The Africa Science Leadership Programme announces the launch of their 2019 call. The fifth ASLP workshop is planned to be held in Pretoria at the Future Africa campus in March 2019. The programme was launched in June 2015 with a first cohort of 20 fellows. At present, the ASLP has trained 84 fellows from 18 countries across Africa. The programme is an initiative of the University of Pretoria and the Global Young Academy, with the support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, aims to grow mid-career African academics in the areas of thought leadership, team management and research development, with the intention of enabling them to contribute to the development of a new paradigm for science in Africa, focused on its contribution to solving the complex issues facing both Africa and the global community.

Visit the call and application page

The speed and quality of the development of science capacity in Africa and the rest of the developing world depends not only on infrastructure and the technical training of people, but is intimately linked to the quality of leadership to lead change. It is widely accepted that the future of scientific development lies in enabling interdisciplinary, interconnected and often large, international teams. Training structures are, however, often not set up to prepare a next generation of scientists for the complexities that an interconnected, interdisciplinary approach to science entails. There is an internationally emerging paradigm that recognizes that the focus on individual leadership is often inadequate to address complex challenges, which require skills across many sectors and collaborative processes. The ASLP will therefore focus on developing collective leadership skills that will help fellows contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The leadership programme:

Identifies early- to mid-career academics who have demonstrated leadership potential and an interest in developing key leadership skills

Supports them to apply the acquired skills to projects that are relevant to the academic development on the continent and its impact on society

Creates a network of academic leaders on the continent, spanning not only across countries, but also across disciplinary boundaries

Advances a curriculum for academic leadership development, which can be utilised in institutions in Africa and beyond.