Fully Funded British Council/Newton Fund Researcher Links’ Workshop 2018 

British Council’s Researcher Links programme offered under the Newton Fund invites Early Career Researchers to participate in a five-day workshop on air pollution in emerging mega-cities to be held in Nairobi, Kenya from Monday 16th to Friday, 20th April 2018.  The workshop is being coordinated by Lancaster University (UK), African Technology and Policy Studies (Kenya), and North West University(South Africa).

The workshop will provide a unique opportunity for sharing research expertise and networking. During the workshop, early career researchers will have the opportunity to present their research in the form of a poster presentation, and to discuss their work with established researchers from the UK and partner countries. There will be a focus on building links for future collaborations and participants will be selected on the basis of their research potential and ability to build longer term links.

The workshop is being coordinated by Lancaster University (UK), African Technology and Policy Studies (Kenya), and North West University (South Africa). It will be facilitated by established researchers and practitioners, who will also act as mentors to participating ECRs.

The aims of the workshop are to:

• establish the current state of the science and the current and future needs of the atmospheric research community to address the growing issue of air pollution, climate change and their impacts on society in and around emerging mega-cities;
• introduce ECRs to a wide range of techniques and skills required to pursue cutting edge, transformative atmospheric research;
• raise awareness of the need for transdisciplinary co-produced research to holistically tackle the challenges of the UN Sustainable Development Goals;
• establish a cohort of ECRs engaged in chemistry-climate and air pollution research in UK, Kenya and South Africa, who have the potential to become future research leaders;
• facilitate cross-boundary networking and identify common experience on which to build future collaborative partnerships with fellow ECR, established scientists, policy makers and stakeholders.

Benefits

Travel and accommodation expenses for workshop participants will be covered.

The British Council, Kenya National Research Fund and South Africa National Research Foundation will cover the costs related to the participation to the workshop, including: travel (both international and local), accommodation and meals. Costs for the visa, and travel insurance will be covered; however participants will be responsible for making all the necessary arrangements to obtain these.

Eligibility

• The workshop is open to early career researchers based in U.K., Kenya and South Africa. Applicants can be of any nationality.
• Participants must be Early Career Researchers: Early Career Researchers are defined as holding a PhD and having not more than 10 years post-PhD research experience, or is currently near completing their PhD. Allowances will be made for career breaks.
• If a researcher does not hold a PhD, but has research experience equivalent to a PhD holder and works in a field where a PhD is not a pre-requisite for established research activity, they can still be considered eligible.
• Participants must have a research or academic position (either a permanent post, research contract, or fellowship) at a recognized research institution in one of the three partner countries (the UK, Kenya or South Africa)

Official Link

Deadline: 18th February 2018