Connect with us

Natural Sciences

Call for Applications: Masters & PhD Scholarships at Mak, KYU, JOOUST in Collaboration with BOKU

Published

on

Call for Applications for Masters and PhD Scholarships Tenable at Makerere University (MAK), Kyambogo University (KYU) and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) in collaboration with University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) under The APPEAR Academic Partnership Project ‘Environmental Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ECSDevelop)’


Project background

East Africa faces serious environmental challenges in relation to atmospheric, soil and water pollution. The Lake Victoria basin and the Albertine Graben have not been spared either. The Lake basin, which is being shared by Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya has been undergoing rapid urbanization in the last three decades; the high population density, rapid industrial growth and waste-water treatment plants in vicinity of Lake Victoria basin have been reported as sources of environmental contaminants such as plastic debris and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). It is expected that both Lake Victoria and Nile River act as sinks for pollutants e.g., microplastics (MPs); however, the extent of these interactions and MPs entrapment rates will be governed by many physical, biological and chemical factors. In addition, the project explores L. Victoria point source pollution identification and remediation. Since most of the pollutants on the Kenyan side of lake have been identified, stratified sampling of known pollutants will be done and mechanisms of removing the pollutants at its source determined. A policy brief will be prepared and made available to concerned authorities for action.

Furthermore, Uganda has established an ambitious agenda for its future with its 2040 Vision acting as a blueprint and framework envisaging a middle-income economy, and its hopes for infrastructural and social development are hinged on revenues expected from oil production in the Albertine Graben. In 2013, Uganda’s oil reserves were estimated to be 3.5 billion barrels, and were expected to yield at least USD $2 billion per year for 30 years once oil production commences. The Albertine Graben, covering an exploration area of about 25,000 km2 contains substantial oil seepages that lead to environmental degradation and thus impose threats to people’s health through food chains. Many bioremediation and chemical oxidation studies have been carried out but with limited remediation efficiency. In this project, candidates will explore multifaceted application of nanotechnology in the field of bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons. Understanding the interaction between the contaminant, the microorganism, and the nanomaterials is of crucial importance since positive and negative effects may be produced.

Project Objectives/Outcomes:

It is expected that through this project, we shall;

  • Exploit regional capacities to jointly streamline existing curricula on environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology.
  • Develop a novel cost-effective state-of-the-art technology to track and clean up contaminants in waste water.
  • Develop efficient remediation technologies for crude oil contaminated soils and water of the Albertine graben, Uganda.
  • Investigate seasonal fluxes, sources and trophic transfer of microplastics within the aquatic ecosystem of Lake Victoria and River Nile.

Scholarship design:

The project offers financial support to academically skilled master’s and PhD students with main focus on aforementioned priority areas. 4 PhD scholarships (2 tenable at MAK -Uganda, 1 tenable at KYU-Uganda, and 1 tenable at JOOUST-Kenya), and up to 5 Master scholarships (3 tenable at MAK, 1 tenable at KYU, and 1 tenable at JOOUST) will be considered for funding by ECSDevelop project. 50% of the scholarships will be awarded to females.

The scholarship covers:

  • Full tuition fees: Payable directly to the University according to an official invoice;
  • Stipend: EUR 2,400 and EUR 3,600 for MSc and PhD students, respectively, per year to support living expenses during project duration;
  • Field visits, study materials and laboratory consumables: One-off allowance;
  • Workshops on renewable resources/analytical skills and webinar series on biorefinery;
  • Research fellowships in BOKU, Austria: Students will be provided with money to cover their costs for accommodation, insurance and upkeep while in Austria at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU).

Interested applicants should submit the following sets of documents:

  1. An application letter for a Master’s or PhD scholarships;
  2. A current CV (at most 2 pages), including a detailed description of the previous education at the University level (all courses and grades) and a description of current research interests in line with the stated ECSDevelop project areas of focus;
  3. Citizenship Proof – Copy of national identity card or passport;
  4. Three recent passport size photos;
  5. A certified copy of the bachelor’s degree & certificate for Master’s applicants; Master’s degree & certificate for PhD applicants;
  6. A copy of admission letter to the MSc. Program at MAK or KYU or JOOUST for Master’s applicants;
  7. A research Concept Note maximum 5 pages with a detailed description of the applicant’s research interest.
  8. A motivation letter showing why they are interested in pursuing Masters or PhD studies and expected outputs from their master’s or PhD studies.
  9. At least two recommendation letters from your academic referees. The reference letters should be sent together with the application.

Application procedure:

  1. All application documents must be zipped up in one file folder;
  2. Electronic submission of application for scholarship with supporting documents should be sent to the Overall Project Coordinator of ECSDevelop, Dr. Christine Betty Nagawa on e-mail christine.nagawa[at]mak.ac.ug with a copy to ECSDevelop Project Coordinator at JOOUST, Dr. Solomon Omwoma Lugasi on e-mail slugasi[at]jooust.ac.ke; and to the ECSDevelop project Coordinator KYU, Dr. Christine Kyarimpa on email ckyarimpa[at]kyu.ac.ug
  3. No hard copies of application documents will be required given the prevailing covid-19 situation;
  4. Deadline for submission of applications is 30th January, 2022 17:00 hours, EAT. Only the shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interviews.

Selection Process:

These are competitive Masters & PhD scholarships. The applications shall be vetted by a selection panel consisting of professionals from MAK, KYU, JOOUST and BOKU. Previous working experiences with research projects will be an added advantage.

Please see Download below for detailed Call for Applications.

Natural Sciences

15 PhD Positions: Human River Systems in the 21st century

Published

on

15 New Positions Open in the FWF PhD Program "Human River systems in the 21st century (HR21)". Application Deadline: 2nd April 2024. Austria. Europe

Highly qualified applicants from all over the world are invited to apply for the PhD Program “Human River systems in the 21st century (HR21)”. The 15 positions are fully funded and the Doctoral Programme is providing additional resources for conference presentations, retreats etc.

The 15 PhD research topics are:

  • Topic 1: Role of hydrological extremes (floods) for sediment transport and morphodynamics in the human-river system
  • Topic 2: Material resources demand and flows of hydraulic structures to prevent societal impact of extreme events (social ecology, environmental history)
  • Topic 3: Intermittent flow – hydrological effects and impacts on benthic communities, ecological state and functioning of riverine systems
  • Topic 4: Drought, low flow and warming – hydrological effects and impacts on the ecological state and functioning of river systems
  • Topic 5: Water transit time distributions as indicators for the vulnerability of riverine ecosystems under different pressures from social metabolism
  • Topic 6: Analyzing possible contributions of re-activated former watercourses towards a more sustainable transformation of industrialized riverine landscapes in urban areas
  • Topic 7: The role of the latest industrial revolutions on instream processes and ecological vulnerability of IRL
  • Topic 8: The effects of infrastructure development on ecological and ecosystem service network properties in river systems
  • Topic 9: The impact of urban settlements on organic matter and nutrient flows in industrialized riverine landscapes – What can we learn from the past?
  • Topic 10: Urban metabolism, a river’s ecohydrology and industrialization: Vienna and the Danube, 1800-2000
  • Topic 11: Impact of external organic matter sources on nutrient, sediment and water transport from cropland into streams
  • Topic 12: Impacts of bioenergy crops used as riparian buffer strips on stream ecosystems’ functioning
  • Topic 13: Sustainable hydropower & and the water-energy-food nexus in multi-stressed IRLs: Challenges and solutions for science & management
  • Topic 14: Integrated modelling of farmers’ climate change impact and adaptation appraisal to inform regional human river nexus management
  • Topic 15: Strategic planning approaches to territorial governance of industrialized riverine landscapes

For more information, please visit: https://short.boku.ac.at/q9ry2k

Application deadline: 2nd April 2024

Continue Reading

Natural Sciences

Dr. Tugume Patience Wins OWSD Early Career Fellowship

Published

on

Dr. Tugume Patience, Department of Plant Sciences, Microbiology and Biotechnology, College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS), Makerere University, Kampala Uganda, East Africa.

Dr Tugume Patience, a Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences, Microbiology and Biotechnology at the College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS), Makerere University is one of the 28 women who have been granted the 2023 OWSD Early Career Fellowship.  These scientists will receive up to USD50,000 to lead research projects and establish research groups at their home institutions in 16 countries in the developing world, to maintain an international standard of research and attract scholars from all over the world to collaborate. Funding for the fellowships is generously provided by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

During the 3-year fellowship, fellows will receive specific training to build on their leadership and management skills and develop connections with a variety of public and private sector partners to potentially convert their research into marketable products or guarantee its impact on a broader scale. By improving their communication and outreach skills, fellows will also learn to effectively present their research to various audiences, thus attracting new collaborators and potential funders to ensure the sustainability of the research project.

Dr Tugume’s Project – Biological Systems and Organisms

This project will use various forms of bio-wastes from households and urban centres in Uganda as raw materials for production of biogas, as well as an eco-friendly bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticide. Large amounts of unconsumed food are often thrown away in homes and urban centres that could be converted into useful products that would supply energy, enhance agricultural productivity and reduce deforestation. This project will construct anaerobic bio-digester tanks to process different kinds of bio-waste into biogas, a renewable energy source, and evaluate yields of biogas from different bio-wastes and combinations of bio-wastes. It will additionally produce a bio-fertilizer to enrich soil and a bio-pesticide to manage agricultural pests. The project will also equip households with the skills to biologically convert wastes into value-added products, training women and youth in biogas production and usage.

Details on the fellowships at: https://owsd.net/news/news-events/introducing-2023-owsd-early-career-fellows

Congratulations Dr Tugume

View on CoNAS

Continue Reading

Agriculture & Environment

CoSTClim – NORPART Call for Applications for Masters Student Mobility to Norway 2024

Published

on

Makerere University (MAK) in collaboration with Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Uganda Martyrs University (UMU) and Regional Universities Forum (for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) are implementing a five-year CoSTClim project (Collaborative Action for Strengthening Training Capacities in Climate Risk and Natural Resource management). The main goal of the project is to improve the quality of training, education and research at the partner institutions with a dedicated focus on climate risk, disaster risk management and natural resource management. CoSTClim builds on a range of other capacity development projects funded by the Norwegian Government at the partner institutions, and has a specific focus on education.

One of the components of CoSTClim is student mobility from Uganda to Norway and from Norway to Uganda. Therefore, we are inviting applicants from Makerere University for Masters student mobility scholarships to NTNU for the Autumn semester in 2024. There are five mobility scholarship slots available for this year. The scholarship will cover 5 months (August-December 2024) stay at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. The successful candidates can enroll in selected course units at NTNU as well as leveraging the stay to write their master’s thesis. The width and breadth of available course units from which the candidates can select are found: https://www.ntnu.edu/geography/exchange-students

Limited research supervision will also be given by NTNU staff but the primary supervision responsibility stays with the allocated supervisors at Makerere University or Uganda Martyrs University.

Eligibility and requirements for the mobility applicants
a) The applicant should be a fully registered student in a relevant Masters programme at
Makerere University or Uganda Martyrs University, which aligns to the CostClim
thematic focus area.
b) The focus of the research of the applicant should align strongly to climate risk, disaster
risk management, natural resource management or agriculture.
c) The applicant should be progressing well on the masters programme and within the
stated duration of the programme (2-3years).

Application procedure
Interested and eligible Masters students should send the following;
a) A one page application letter
b) A motivation statement and plan for the time at NTNU (1-2 pages)
c) A letter from the Head of Department attesting to your registration, study status and
progress on your programme.
d) Copies of your undergraduate transcript and partial transcript or HOD endorsed
results for your current studies.
Application with all the required documents should be submitted by email to the contacts
below in one message.

  1. Yazidhi Bamutaze (for applicants from MAK)- yazidhibamutaze@gmail.com
  2. Runyararo Jolyn Rukarwa – r.rukarwa@ruforum.org
  3. Charlotte Nakakawa Jjunju – charlotte.jjunju@ntnu.no
  4. Joseph Sekandi sekjoseph@gmail.com
    Short listed applicants will be invited to complete educational procedures at NTNU under the
    exchange arrangement. A scholarship

The application deadline is Thursday 29th February 2024.

For further details, kindly download the document by following this link.

Continue Reading

Trending