Applications are now open for Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship 2020 in Africa. The Social Science Research Council offers fellowships to support the completion of doctoral degrees and to promote next-generation social science research in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. The fellowships support dissertation research on peace, security, and development topics. The SSRC offers up to 37 awards in a year across all three pre-doctoral fellowship opportunities and all six eligible countries.

This program also offers two workshops each year to help fellows to further develop and strengthen their research, engage key literature in their fields, embark on fieldwork-based research, and develop their capacity for scholarly writing, including academic publications. The workshops take place in July and January.

Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship 2020 in Africa Theme

The program features a thematic focus on peace, security, and development in order to renew basic research agendas and strengthen interdisciplinary social science research capacity addressing these issues.

The program encourages innovative research on peace, security, and development topics, moving the boundaries of scholarship and research by exploring concrete linkages between these themes. They envision supporting a diverse set of projects seeking to shed light on a range of economic, political, social, conflict and peacebuilding processes using evidence-based research.

The strongest projects typically will explore connections across these scales. Some research projects will rigorously explore elements of governance, civil society, human rights, peacebuilding mechanisms/institutions and processes, and rule of law. Others will explore the root causes of conflict, human insecurity, emerging trajectories and forms of conflict, insecurities, and human mobilities. Above all projects should advance important fields of study and social science knowledge.

Eligible Fields

The fellowships are available to applicants from all disciplines in the social sciences, including anthropology, economics, history, geography, political science, psychology, and sociology. Fellowships are also available to Ph.D. candidates from related fields, such as communications, international relations, law, peace studies or even the humanities, provided that the applicant engages social science literature and uses social science research methodologies.

Benefits of Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship 2020 in Africa

The selected candidates will be provided with the following benefits-

• The doctoral dissertation research fellowship provides fellowships up to US$15,000.
• The Dissertation Research fellowship award will cover fellows’ travel, research, and living expenses (only if it is related to university-approved housing/living arrangements; otherwise, it should be related to the following: food, transportation, utilities, and welfare) for up to twelve months of research.

Eligibilities Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship 2020 in Africa

Applicants are required to meet the following eligibility requirements.

• Be citizens of any sub-Saharan African country
• Hold a master’s degree at the time of application
• Similarly, be enrolled and working towards a Ph.D. in an accredited university, or affiliated to an institution in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda
• Likewise, have a fully developed doctoral dissertation research proposal approved by a graduate school/program at an accredited university in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania or Uganda.

How to apply for Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship 2020 in Africa?

• Apply online through the given link. All application materials, including the reference letterforms, are found on the online application portal.
• Applicants must submit at least one of the two reference letters by the dissertation supervisor. Similarly, for the second referee, the applicant should select a colleague who is familiar with his/her work and academic interests and that can testify to his/her ability to successfully complete his/her research.
• Also, referees should upload their letters of recommendation directly through the online application portal.