UPF Dorcas Muthoni Fellowship for African Countries 2024
UPF Fellowship: The application is open for the 2024 UPF Dorcas Muthoni Fellowship for Africans. The UPF fellowship is a PhD fellowship for African countries, we hereby invite eligible and suitable qualified Africans to apply for this international fellowship opportunity.
TABLE OF CONTENT
- About the UPF Fellowship
- Program Summary
- Benefits of the UPF Fellowship
- Eligibility Requirements
- Research Interest
- Selection Modality
- How to Apply
About the UPF Dorcas Muthoni Fellowship
The Dorcas Muthoni PhD Fellowship honors our Doctor Honoris Causa, Dorcas Muthoni.
Dorcas Muthoni, a Kenyan engineer and entrepreneur, CEO and founder of the company Openworld, received our University’s highest honor on December 15, 2017, for her significant contributions to the promotion of engineering studies among young women in Africa, mentoring of young people, and social commitment in the fight against poverty.
The Dorcas Muthoni PhD fellowship is consistent with our university’s institutional commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); it strives to promote quality education and gender equality, with an emphasis on African women.
The first edition of this PhD Fellowship was launched in 2018, with the second in 2020. We are delighted to introduce our third edition for 2024.
Program Summary
Sponsor(s): Dorcas Muthoni
Type: Fellowship
Country of Study: Spain
Award Value: Funding
Application Deadline: 2 May 2024
Objectives and Benefits of the UPF Fellowship
The UPF fellowship comes with the following objectives:
- Our goal is to promote gender equality and minimize the gender gap in ICT by encouraging more women to pursue STEM fields and eliminating barriers to entry.
- To share excellent research with African female researchers during their PhD Studies. Our ICT department consists of more than 20 research groups that are very active in international research projects and nationally we are the only Engineering university department in Spain to have been awarded for a second time the Spanish Research Excellence seal Maria de Maeztu. The Maria de Maeztu Strategic Research Program is a 4-year research initiative funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to promote artificial and natural intelligence for ICT and beyond within not only our Engineering ICT department but our university.
- Enhancing social effect in African countries. After completing their PhD studies, the applicants are expected to return to their African home country and seek ICT-related employment.
Benefits of the Fellowship
Below are the benefits of the UPF fellowship:
The university offers a predoctoral contract with a minimum gross monthly salary of 1.470,98€ for the 1st and 2nd year and a gross monthly salary of 1.576,05€ for the 3rd year.
Teaching. PRC includes a teaching assistance load of 45 hours per academic year. These teaching hours are a compulsory pre-requisite to be able to enter the fellowship selection process.
Start-up Fund. The fellowship will also include a startup/Landing Fund to facilitate the fellow’s initial expenditure. The fund will be for the amount of 2500€.
Please note that the scholarship offered has been designed to support only one individual and we cannot assure financial, logistical, or administrative support to cover for any family members.
Fees covered by the fellowship (PRC- Predoctoral Research Contract)
The “Dorcas Muthoni” fellowships/PRC include the annual tutorship fees, but neither the administrative fees nor the fees for validations of degrees issued by a university outside the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) without homologation. Check here for further information. Fees covered by the fellowship (PRC)
Apply Also: Portland State University (PSU) Scholarship for International/Domestic Students – 2024
Eligibility Requirement for the UPF Dorcas Muthoni Fellowship
This PhD grant invites doctoral submissions from talented African female students (only African nationals will be considered) with significant research interests. Candidates for PhD slots must have an M.Sc degree or equivalent.
Research Interest
Below are the research interests for the UPF Fellowship:
Students will pursue doctoral studies in one of the ICT Research Areas of the department which includes: Cognition, Computation and Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Theoretical Computer Science, Natural Language Processing, Ubiquitous Computing, Information Retrieval and Data Mining, Cognitive Multimedia Technologies, Image Processing, and Computer Vision, Sound and Music Computing, Human-Computer Interaction, Graphics and Educational Technologies, Network Technologies and Strategies, Wireless Communications, Cybersecurity, Information Theory and Coding, Computational Neuroscience, Instrumentation and Biomedical Electronics, Computational Imaging and Computational Physiology, Analysis of Biomedical Data and Non-Linear Signal Analysis.
Selection Modality
Evaluation criteria
- Excellent Academic record of the candidate
- Motivation letter:
-Candidates expected contribution to the promotion of ICT gender equality
-Future expected social and economic impact (Africa)
Application Duration
- Applications to the Dorcas Muthoni Fellowship (see details in point 2 below) and to the UPF-ICT Ph.D. program (see details in point 1 below) are to be submitted by 2nd May 2024 at 23:59 hours CET (Central European Time).
- Dorcas Muthoni Fellowship Resolution: 4th July 2024
*The contracts of the people admitted on this period are envisaged to start at the beginning of October-November 2024. - Early applications are very much encouraged.
How to Apply
Kindly follow the application steps stated below.
Step 1. Application to the UPF ICT PhD program (including support letter from potential DTIC @ UPF supervisor)
- Please read carefully the Eligibility requirements in this link
- It is compulsory to submit in your application a support letter from your potential supervisor in DTIC.
- Please complete this application to the ICT PhD programme at UPF
Step 2. Application to the Dorcas Muthoni PhD Fellowship
- Please complete this application form for the Dorcas Muthoni fellowship
Step 3. Motivation letter Submission
- The applicant should explain her motivation to apply to this fellowship and the expected impact after the end of her PhD studies in terms of the ICT gender equality and social impact in Africa.
Step 4. Preferred Teaching subjects Selection
- As the contract will include a teaching assistance load of 45 hours per academic year. Please download and complete the form in this link and select the subjects you prefer to teach based on this list of subjects included at the end of the form. Once the completed, please ensure the form is signed by your potential PhD Supervisor.
Step 5. Digital copy of your Passport Submission
Please send all the documents listed in points 3, 4, and 5 to this email address: phdprogram.ict@upf.edu
Visit the UPF Official Website for More Information
