Awards & Competitions
OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists 2020

OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists 2020

About OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists 2020

Engineering, Innovation & Technology

The call for submission of applications is now opened for the OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World, a high-profile award that honors the scientific and career achievements of women from developing countries. Applications for the 2020 awards will be accepted until 29 August 2019 for early-career women who have made significant contributions in the fields of Engineering and Technology. Evidence of innovation will be considered favourably.

Eligibility

The applicant must be a female scientist who has received her PhD within the previous ten years. The eligible subject fields for the 2020 awards include:

* Civil engineering
* Electrical engineering, electronic engineering
* Telecommunications/information engineering / Software engineering
* Computer science
* Mechanical engineering
* Chemical engineering
* Materials engineering
* Medical engineering
* Environmental engineering
* Environmental biotechnology
* Industrial biotechnology
* Nano technology

In addition, the applicant must have lived and worked in one of the following science and technology lagging countries for at least 5 of the last 15 years:

Africa: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Dem. Rep. Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Arab Region: Djibouti, Palestine (West Bank & Gaza Strip), Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen.

Asia and the Pacific: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kiribati, Lao People’s Dem. Rep., Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.

Latin America and the Caribbean: Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay.

Please note that an applicant, at the time of application, must NOT have an active research grant or fellowship with OWSD or with The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) or have already submitted an application for an OWSD or TWAS programme within the same given year. Only one application per year is possible across all TWAS and OWSD programmes. Applicants will not be eligible to visit another institution in that year under the TWAS Visiting Professor programmes. An exception is made only for the head of an institution who invites an external scholar to share his/her expertise under the TWAS Visiting Professor programmes; she may still apply for another programme.

Prize

* Cash prize of USD 5,000.
* All-expenses-paid trip to attend the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, which will take place on 13-16 February 2020 in Seattle.

The 5 awards will be distributed as follows: one for each of the four regions of the developing world, plus an additional ¨floating” award for an outstanding candidate from any of these regions.

Applications

Applications are invited from women scientists from the eligible developing countries and they must be made online.

Applications must include:

* Candidate’s curriculum vitae
* Full list of publications
* At least one (preferably two) reference letter(s)

Endorsement statement from a senior academic scientist (e.g. OWSD members, TWAS Fellows, visiting scientists and staff of The International Centre for Theoretical Physics – ICTP, national science academies, national research councils and heads of departments/universities, both in developing and developed countries).

Please note that the endorser cannot also be a referee.

The 2020 Awards submission of applications will be open until 29 August 2019.

Selection

The competition will be judged by a distinguished panel of international scientists, including members of TWAS, OWSD and ICTP, and chaired by OWSD.

Applications will be judged in terms of:

* Scientific merit (eg. quality of publications)
* International and regional impact (eg. invitations to present or chair at meetings; organization or participation on workshops; collaborations with scientists from other countries; national or regional awards received)
* Capacity building – local, national and regional (eg. evidence of running MSc or PhD training programmes; developing and providing resources for students and young researchers; mentoring activities).

Evidence of innovation will be considered favourably.

Successful candidates will be notified by November 2019 and will need to apply immediately for visas for travel to Seattle (USA) in February 2020.