Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer (JWO) Research Grant 2023 ($150,000 grant)

The Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer (JWO) Research Grant 2023 application period is now open. Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer was honored with the JWO Research Grant. The funding will allow her to continue her service to Africa, the environment, and pioneering science. The grant’s goal is to help early-career scientists perform important research that will lead to answers to some of Africa’s most urgent issues.

Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer’s fascination in Africa began in the mid-1990s, when she relocated to Zimbabwe with Jonathan Oppenheimer. They went to South Africa in 1999, and she quickly made it her home. Her charitable interests began with health and education, but as she grew more aware of the issues that South Africa, Africa, and the rest of the globe faced, the environment took center stage and became an important part of her concentration and passion. Sustainable ecology became a prominent issue in her efforts to understand how to establish a sustainable ecosystem in which man and nature may coexist and thrive for generations.

Grant:

• A grant of $150,000 will be awarded to one successful applicant. The grant will support a research project or programme for up to three years (previously funded research not eligible).

Eligibility:

The lead applicant should:

• Be an early career scientist: Applicant must already hold a PhD degree and should have no more than seven years of work and/or research experience post-degree (excluding time taken for family responsibilities).
• Have strong links to a credible African institution: The institution should have a proven ability to manage to fund and subscribes to good financial grant practice and can be any of the following: academic institution, research institution, government institution, NGO, for-profit organisation.

Furthermore, the proposed research should be focused on or in Africa.

Selection Criteria:

Judges will be looking if the research:

• Advances the frontiers of knowledge within the chosen field
• Facilitates solutions to African challenges: The research should try and solve an African challenge that occurs in more than one geography and is scalable to other areas. The research should include multiple research sites
• Demonstrates innovative methodologies and approaches
• Exhibits scientific rigour and excellence
• Contributes to human capital development (e.g. mentorship, support, and professional development opportunities) for the next generation of researchers.
• Incorporates a holistic perspective and involves inter-and multi-disciplinary collaboration with partners (preference intra-African) to leverage time, expertise, skills, materials, and resources and reduce duplication
• Articulates the potential to create impact both during and beyond the grant period
• Displays knowledge of associated recent or ongoing work on the continent.
• Defines a clear plan for disseminating research outcomes both inside and outside the scientific community
• Endeavours to open access publications (popular and scientific
• Does not present unacceptable ethical or safety risk

Application:

Applicants’ proposals must demonstrate a strong link to biodiversity and conservation.

Click here to apply