Call for Applications for CARTA PhD Fellowships 2019/2020

The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) is an initiative of eight African universities, four African research institutes, and select Non-African Partners. CARTA offers an innovative model for doctoral training in sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen the capacity of participating institutions to conduct and lead internationally-competitive research.

CARTA aims to achieve reforms in higher education by:
1. Assisting universities to develop enriching and vibrant academic and research environments; and
2. Supporting promising African scholars who teach at affiliated universities to obtain high-quality doctoral training in public and population health-related fields.

Eligibility:

• A Masters 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 teaching or research staff at one of the participating African institutions and should be committed to contributing towards building capacity at their institutions.
• Applicants’ PhD research proposal must be related to public and population health.
• Fellowships are only open to people who have not yet registered for a PhD or are in the very early stages (first year) of the PhD program.
• 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 45 years by April 30, 2019.

Application Procedure:

1. Contact the CARTA focal person at your institution to discuss your interest and obtain application materials. Application forms may also be downloaded from the CARTA website (cartafrica.org)
2. Applicants are expected to submit application forms by April 30, 2019 to the Focal Persons at partner institutions WITH A COPY TO THE SECRETARIAT (carta_fellowship@aphrc.org)
3. Institutional Selection: Between April 30 and May 30 the institutions select nominees for the full application to CARTA. Institutions must submit a completed University CARTA PhD Fellowships Applications Screening Form on May 30.
4. Full application process:
   1. Pre-JAS Assignments:
      • The pre-JAS assignments must be uploaded to the Pre-JAS portal before June 15^th. The pre-JAS assignments have been developed and are revised every year. Revision entails developing a new numeracy task, obtaining a new set of papers for the critical review of a scientific article task (one qualitative and one quantitative) and ensuring that the plagiarism and ethics courses are available online.
      • Nominees complete the Pre-JAS part 1 assignments and submit a full application form between June 15 and July 15. A summary of the tasks and the scores areprovided below.
        1. Critical review of a scientific article (score 100)
        2. Numeracy task (score 100)
        3. Critical thinking task (score 100)
        4. Understanding plagiarism course (score 50)
        5. AMANET basic health research ethics course (score 150)

1. Proposal review

• Applicants have an opportunity to revise the proposals submitted for the institutional selection between June 15 and July 15.

5. Nominees submit their revised research proposals which must adhere to the CARTA format to the focal person, who will forward it to the CARTA secretariat.
6. Nominees submit a reference support letter from the Head of Department to CARTA secretariat.
7. Final fellowship decision, which is independent of the university application, will be communicated by CARTA secretariat by November 1, 2019.

For more information about the Scholarship download the forms here:

1. Call for Applications 2019-2020 Advert_April 2019

2. CARTA Fellowship Application Form -April 2019