The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) has recently opened the Call for Applications for the 2020 OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists.

This prize rewards and encourages women working and living in developing countries who are in the early stages of their scientific careers, having often overcome great challenges to achieve research excellence.

The award gives USD 5000 to each of five winners — one each from each OWSD region (Africa, the Arab region, Asia Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean), plus one additional prize to the top selected candidate from any region. Winners also receive a fully-funded trip to the award ceremony at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

The award has a major impact on awardees' visibility and creates important opportunities in their careers; for example, last year's winner Narel Paniagua-Zambrana from Bolivia was received by her President upon her return from the award ceremony (and even had a mural painted after her in La Paz!), and previous winners Simone Badal-McCreath and Sushila Maharjan were recently profiled in Nature.

The 2020 Awards will be given in the fields of ENGINEERING, INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY. Specific eligible fields included under these are:

• 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

Eligibility criteria and the application process have changed slightly from previous years. Applicants must have received their PhD within the last ten years, and must have lived and worked in one of the eligible countries for at least 5 of the last 15 years. Applicants may now submit their application themselves, with an endorsement statement from a senior academic scientist and at least one other letter of reference.

The deadline for applications for the Awards is 29 AUGUST 2019.

Please see Downloads for the full Call for Applications.

The same information can be found online at:
https://owsd.net/call-applications-2020-owsd-elsevier-foundation-awards-early-career-women-scientists-developing

Any questions about the Awards may be sent to: owsd@owsd.net.