OSWD Elseiver Foundation Awards 2023 for Early Career Women Scientist in the Developing World

OSWD Elseiver Foundation Awards is for early career woman Scientists in the developing world. OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World recognize the achievements of researchers who have made significant contributions to the advancement of scientific knowledge. This opportunity are offered to women in STEM.

The awards will respond to the call for action set forth by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), applicants must demonstrate how their research contributes to advancing knowledge in the area of food security, agricultural productivity and/or sustainable food production and to achieving the SDG2 Zero Hunger.

The application can include, but is not limited to, references to the SDG2 target areas, e.g. universal access to safe and nutritious food; ending all forms of malnutrition; doubling the productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers; sustainable food production and resilient agricultural practices; and maintaining genetic diversity in food production.

Eligible STEM fields:

• Agricultural Sciences
• Astronomy, Space and Earth Sciences
• Biological Systems and Organisms
• Chemical Sciences
• Computing and Information Technology
• Engineering Sciences
• Mathematical Sciences
• Medical and Health Sciences (including Neurosciences)
• Physics
• Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology, other major beyond this field won’t be acceptable

Eligible countries

• Africa: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Dem. Rep. Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
• Arab Region: Djibouti, Palestine (West Bank & Gaza Strip), Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen.
• Asia & Pacific: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kiribati, Lao People’s Dem. Rep., Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.
• Latin America & Caribbean: Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay.

Eligibility

In addition, the applicant must have lived and worked in one of the following science and technology lagging countries above for at least 5 of the last 15 years:

• Please note that an applicant, at the time of application, must NOT have an active research grant or fellowship with The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) or have already submitted an application for a TWAS programme within the same given year. Only one application per year is possible across all TWAS and OWSD programmes.
• Applicants will not be eligible to visit another institution in that year under the TWAS Visiting Professor programmes. An exception is made only for the head of an institution who invites an external scholar to share his/her expertise under the TWAS Visiting Professor programmes; she may still apply for another programme.
• The applicant must be a woman who has received her PhD in a scientific discipline within the previous ten years and whose current scientific research is related to the area of food security, agricultural productivity and/or sustainable food production.

Benefits

• A financial prize of USD 5,000.
• All-expenses-paid trip to attend the Awards Ceremony to be held at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in March 2023. The trip will be confirmed in the coming months depending on the global COVID-19 pandemic situation; it may be that the awards ceremony is celebrated online. Awardees will not be required to travel if they judge the situation to be unsafe.
• The 5 awards will be distributed as follows: one for each of the four regions of the developing world (Africa, Arab region, Asia & the Pacific and Latin America & the Caribbean), plus an additional ¨floating” award for an outstanding candidate from any of these regions.

Selection Criteria

• Scientific merit (eg. quality of publications)
• International and regional impact (eg. invitations to present or chair at meetings; organization or participation on workshops; collaborations with scientists from other countries; national or regional awards received)
• Capacity building – local, national and regional (eg. evidence of running MSc or PhD training programmes; developing and providing resources for students and young researchers; mentoring activities).
• Evidence of innovation will be considered favorably.

How to Apply

Applications be made online and must include:

• Candidate’s curriculum vitae
• Full list of publications
• At least one (preferably two) reference letter(s)
• Endorsement statement from a senior academic scientist (e.g. OWSD members, TWAS Fellows, visiting scientists and staff of The International Centre for Theoretical Physics – ICTP, national science academies, national research councils and heads of departments/universities, both in developing and developed countries)

Click here to apply