2026 UNESCO/Japan Young Researchers’ Fellowships Programme for young researchers worldwide (Funded) – Opportunities For Africans

Application Deadline: September 30, 2026

Applications are actually open for the 2026 UNESCO/Japan Young Researchers’ Fellowships Programme. Established in 2001 underneath the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for the Capacity-Building of Human Resources, the UNESCO/Japan Young Researchers’ Fellowships Programme, often known as the UNESCO/Keizo Obuchi Research Fellowships Programme, is a long-standing initiative supported by the Government of Japan to strengthen analysis capacities and promote worldwide data trade in areas aligned with UNESCO’s mandate.

Since its institution, the Programme has enabled 291 young researchers from 101 nations all over the world to pursue postgraduate analysis, contributing to educational cooperation, capacity-building and the event of data in fields of shared world significance.

Under the 2026 cycle, UNESCO and the Government of Japan will award 10 fellowships to extremely certified young researchers from Africa, Small Island Developing States, Ukraine and Türkiye. The fellowships will assist progressive and high-quality postgraduate analysis associated to heritage conservation and administration, sustainable improvement and synthetic intelligence, with explicit consideration to interdisciplinary analysis connecting these themes with social, moral, governance and contextual dimensions.

Cycle 2026 at a look

Invited Member States and Associate Members

AFRICA – 47 Member States:
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Eligibility necessities

Applicants should:

• be nationals of one of many invited Member States or Associate Members listed in Annex 1;
• be not more than 40 years previous on the time of application;
• maintain a minimum of a Master’s diploma or equal in a area related to the proposed analysis and reveal sturdy educational and analysis potential;
• reveal ample proficiency in studying and writing within the language of instruction or supervision on the proposed host establishment in Japan;
• have obtained acceptance from a tutorial supervisor at a Japanese college or analysis establishment, who will oversee the proposed analysis.

Research areas

Research proposals submitted underneath the 2026 cycle ought to fall inside one of many following analysis areas

• Heritage Conservation and Management (4 sub-areas)
• AI for Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and Climate Action （5 sub-areas)
• Ethical, Inclusive, and Human Centred AI for Sustainable Development (6 sub-areas)
• AI for Sustainable Cities, Infrastructure, and Societal Resilience (6 sub-areas)
• AI and Education (7 sub-areas)

Fellowship grant and eligible prices

Selected fellows could obtain a fellowship grant of as much as US$10,000. The grant will likely be supplied as a lump-sum contribution and is meant to cowl prices straight associated to the accredited analysis keep in Japan.

The grant could cowl:

• worldwide and home journey for the accredited itinerary;
• lodging;
• medical insurance coverage;
• private subsistence in Japan, together with meals, native transportation and incidental bills;
• different research-related bills, the place relevant.

The grant doesn’t cowl tuition charges, the acquisition of apparatus, together with computer systems, publication prices or participation in conferences, until such participation might be clearly justified as an integral part of the analysis and makes a direct and important contribution to the challenge.

How to apply

Step 1:
Read fastidiously the Application Guide to know the necessities for eligible candidatures and the procedures for the submission of application.

Step 2:
Contact the National Commission for UNESCO of your home nation to investigate in regards to the application procedures on the nationwide stage. Click here for the contact info of the National Commissions for UNESCO.

Step 3:
Prepare all required paperwork, together with the application type (Annex 3), educational paperwork, suggestion letter, host establishment acceptance letter, language certificates and analysis proposal (Annex 4). 

Step 4:
Submit your application to the National Commission for UNESCO of your home nation, a minimum of 2 weeks earlier than the required deadline.

Step 5: 

As quickly as you might be knowledgeable by the National Commission for UNESCO of your nation that you’re nominated as a candidate for this programme, it’s best to talk your the net application type and the supporting paperwork to [email protected].

Note: Only functions nominated by the National Commission will likely be accepted by UNESCO. 

Step 6:
Letters of nomination, together with all of the application paperwork ought to be submitted to UNESCO by the National Commissions no later than 30 September 2026, midnight Paris time. Candidates who submit incomplete functions, or submit the net functions past this deadline received’t be thought of.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the UNESCO/Japan Young Researchers’ Fellowships Programme