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Published: 28 Nov 2023 534 views
The Open Doors Fellowship Program for women researchers in Africa is a holistic program that targets women researchers in Africa
to help them acquire the necessary hard and soft skills to strengthen their placements within their hosting institutions and,
ultimately, avoid dropping out before their consolidation stage.
The ODFP targets post-doctoral and mid-career women researchers conducting agricultural research in African (inter)national research centres. Our program aims to contribute to the consolidation of mid-career researchers and avoid them leaking from the scientific pipeline. Therefore, through its unique conceptualization and implementation, the program is tailored to our participants' training needs to provide a fulfilling, nurturing and empowering learning experience.
The program is structured in two phases. In Phase 1 (1-4 months), our fellows expand their research horizons and scientific network in Belgium through a fully-funded short research stage of three months. This stage occurs in a laboratory where fellows can use equipment not accessible in Africa and learn new techniques and skills relevant to fast-track their research.
Yet, our program pursues to actively connect the Belgian laboratories with the existing African research to generate long-term and mutual learning for enriching collaborations. To this end, the continuous North-South and South-South collaborations between the labs are fostered after this phase through diverse projects managed by IPBO.
While in Belgium, the fellows receive courses on cross-cultural communication, public presentation skills, and how to submit competitive project proposals under the EU Horizon funding scheme, together with their Belgian counterparts.
In Phase 2, upon returning to Africa, our fellows can tailor their training curriculum over16 months by accessing six courses from the VIB training online portfolio on soft, hard skills and coaching courses during this period. Beyond these, the training package includes Negotiation Skills, Project Management and Self-Leadership modules to help our beneficiaries navigate their careers more confidently.
Our mission, vision and values The UGent- VIB International Plant Biotechnology Outreach (VIB-IPBO) is a non-profit scientific organization established in 2000 as a partnership of the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB), a world-leading life sciences research institute based in Flanders (Belgium), and Ghent University (UGent). Over the last twenty years, the VIB-IPBO's Vision is to 'contribute to the participatory engagement of agricultural communities and local actors in LDE to new sustainable agricultural systems, to enable a healthy planet with a sound ... continue reading
| Application Deadline | 31 Jan 2024 |
| Country to study | Belgium |
| School to study | Ghent University |
| Type | Fellowship |
| Sponsor | UGent- VIB International Plant Biotechnology Outreach (VIB-IPBO) |
| Gender | Women |
The program supports our fellows' scientific and public visibility because if research outputs are not visible, our fellows aren't either. To this end, participants receive training on scientific communication and financial incentives to attend congresses and open-access publication fees.
The Open Doors Fellowship Program for women researchers in Africa is a holistic program that targets women researchers in Africa
to help them acquire the necessary hard and soft skills to strengthen their placements within their hosting institutions and,
ultimately, avoid dropping out before their consolidation stage.
For more details visit: VIB website.