The One Planet Fellowship is a $20 million initiative dedicated to supporting research on climate change adaptation. The Fellowship is an academic mentoring scheme which targets the next generation of African climate scientists. Applications close on 31st March 2020.

Experts agree that the African continent is particularly vulnerable to climate change and hundreds of millions of lives are at risk of hunger and starvation if Africa is unable to feed its growing population.

Research and innovation in the agricultural sector can help Africa feed a growing population in the context of a changing climate but only if investments are made now to build a pipeline of the next generation of research scientists.

That is why African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), France’s BNP Paribas Foundation, the European Union, Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and France’s Agropolis Fondation have partnered to implement the One Planet Fellowship.

The One Planet Fellowship seeks to build a vibrant, highly connected, and intergenerational network of African and European scientist leaders equipped to lead next-generation research focused on helping Africa’s smallholder farmers adapt to a changing climate.

Announced at the One Planet Summit in 2017, The One Planet Fellowship is a career-accelerator designed to enhance the capacity of high potential agricultural researchers focused on climate change adaptation, by building their leadership, scientific research, networking, and mentoring skills. Selected candidates will benefit from a three-year career acceleration process aimed at fostering leadership skills, strengthening scientific research skills and catalysing research partnerships and networks to help smallholder farmers cope with the climate change.

In light of the gender gap in Africa’s agricultural sector, AWARD's collaboration with the One Planet Fellowship focuses especially on the role of women in research and development and works towards building relationships that will trigger further funding and scientific development in the future.

For more information and to apply for the fellowship, please visit the website: https://oneplanetfellowship.org/call-next-cohort-one-planet-fellowship-opens

Photo: Fellow and University of Nairobi Associate Professor Dr Sheila Okoth (middle) with her students at the University Laboratories. Courtesy of AWARD.