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/ Research, Doctorate/PhD
PAPA promotes basic research in Africa
In 2020, the Pilot African Postgraduate Academy (PAPA) starts as a novel initiative to promote scholarship in the humanities and social sciences in Africa.
The three-year post-doctoral training program under the supervision of Mamadou Diawara (University of Frankfurt, Germany) and Elísio Macamo (University of Basel, Switzerland) is based at Point Sud in Bamako, Mali, and funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. 15 early career scholars based at African universities will be awarded a three-year fellowship.
The program aims at fostering among promising early career African scholars in the social sciences and humanities a commitment to the value of scholarship for its own sake, cultivating their interest in conceptual understanding and promoting an orientation towards the use of knowledge acquired in Africa to contribute to the further development of science in general. The program is part of an ambitious project of establishing a firm scientific foundation for the pursuit and production of knowledge in Africa by Africans in dialogue with their local and international peers – a project made pressingly relevant by developments in research funding policy posing serious risks to scholarship in Africa.
The programme focuses thematically on conflict, migration, youth and urbanization in Africa. Young scholars based at African universities are invited to apply for fellowship by 31 October 2019. Fellows will receive a monthly grant of 300 € on top of travel funds allowing them to attend the courses in Bamako. Meals and hotel expenses are covered in Bamako. A lump sum fund of 10.000 € is foreseen to organize workshops at the home institution, invite researchers and collaboration partners, to attend conferences (in their home countries and abroad), conduct research and work on their publications.
