AfricaLics 2021 7th AfricaLics Ph.D. Academy on Innovation and Competence Building Systems

AfricaLics is part of the worldwide research network, The Global Network for the Economics of
Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems (Globelics). The purpose of the 7th AfricaLics Ph.D. Academy is to support the training of African Doctoral students engaged in research in the academic field of ‘innovation and development’. This is a multidisciplinary field which includes researchers from a range of disciplines often studying innovation studies, the economics of innovation, innovation management, technology management, science and technology studies.

Students and faculty working in the field of innovation and development and principally interested in how innovation relates to economic and social development in Africa are the main target group for the PhD Academy, but the Academy also aims to stimulate awareness of policy and management issues related to this burgeoning field of research.

The Academy will host students from around Africa and a handful of students from the rest of the world. The Academy will invite frontier researchers in the field of innovation and development from around the world to provide lectures and mentor students. We will invite applications from a small number of masters degree students to attend the second week of the event.

Due to the unprecedented and continuing COVID-19 pandemic we are moving the Academy online using Zoom conferencing. The event will take place in two blocks of 5 days of training. The first block will be in July 2021 and the second in September 2021. Each day during each of the two weeks will consist of three (3) sessions. Each session will be 1.5 hours long with a break between each session. To enable participation across all of Africa’s time zones, the sessions will start at 08:30hrs GMT and will finish at 15:00 GMT. All sessions will include simultaneous translation into French. Given the move online, the format and sessions have changed a little from previous years. However,
we will still retain the following activities:

• Lectures by senior researchers on areas ranging from research methodologies to the latest theories and empirical research in the fields of innovation, innovation management and science policy.
• Presentations by Doctoral students of their work with feedback from the senior scholars facilitating at the event.
• Sessions focused on enabling interaction between the students and practitioners and policy makers on innovation and development issues

The first week will focus on presentations by doctoral students and various practical skills building sessions relating to studying a PhD. The second week will focus on lectures on theory and methods.
In between the two weeks’ activities (i.e., in August 2021) there will be a requirement to participate in a group activity that will require approximately 16 hours of time. This will mostly be offline activities interspersed with 2 hours of online meetings and interaction on a WhatsApp group.

• Table of Content
• About AfricaLics
• 7th AfricaLics Ph.D. Academy on Innovation and Competence Building Systems
• Aim and Benefits of 7th AfricaLics Ph.D. Academy on Innovation and Competence Building Systems
• Requirements for 7th AfricaLics Ph.D. Academy on Innovation and Competence Building Systems Qualification
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

About AfricaLics

AfricaLics is the acronym for the African Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems. AfricaLics brings together scholars, researchers and policy analysts who study development, innovation, learning and competence building in an African context. Africalics was founded during an Innovation and development workshop that took place in March 2012 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The workshop was co-organized by the Globelics Secretariat and the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Research organization (STIPRO), a Tanzanian independent think tank. The format... continue reading

7th AfricaLics Ph.D. Academy on Innovation and Competence Building Systems

Aim and Benefits of 7th AfricaLics Ph.D. Academy on Innovation and Competence Building Systems

No sponsorship or travel support will be provided for those who apply and are accepted onto the PhD
Academy programme. Accepted participants will be responsible for ensuring they have good quality internet access for each day of the event.

Requirements for 7th AfricaLics Ph.D. Academy on Innovation and Competence Building Systems Qualification

PhD students who wish to participate will need to fulfil the following requirements:

• be at least in the beginning of his/her second year at the time of the academy
• work explicitly on issues related to policy-oriented analysis of science, technology and innovation1
• be able to present an original paper reflecting his/her research and/or thesis work Master degree students who wish to participate will need to fulfil the following requirements:
• be a registered Masters student in an African university on a degree programme in the area of economics, business or management studies, sociology or development studies or similar have a Masters project that will focus on an aspect of innovation studies (i.e. innovation management or innovation systems)
  To improve diversity in the emerging academic community on innovation and development studies research in Africa, we encourage female scholars and those from low-income countries to apply.

Application Deadline

How to Apply

PhD students who apply must submit an extended abstract of their PhD thesis of not more than 5 pages.
Masters students who apply must submit an extended abstract of their Masters project of not more than 2 pages.

Abstracts should be typed double-spaced in French or in English with font size 12. The abstract should state the objectives, methodology, expected results and (expected) conclusions of the student’s PhD, including supporting figures and main references.

For more details, visit AfricaLics website.