AfricaLics Visiting PhD Fellowship Programme 2027 for young African PhD Students (Funded)

Application Deadline: 2nd October 2026.

Applications at the moment are open for the 2027 AfricaLics Visiting PhD Fellowships. The AfricaLics community invites eligible PhD college students enrolled at universities in African international locations to apply for the AfricaLics PhD Visiting Fellowship Programme (VFP), 2027 cohort, which focuses on analysis in Innovation and Development (I&D).

The AfricaLics VFP was established in 2015 with monetary assist from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Since its institution, 50 African PhD college students from low- and lower-middle-income international locations have participated within the programme, receiving coaching and mentorship assist.

Successful candidates for the 2027 cohort will take part in a fellowship programme combining on-line pre- and post-activities with a study interval of three months on the University of Johannesburg (UJ)[1] in South Africa.

The 2027 VFP cohort actions will kick off with a spread of on-line actions beginning within the first half of February 2027. The study go to at UJ is scheduled for 6 September to three December 2027 and will likely be adopted up by varied extra on-line actions in December 2027 and in early 2028.

The AfricaLics VFP goals to assist African PhD college students working in Innovation and Development by strengthening their tutorial and analysis capabilities, enhancing the standard of their dissertations, and getting ready them for careers in academia, the non-public sector, or authorities and policymaking. The AfricaLics VFP does this by growing the mobility and degree of publicity of the chosen PhD college students to worldwide information and analysis on innovation and improvement. The programme varieties part of the broader AfricaLics efforts to contribute to the event of a vibrant analysis group in Africa on this rising and extremely multidisciplinary discipline.

Eligibility Requirements

The scholarship possibility is open to PhD college students from international locations in Africa categorized by the OECD/DAC as low and lower-middle-income countries whose research – no matter sectoral self-discipline – deal with the connection between innovation and financial, social or environmentally sustainable improvement. Female PhD college students are notably inspired to apply, as AfricaLics seeks to extend the illustration of ladies in Innovation and Development analysis in Africa. Likewise, PhD college students from low-income international locations are notably inspired to apply as a result of AfricaLics endeavours to strengthen analysis capability in Innovation and Development in low-income international locations in Africa.

Applicants have to be enrolled as PhD college students in a related programme at an African college and will ideally have accomplished their first yr of PhD research by December 2026. The last variety of accepted visiting fellows will rely on the in-depth evaluation of the standard and relevance of purposes, funding out there, and prospects to safe related mentors that match the matters of PhD candidates making use of for the fellowship. The visiting scholarship is complementary to the research of the PhD college students at their home universities, and candidates should have already got secured fundamental funding for their PhD research from different sources (e.g. African governments, different organisations, or self-financing).

For the 2027 VFP cohort, PhD college students engaged in analysis related to the 4 AfricaLics Research Coordination Areas are notably inspired to apply. The Network at present has 4 established RCAs:

• STI Measurement in Africa
• Global Value Chains (GVCs), Innovation and Industrialization
• Innovating Resilience: Advancing Inclusive Agricultural Innovation for Climate Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Innovation and Sustainable Energy Transition in Africa (i-SET Africa)

Student Requirements and Application Form

Applicants for the AfricaLics PhD visiting fellowship programme ought to:

• Be working actively on a topic related to innovation and improvement as outlined above.
• Be enrolled as a PhD pupil at a college in Africa.
• Have ideally accomplished their first yr of research by December 2026
• Have a background (BSc, MSc and many others.) in Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Science and Technology Policy, Geography, History or Development Studies. Applicants might also work throughout the STEM (science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic) topics and even manufacturing, however from a social science perspective.
• Possess ample literacy in English (documentation could also be requested).

Application Requirement

The following paperwork have to be submitted with the application:

• Brief define of present PhD undertaking, together with PhD coaching plans (max. 5 pages)
• Curriculum Vitae – CV (together with PhD programs attended thus far)
• Letter of assist from the principle PhD supervisor confirming that the PhD pupil could have accomplished her/his improve/probation by the tip of December 2025 OR the reason why the coed is deemed appropriate for inclusion within the fellowship programme if this isn’t the case.
• Letter of assist from the University Administration on the college the place the PhD pupil is enrolled
• Copies of educational certificates (copies of Bachelor and Master Certificates at the least)
• One writing pattern (article or chapter) from present PhD program

Applicants are NOT anticipated to submit a replica of their passport when making use of for the PhD visiting fellowship programme.  Successful candidates will likely be requested to deal with any visa points which may be related  with assist from the AfricaLics Secretariat and UJ. Collection of private information will likely be stored to a minimal, and data obtained will likely be saved safely and won’t be used for some other functions.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the AfricaLics Visiting PhD Fellowships