The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) is pleased to invite suitable applications for its prestigious PhD Fellowships for the year 2025. CARTA is a collaborative initiative involving eight African universities, four African research institutes, and eight non-African partners. Our mission is to bolster the capacity of African institutions to conduct globally competitive research, with a particular focus on addressing health and development challenges in the region.

About the CARTA PhD Fellowship

As part of its innovations, CARTA offers a collaborative doctoral training program in public and population health. This program has been developed in response to the great challenges faced by Africa’s institutions of higher education in addressing the training and retention of the next generation of academics in the region. Specifically, CARTA seeks to fund candidates who will be future leaders in their institutions. That is, young, capable, and committed individuals who, in time, will ensure that their universities will be the institutions of choice for future generations of academics and university administrators wishing to make a positive impact on public and population health in Africa.

The multi-disciplinary CARTA PhD fellowship is open to staff members of participating institutions who are interested in conducting their PhD research on topics relevant to the broad fields of public and population health. We welcome applications from any discipline, such as public health, demography, anthropology, communication, and economics, among others, as long as the research question aims to contribute to public and population health issues in Africa. CARTA is committed to gender equity in access to the training programs and governance structure and implements a series of interventions to support the progress of women in academia (see CARTA’s gender position). Women are therefore particularly encouraged to apply. 

Successful applicants will attend CARTA’s innovative series of Joint Advanced Seminars (JASES) for cohorts of doctoral students admitted and registered in the participating African universities. Both the development and delivery of these courses are jointly led by regional and international experts. The seminars include didactic sessions, discussions, demonstrations, and practice labs.

Eligibility

• A Master’s degree in a relevant field.
• Prior admission into a PhD program is not required for application but awards are contingent on such admission being obtained at one of the participating African universities.
• Applicants for this program must be full-time teaching or research staff at one of the participating African institutions and should be committed to contributing towards building capacity at their institutions.
• Applicant’s PhD research proposal must be related to public and population health.
• Fellowships are only open to individuals who have not yet registered for a PhD or are in the very early stages (first year) of the PhD program and are yet to define their research proposal. Fellows seeking support to complete a PhD or secure an additional PhD are not eligible to apply.
• Applicants must commit to participation in all four annual residential Joint Advanced Seminars (JASes), and to engage in inter-seminar activities designed to keep fellows actively engaged and in continual communication with peers and mentors.
• Male applicants must be under the age of 40 years and female applicants under the age of 45 years.

Eligible African Institutions

• Makerere University, Uganda
• Moi University, Kenya
• Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
• University of Ibadan, Nigeria
• Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Malawi and Associates (through Kamuzu)
• University of Nairobi, Kenya
• University of Rwanda, Rwanda
• University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (please note that South Africans are not eligible)
• Somali National University, Somalia (through collaboration with Makerere University)
• African Population and Health Research Center, Kenya
• Agincourt Health and Population Unit, South Africa
• Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania

Application Procedure

1. Contact the CARTA focal person at your institution to discuss your interest and obtain application materials.
2. At this point, applicants are expected to submit their application forms and reference letters to the focal persons at partner institutions by April 15, 2024, WITH A COPY TO THE SECRETARIAT (carta@aphrc.org).
3. CARTA partner institutions will nominate candidates who will be invited for the full application process. The institutional selection will take place between April 15 and May 15, 2024. Institutions must submit a completed University CARTA PhD Fellowships Applications Screening Form by May 15, 2025.
4. Only those who are nominated by their institutions will be invited to submit a full application between June 1 and July 15, 2024. 

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