Global Plant Protection News

Introducing the Open Doors Fellowship Program for Women researchers in Africa

Dear Colleagues,

I am contacting you to share a  project that we are launching at the VIB-IPBO, where I also workJ , called the Open Doors Fellowship Program (ODFP) for women in African research institutions.

What is the ODFP?

·       The ODFP is a capacity building program to equip our women researchers with essential hard and soft skills to support their career consolidation.

·       The ODFP pursues to enhance the scientific outputs of our fellows in fields of research relevant to the African agro-biotechnology and agricultural sector, expand and consolidate the Belgium-Africa scientific networks and, ultimately, reduce the dropout from early & mid-career women scientists working in African research and academic institutions. Nematology would fit in!

·       The program has a duration of 24 months, divided into two phases. The initial phase has a duration of 3 months and focuses on a short research stay of the ODFP fellows in a research institution in Belgium. During the research stage in a Belgian lab, our fellows will learn, in a hands-on fashion, new techniques & experimental methodologies relevant to their field of research. But also conductin vivo, in vitro or in silico analyses with equipment, software, hardware or research facilities that are not accessible to the fellows at their African institutions.

·       The program will receive the fellows in Belgium from the 1^st of May 2022 for 8 weeks (minimum) to 12 weeks (maximum), departing from Belgium on the 17^th of July 2022, the latest.

·       Women researchers can demonstrate that they are implementing their ongoing research in Senegal, Burkina Faso,Benin, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania or South Africa.

The deadline for applications is the10^th January 2022.  More information is available on the program’s web:https://ipbo.vib-ugent.be/en/open-doors-fellowship-program

Prof Laura Cortada- Gonzalez at UGent

For more information please contact Laura:

l.cortada–gonzalez@vib-ugent.be