40 years and female applicants under the age 45 years by April 30, 2019.

Method of Application

Contact the CAhips.RTA focal person in your institution to discuss your interest and obtain application materials. The application form is available here CARTA Fellowship Application Form -April 2019 and Call for Applications 2019-2020 Advert_April 2019.

Applicants are expected to submit application forms by April 30, 2019 to the Focal Persons at partner institutions WITH A COPY TO THE SECRETARIAT (carta_fellowship@aphrc.org )

OFFICIAL LINK