The TUM SEED Center @ MAK hosted by the School of Engineering invites applications from suitable candidates from the Global South for a PhD Scholarship in Sustainable Energy Entrepreneurship for the 2025/2026 Academic Year at Makerere University. The scholarship is jointly coordinated by the College of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS) and the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT).

This PhD scholarship is part of a partnership between Makerere University and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) under the TUM SEED Center that aims to shape the future leaders of academia. Tailored to foster cutting-edge research and inventive thinking in advancing sustainable energy and entrepreneurship, the TUM SEED Center offers higher education and conducts research at the intersection of Sustainable Energies, Entrepreneurship and Development (SEED). We advocate for interdisciplinary and global cooperation, transcending conventional limits to explore the fusion of sustainable energy and entrepreneurial practices.

About the TUM SEED Center @ MAK and PhD Scholarship

As part of the SEED network, the TUM SEED Center @ MAK has secured funding for the second phase for 2025-2029. The SEED network consists of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and ten universities across the Global South, including Makerere University (Uganda), Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia), Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia), Burkina Institute of Technology (Burkina Faso), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (India), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Kenya), Namibia University of Science and Technology (Namibia), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Peru), and Stellenbosch University (South Africa). The TUM SEED Center is funded by DAAD and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The TUM SEED Center focuses on building Living Labs in communities without electricity and initiating collaborative research and teaching in the areas of Sustainable energy and entrepreneurship by integrating communities in the co-creation, testing, validation, and further development of new or improved technologies that do not create discontinuities in their settings.

As such, the TUM-MAK SEED Living lab was developed in 2021. The lab is a life-scale mini grid set up in Kyampisi village in Luwero District, Uganda. It is situated in a community of about 1,000 residents living in a clustered agricultural community. The living lab provides a platform for students from Makerere and partner universities to interact with the communities to understand energy, entrepreneurship and development challenges, bringing forth actionable and impactful research that directly addresses the community needs in the hope of improving their livelihoods.

Another key component to the TUM SEED Center is the Student Initiatives activities that are geared to enhance decentralized governance structure by exemplifying a bottom-up approach. By creating initiatives, students influence decision-making at their universities and advance the TUM SEED Center’s agenda. This involvement ensures student perspectives are integrated into the governance process, driving entrepreneurial sustainable energy solutions forward.

This announcement invites PhD Applicants from the Global South with excellent academic track records and strong motivation to apply for a doctoral scholarship in Sustainable Energy Entrepreneurship to be hosted at Makerere University. The doctoral scholarship will focus on scaling and impact of sustainable enterprises in the context of the mini-grid sector, contributing to SDG 7, Clean and Affordable Energy for All by 2030. The selected doctoral scholar will be supervised by faculty members from Makerere University, Dr. Kasimu Sendawula from the School of Business (CoBAMS) and Dr. Francis Mujjuni from the School of Engineering, and co supervised by Prof. Dr. Frank-Martin Belz, Director of the TUM SEED Center.

SEED doctoral scholars are expected to:

• Demonstrate a strong commitment to the work as a doctoral student
• Participate and contribute to the activities of the TUM-MAK SEED Center
• Take on responsibilities of coordinating the Student Initiatives
• Engage in academic exchange (i.e., visit and collaborate with partner universities)
• Conduct research inline with the needs of the local energy Living-lab at Kyampisi
• Submit progress reports as required by the TUM SEED Center and by Makerere University
• Complete studies within stipulated scholarship period, otherwise failure to do so without
  sound reasons a refund may be demanded

Application Procedure

To apply, please upload your CV, a strong letter of motivation, two reference letters, national identity card, and academic certificates and transcripts through the online application form at https://wkf.ms/3XFUwhw by Thursday 12 June 2025 at 23:59 EAT. Based on the applications, some candidates will be invited for an online interview and submission of a research concept note.

Qualified women and individuals with disabilities are particularly encouraged to apply. The Selection Commission of the TUM SEED Center will make the final decision in line with DAAD criteria.

Eligibility for the Scholarship

Following are the application requirements for this scholarship:

• Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of an Upper Second Class or its equivalent in business
  management (with a focus on entrepreneurship) or related fields
• Master’s degree with Merit (or above as may be applicable) in sustainable energies,
  business management (with a focus on entrepreneurship) or related fields. The master’s
  should have been obtained no more than six (6) years ago.
• Research or work experience at the intersection of management and sustainable energies
• Excellent academic track record
• Proficiency in English language
• Extracurricular skills, social engagement, and strong motivation
• Nationality from one of the eligible countries in the Global South

Scholarship Coverage

The duration of the scholarship program is four (4) years, starting from 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2029. The scholarship will cover university tuition and functional fees, research fees, a monthly stipend of EUR 500, local mobility to the Living Lab as well as international mobility to SEED Partner Universities and to leading international conferences.

Further information

If you have any questions regarding this call, contact the Dean, School of Engineering, CEDAT,
or contact Dr. Francis Mujjuni via email at cedat.soe@mak.ac.ug.

Assoc. Prof. Dorothy Okello
Dean, School of Engineering, CEDAT
Makerere University

Background

The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), with support from the Mastercard
Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, is launching this Early-Career
Research Fellowship program. The initiative will fund up to forty-two (42) early-career
researchers to conduct globally competitive research at the host and affiliated institutions of
ARUA’s thirteen (13) Centres of Excellence (CoEs).

Each fellowship will last six months, between July 2025 and June 2026. A maximum of four
fellows will be assigned to each CoE, with all positions filled by December 2025. At least 70%
of the fellowships are reserved for female candidates, and applicants must be no older than
35 years at the time of application.

The program aims to enhance the capacity of early-career researchers at African universities
by providing them with time away from teaching duties at their home institutions to collaborate
with highly experienced and distinguished researchers at ARUA Centres of Excellence (CoEs).
Each CoE is expected to host research fellows from countries other than its own.

Selection Process

• The selection of successful candidates will be conducted by the Director of the relevant
  ARUA Centre of Excellence to which the candidate applies, in consultation with the
  host institution’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
• Applications should be submitted via the online submission portal
  (https://arua.org/early-career-research-fellowships-2025/).
• ARUA will continue to accept applications for the 42 positions until they are all filled,
  with a deadline of December 2025. However, candidates who apply before May 15,
  2025, will be considered for the first batch of positions. Successful candidates from this
  batch will be notified by June 1, 2025, and are expected to start their fellowships on
  July 1, 2025.
• Fellowship selection is highly competitive and based, in the first instance, on excellence
  in the context of the applicant’s academic standing, research experience, productivity,
  and output and, secondly, on the relevance and fit of research experience and proposed
  focus to the host CoE’s research focus and objectives.

Please see detailed call below

_{By Dr. Alice Nabatanzi}

Due to the frequent use of antibiotics for prophylaxis and treatment of poultry by Ugandan farmers, antibiotic resistance is on the rise. This has resulted in an outbreak of poultry and human diseases in addition to drug residues in chicken meat being consumed by the majority of Ugandans. Thus, “If you are eating chicken daily then you could be at a high risk.” These residues have spilled into the environment and also contaminated the food for the indigenous free-range chicken which people thought were safer to eat. Interestingly, some consumers think cooking chicken can reduce antibiotic residue levels, but it does not completely remove them. Boiling or frying chicken can cause antibiotic residues to migrate into the cooking liquid, but they don’t guarantee full degradation or elimination.

Looking at the situation at hand, I went back to our indigenous knowledge systems in a quest to formulate an organic poultry feed since natural solutions have proven safer, effective, and sustainable. But remember, to break the cycle or solve any problem, we have to start from the roots and this is by improving the diet for our poultry and ruling out the use of conventional antibiotics. Thus, I went ahead to investigate natural bacteriocins and phytobiotics which I integrated into a special feed for chicken. In addition to the feed is a probiotic solution for gut health.

Special thanks to the Government of Uganda through the Makerere University Research and Innovations Fund (Mak-RIF) for funding this research to prototypes.

Soon we will commence bulk processing and take the feed to the market but before that, we will scientifically validate the feed through efficiency testing in comparison with imported feeds and Uganda-produced feeds. Furthermore, we will produce different feeds to meet the needs of the different types of chicken (broilers, layers, dual-purpose). This will put our product in a better place on the market and also be able to convince our customers with concrete scientific evidence. In addition, we want to change the mindsets of the majority of Ugandans, especially poultry farmers, and let them understand that Organic poultry farming is the best as it results in quality meat, quality eggs, quality fertilizer, and more returns/ profits.

In conclusion, we need to embrace our indigenous systems and remember that once we were healthier without cancer, strange disease conditions, and rampant fertility issues. This is majorly because we consumed clean food as opposed to now where our food is highly contaminated with drug residues.

Dr. Alice Nabatanzi is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS), Makerere University