Call to Register Interest for CAPREx Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships tenable at the University of Cambridge and/or University of Ghana

The CAPREx Programme is pleased to invite applicants with research proposals in the following broad fields to apply for Post-doctoral research fellowships available in 2016/17:

The focus of CAPREx research projects should be on a research collaboration relevant to Ghana and Uganda.
CAPREx fellowships will allow for an average of 4 months (ranging from minimum of 1 month to a maximum of 6 months) to be spent at the University of Cambridge, or the other CAPREx African partner University if appropriate.

When fellows visit Cambridge, they will engage in a variety of training, seminars and networking opportunities to enhance their research links and skills. Ideally, fellowship visits should be scheduled from May 2016. CAPREx will provide travel (to be arranged from Cambridge) and subsistence costs (£2,000 per month pro rata) for the agreed duration of Fellowship visits only (subsistence costs are not be provided for work done within the Fellows’ home country).

CAPREx also provides funding for the Fellows’ collaborator(s) to visit the Fellows’ university to promote sustainable collaborative links and work on their joint project.

Fellows will be eligible to apply for funds to attend an international conference, in Europe or North America to present their research.
In addition, CAPREx Fellows will be eligible to submit an application, in conjunction with their Cambridge collaborator, to the Cambridge-Africa Alborada Research Fund to support the research collaboration (with awards ranging from £1,000 to £10,000 per application).

Details of previous CAPREx Fellows’ research projects and experiences during their Fellowship (blog, photos, visits to international conferences, etc.) are available via the following link to the CAPREx website: www.cambridge-africa.cam.ac.uk/cambridge-in-africa-initiatives/caprex/

Eligibility to Apply

Applicants should be:

• Full time PhD-holding members of staff at either the University of Ghana or at Makerere University. Eligibility will focus on early career fellows (10 years since PhD completion) but mid career fellows (10-20 years since PhD completion) are also encouraged to apply.
• Applicants from the University of Ghana must be Faculty members from the College of Basic and Applied Sciences or faculty members from other UG Colleges doing research on infectious diseases.
• Applicants from Makerere University must be working within the Social Sciences and Humanities. This includes Education, Law and Business.

Please note:

Female staff members are strongly encouraged to apply.

Research Projects involving both African partner countries (Ghana and Uganda) are also encouraged

Application Requirements

Candidates for the fellowships will be selected using a two-step application process as follows:

Step 1:

Interested and eligible faculty members complete and submit the attached registration of interest form by 5th November 2015
Registrations of Interest should consist of:

• A completed preliminary application form, to be submitted by email to the CAPREx
• Coordinator Office of the applicant’s home institution (contacts below). If publications have been listed in the application, then links to these should be provided in the relevant section of the application form. Otherwise, pdf versions of the three most important publications should be submitted with the form.
• A CV
• Supporting letters from two professional referees (including their telephone numbers, postal and e-mail addresses) to be sent directly from referees to the CAPREx Coordinator Office of the applicants home institution (contacts below) either by email or in hard copy. At least one referee should be familiar with the applicant’s academic research work.

Step 2:

Shortlisted candidates will be matched to appropriate CAPREx collaborators in Cambridge and/or Africa, and then invited to complete and submit a final application form. This form will request information about the candidate’s proposed research collaboration, and will have to be prepared in consultation with their CAPREx collaborator(s), for submission by the deadline of 5th February 2016. All shortlisted candidates will also be interviewed at their home university.

Timeline

• 5th November 2015: Registration of Interest to be submitted to the CAPREx Coordinator Office of the applicants home institution.
• 5th December 2015: Shortlisted applicants notified and invited to submit final application.
• December 2015 - January 2016: Shortlisted applicants notified of collaborator(s) they have been matched to, and an introductory email will be sent to put collaborating parties in touch with each other. The candidates can then communicate directly and prepare a more detailed research proposal.
• 5th February: Final Application to be submitted online (details will be provided).
• March-April 2016: CAPREx Fellowship interviews at home university.
• May 2016: Outcome of Fellowship applications confirmed.