The OWSD – Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World

Deadline: 30 September 2020
Open to: women scientists working in the Physical Sciences (chemistry, mathematics and physics), who have lived and worked for at least 5 years in an eligible STLC
Benefits: each winner receives a cash prize of USD 5,000 and is sponsored to attend the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held every year in February

Description

Launched in 2013, the OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists reward and encourage women working and living in developing countries who are in the early stages of their scientific careers, having often overcome great challenges to achieve research excellence. Awardees must have made a demonstrable impact on the research environment, both at a regional and international level.

Eligibility

  • The applicant must be a woman who has received her PhD in a scientific discipline within the previous ten years and is currently undertaking scientific research in one of the eligible fields below.
  • The 2021 Awards for Physical Sciences are offered in the fields of Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics. Any combination of these fields (i.e. interdisciplinary) is acceptable. You can see a list of eligible disciplines here.
  • In addition, the applicant must have lived and worked in one of the following science and technology lagging countries for at least 5 of the last 15 years*:
    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 and the 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 and the Caribbean: Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay.

*Please note:

  • The 5 years of residence in the eligible country do not have to be consecutive.
  • Applicants can be citizens of any country, provided that they fulfil the above residence requirement.

Preference will be given to those candidates not currently (or within the last three years) in receipt of TWAS or OWSD awards, fellowships or grants. If in doubt about your situation, please contact owsd@owsd.net.

Benefits

  • Cash prize of USD 5,000.
  • All-expenses-paid trip to attend the Awards Ceremony that will be held in the framework of an international scientific event in 2021 (venue and date to be determined). The trip and the event will be confirmed in the coming months according to how the COVID-19 pandemic evolves. The awards ceremony may have to be 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, plus an additional ¨floating” award for an outstanding candidate from any of these regions.

How to apply?

You can submit your application here.

For more details, please visit the official website.