The new African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence (AUKNASE): Continental & Regional Awards are available for African Scientist for the year 2018.

The objective is to give out science awards to top African scientists for their achievements and valuable discoveries and findings in science, technology and innovation.

The Commission of the African Union acts as the executive/administrative branch or secretariat of the AU (and is somewhat analogous to the European Commission). It consists of a number of Commissioners dealing with different areas of policy. The Commission is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It should be distinguished from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, (based in Banjul, Gambia), which is a separate body that reports to the African Union.

Scholarship Description:

• Applications Deadline: November 10, 2018
• Course Level: The programme is implemented at the national level for young researchers, the regional level for women scientists and continental level open to all scientists.
• Study Subject: Under this programme, prizes are awarded to top African scientists in each of the following two sectors (a) Life and Earth Science and innovation; and (b) Basic Science, Technology and Innovation at the national, regional and continental levels.
• Scholarship Award: The African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence Programme (AUKNASE) shall be organized at three levels:

1. Continental Level where two awards of USD 100,000 are given to African pioneer scientists
2. Regional Level where two African women scientists per each of the five geographical regions of Africa are given USD 20,000 each, and
3. National Level dedicated to young African researchers, where two prizes are given per country and the value of the prizes is determined by the African Union Commission

• Nationality: Only nationals of the African Union (AU) the Member States are eligible to participate in these Awards.
• Number of Scholarships: Numbers not given
• Scholarship can be taken in Africa

Eligibility for the Scholarship: 

Eligible Countries: Only nationals of the African Union (AU) the Member States are eligible to participate in these Awards:

African Union geographical regional distribution of Member States:

CENTRAL AFRICA: Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome & Principe

EASTERN AFRICA: Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda

NORTHERN AFRICA: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia, and The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Entrance Requirements: To be eligible for the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence, nominees shall be African scientists who have made remarkable achievements, demonstrated by the number of publications, number of trained research graduate students, the applicability of the scientific work to Africa’s challenges, and its patentability. The award is intended to recognize those who demonstrate excellence in research of relevance to the developmental needs of the continent.

Only nationals of the African Union (AU) the Member States are eligible to participate in these Awards;

Nominees shall be Africans residing in any of the AU Member States and can be nominated only for achievements based on work conducted in an African country.

For the REGIONAL AWARD: for Women Scientists, applicants should have nominators with a PhD degree, if it is an Academic in a university must at least have a rank of Associate Professor. There is no age limit for this award. The nominee should meet at least three of the following:

• Must have published at least five articles in journals (with an impact factor greater than 1.0)
• Must appear as senior/corresponding author in at least three of the five articles
• Must at least have a minimum H-index of 5
• Must have at least one international or two national patents registered
• Must have supervised or co-supervised at least 5 PhD students 4.4.6 Must have won an international grant as a principal investigator
• Must have written a review article in her field of specialization

For the CONTINENTAL AWARD: is open to all African pioneer scientists, applicants should have nominees with a PhD degree if the nominee is an Academic in a university must at least have a rank of Associate Professor. There is no age limit for this award. The nominee should meet at least four of the following:

• Must have published in journals (at least 20 articles with the impact factor greater than 1.0)
• Must appear as senior/corresponding author in at least 15 of the 25 articles
• Must have a minimum H-index of 25
• Must have at least two international or four national patents registered
• Must have supervised or co-supervised at least 10 PhD students
• Must have won an international grant as a principal investigator
• Must have written a review article in his/her field of specialization

English Language Requirements: Applicants whose first language is not English are usually required to provide evidence of proficiency in English at the higher level required by the University.

Application Procedure: 

How to Apply: Online Nominations (on the online system …..) will be invited from any institution in the continent, from universities, research institutions, professional bodies, academics, industrial establishments, and so on.

Nominations may be received from:

1. Individuals who may be senior individuals of the same or higher rank than the nominee;
2. Heads of institutions who may have their own formalized procedure for the nomination, chairpersons of committees who review the achievements of scientists in their institutions;
3. The nominator is required to show the importance and impact of the research of the applicant. The focus will be on the quality of the work and not necessarily the number of publications. The nominator should provide a narrative presentation (up to five pages) of the importance, relevance, quality and impact of the work. A full CV, as well as 5-10 copies of best publications, are to be submitted together with the Nomination Form.
4. All successfully completed nominations on the will be automatically acknowledged.

Scholarship Link

  Africa Scholarships, Graduate scholarships, International scholarships, Masters scholarships, Postgraduate scholarships, Scholarships for Africa, undergraduate scholarships