PhD Fellowship Dorcas Muthoni in Information & Communication Technologies for female African candidates
PhD Fellowship Dorcas Muthoni in Information & Communication Technologies for female African candidates
The new Dorcas Muthoni PhD Fellowship is a tribute to our Doctor Honoris Causa Dorcas Muthoni.
Dorcas Muthoni, a Kenyan engineer and entrepreneur, CEO and founder of the company Openworld, received our University’s highest recognition on 15th December 2017 for her significant work in the promotion of engineering studies among young women in Africa, the mentoring of young people, and her social commitment in the fight against poverty. All the details can be found here.
This new scholarship is aligned with our university institutional commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in order to contribute to transform our world.
The main objectives of this new fellowship are:
(i) to promote gender equality & contribute to reduce the gender gap in Information and Communication Technology - ICT; by facilitating more women pursuing scientific/technological/engineering careers and lowering the barriers women face when pursuing careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines.
(ii) to share excellent research with African female researchers during their PhD Studies. Our ICT department (DTIC) consists of more than 20 research groups who are very active in international research projects (i.e. currently active in 32 H2020 research projects, 9 of which are European Research Council grants) and nationally we have the Spanish research excellence seal Maria de Maeztu). The Maria de Maeztu Strategic Research Program is a 4 year (2016-19) research initiative funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to promote data-driven knowledge extraction research within the department.
(iii) to contribute to future social impact in African countries. The applicants are expected to return to their home countries after completion of their PhD studies, and to pursue a career related to ICT.
This new PhD fellowship seeks doctoral applications from talented African female students (only African nationality applicants will be considered) with strong research interests. Candidates for PhD positions must hold an M.Sc degree or equivalent.
The Dorcas Muthoni PhD Fellowship will be part of the Doctoral programme in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), that covers many of the most important research topics in the information society grouped into four main areas: cognitive and intelligent systems, audiovisual technologies, networks and communications, and computational biology and biomedical systems. More information on the DTIC programme can be found here.
This new fellowship is considered as Predoctoral Research Contracts (PRC), due to the approval of the Spanish law 14/2011 on Science, Technology and Innovation.
Please note, before applying, each candidate must identify one or several DTIC research supervisor/s with whom she would like to work and contact them to request a support letter. Support from a potential research supervisor is a pre-requisite to be able to enter the fellowship selection process.