INTRODUCTION
The role of science, technology and innovation, as essential tools for Africa’s socio-economic transformation cannot been overemphasized, and this is the bedrock of the ASRIC-UEMF partnership which birthed the ASRIC-UEMF PhD scholarship scheme.
The African Scientific, Research and Innovation Council (ASRIC) is a special advisory body to the African Union mandated to implement the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024) and to promote scientific research and innovation in order to address the challenges of Africa’s socio-economic development. It also mobilizes African research excellence and provides a platform for dialogue among African scientists and serves as a voice of the scientific community in building and sustaining continental research and innovation nexus, that including the building requisite technical capabilities. ASRIC was launched in 2018 and the African Union Scientific, Technical and Research Commission (AU-STRC) is the Secretariat of the ASRIC.
On the other hand, the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fes (UEMF), was created in November 2012 and labelled by the Union for the Mediterranean (a union of 43 country members). UEMF is a University of a regional character and is located in the iconic city of Fes, which houses one of the oldest still-functioning universities in the world, “Al Karaouiyine”. The University was created with aim to promote the values of leadership, entrepreneurship, innovation and solidarity, in furtherance, UEMF is a growing centre of excellence in higher education and research with more than one and half thousand students, 24% of which are scholarship recipients.
In 2019, these two prestigious institutions entered into a strategic partnership for Capacity Building for Africa’s youths and to enhance research and innovation for Africa’s development. Considering the comparative advantage and the common mandate of ASRIC and UEMF “building Africa’s technical competences” the two institutions decided to engage on a long-term scientific collaboration and as of that the UEMF offered Scholarship for African Ph.D. students to undertake studies and research work at UEMF.
The 1st 2nd and 3rd Call for PhD scholarships for African students was successfully held for the academic year 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2022-2023, where eligible candidates passed through a rigorous screening and were awarded the scholarship. In furtherance to the previous successes, the ASRIC and UEMF will be launching further Calls in the near future.
The Call
The ASRIC and UEMF offer 10 scholarship slots per academic year for African PhD students to carry out their doctoral research work at the Euro-Mediterranean University of Fes (UEMF), Morocco. The duration of the study and that of the scholarship is three years.
The scholarship includes; tuition fees of about $9,000 annually, one return ticket from your home country with a maximum contribution of $1,000 during summer vacation, and stipend allowance of $1,000 monthly for 11 months every year.