South - South PhD Sandwich Scholarships, University of Hohenheim, Germany

PhD Sandwich Scholarships for visiting PhD students from developing countries to conduct research at a national or international research institute in a developing country
South – South PhD Sandwich Scholarships 2012

The Food Security Center (FSC) is a university center of excellence in development collaboration at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. FSC is one of five excellence centers of the pro-gram “exceed – Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation”, which is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany. FSC’s mission is to make effective and innova-tive scientific contributions in research, teaching, and policy advice to eradicate hunger and achieve food security in collaboration with partner research and education organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and national and international development and research organizations. Thematically, FSC’s activities deal with issues of sustainable food availability, food access, food use, and food utilization. More information is available from www.foodsecurity.de.

Description of South – South Sandwich Scholarship 2012
FSC awards up to four visiting Sandwich scholarships to PhD students from developing countries for a period of six months in 2012. The Center wishes to attract outstanding PhD students pursuing a career in academia or development collaboration. The scholarship aims at increasing their previously gained scientific knowledge and skills relevant to food security related issues. Successful candidates will receive a scholarship for conducting PhD thesis related research studies and hence adding value to the PhD thesis and contributing to the mission of FSC.

For research collaboration, each successful candidate will work with the research staff of one of FSC’s partner universities or an other research center or development organization located in a de-veloping country (e.g., one of the centers of the CGIAR) to conduct a specific research project con-tributing to the mission of FSC and relevant to her/his PhD thesis. Funding for research is expected to be provided by the applicant’s and/or supervisor’s institute and/or other organizations. The objec-tive of the research collaboration is to write at least one joint, peer-reviewed journal publication or paper to be presented at an international conference that contributes to FSC’s mission and that is re-levant to the PhD thesis. Successful candidates are expected to present their research proposal, state of research and preliminary results in the related seminars in the hosting research institute. Participa-tion in teaching and training activities on a limited scale, if possible, is desired.

Interregional South-South collaborations (e.g., from Africa to Latin America, or from Latin America to Asia) are encouraged in particular.

Furthermore, FSC aims at establishing an active, long-lasting collaboration with the supported re-searchers and their home institutes through an interactive alumni-network.

The scholarship is awarded for a stay at a partner institute, research center, or development organiza-tion located in a developing country. The monthly grant is 500 Euros. In addition, FSC pays for trav-eling to/from the partner institute. Health insurance and other costs must be paid for from the stipend.

Required skills
The applicant must provide proof of:

outstanding study performance in agricultural, nutritional, natural, social, economic or political sciences, or related disciplines with specification on food security related issues with a minimum MSc grade of 2.5;
working on doctoral studies at her/his home institute by the time of application and by the time the scholarship program commences;
latest academic degree completed no more than 6 years prior to start of scholarship
agreement on project proposal with host institute in the field of the own PhD thesis;
confirmation of support of the host institute in a developing country;
track record of knowledge in the proposed field of study;
plan to return to his/her home country / country of residence and institute;
excellent proficiency in oral and written English.

Furthermore, the applicant must:

be able to conduct innovative research;
have excellent interpersonal skills and team spirit;
be able and willing to work well in an interdisciplinary, multicultural environment with individu-als from different scientific, societal and cultural backgrounds and with organizations from the public, private and civil society sector;
be available for the entire period of the research stay of 6 months in 2012;
be a national of a developing country according to OECD DAC list.

Application
Application is only possible by completing FSC’s application form, which can be down-loaded from www.foodsecurity.de. Besides the application form, the documents indicated in the application form are required for the application.

Applications will only be accepted, if the research proposal is based on FSC’s conceptual framework. The deadline for the application is September 30, 2011.

In case of questions (after reading the general and the detailed announcement!) please contact Mrs Elke Breitmayer; e-mail: fsc-scholarships@uni-hohenheim.de.

Please send complete (!) applications only (!) to fsc-scholarships@uni-hohenheim.de.

FSC will confirm the receipt of all (complete) applications (i.e., if an application is not complete or not in the described format, FSC will not consider it and will not confirm receipt of the application).

The selection of the candidates will be in the beginning of December 2011, the scholarship program will start anytime in 2012, based on the agreement between supervisor of the hosting institute and the scholar.

All accepted applications will be selected according to the following criteria:

Fulfillment of announcement criteria (cf. “required skills” and “application”);
Quality of proposal and project feasibility;
Fulfillment of demands (e.g. of hosting institutes or emerging from collaborations with (devel-opment) organizations).

The selected applicants will be contacted no later than December 19, 2011. Please be aware that FSC will contact only successful candidates.

For more information, please visit official website: fsc.uni-hohenheim.de.