Special Research Fund offers support to university research groups or research centers in developing countries.
The main aim of this scholarship is to grow outstanding research centers by upgrading local academic personnel. Therefore, Ghent University grants PhD scholarships to upcoming PhD students from developing countries who want to carry out half of their PhD research at Ghent University and half in a university in a developing country. No restrictions are imposed on the field of research; preference will be given to topics which are relevant for development. Relevance for development measures the degree in which the action of development corresponds with the expectations of the beneficiaries, the requirements of the country, global priorities and the policies of partners and donors.
This program is limited to universities and research centers in developing countries with which Ghent University is already cooperating or has cooperated in the last 5 years. These grants take the form of a so called “sandwich” scholarship as the candidate obtains a scholarship for 24 months to work within a span of 48 months on an alternating basis on the PhD at Ghent University and at the university or research center in the country of origin of the candidate.
The candidate obtains a scholarship for 24 months which must be segregtaed into different periods within a span of 4 years. In principle the scholarship holder starts the PhD scholarship research at Ghent University during a period of 3 to 9 months and ends the scholarship with a stay of at least 3 months at Ghent University to complete and defend the doctoral thesis.
The eligibility requirements are as follows:-
- Candidates need to come from – and have the nationality of – a developing country (see list);
- There must be a guarantee that the candidate will be able to work on the PhD project at the partner university. This implies that there must be a local PhD supervisor at the partner university or research center. Also a written statement is requested from that supervisor or the university authorities stating that the candidate is either a student or a staff member of this university and will be sufficiently exempted from teaching or other assignments as to be able to fully concentrate on the PhD research.
- This statement should also mention that the candidate receives/received a local scholarship or salary when working on the PhD in the home institute.
Deadline: 8th March 2012
For further information, visit the link.
