Application details

The Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) aims to encourage critical debate and policy dialogue on the future of agriculture in Africa. Founded in 2005, the Consortium is a partnership between leading research-based organisations in Africa and the UK, with work focusing on Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi, as well as Burkina Faso, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Through stakeholder-led policy dialogues on future scenarios for agriculture, informed by in-depth field research, FAC aims to elaborate the practical and policy challenges of establishing and sustaining pro-poor agricultural growth in Africa. To date, the Consortium’s research has concentrated on four core themes: agricultural commercialisations; growth and social protection; policy processes; and science technology and innovation. In 2010, Future Agricultures launched research in four new areas: climate change and agriculture; land and tenure, pastoralism; and youth and agriculture.

FAC recently received funding from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to support a three-year capacity building programme that will be available to early career professionals working in Africa and the UK. Both fulltime and part-time appointments are available. All fellowships will require attachment to a senior FAC member and affiliation with a FAC partner institution. The awards are designed to support original field-based and policy-oriented research on African agricultural policy that builds on previous work and contributes directly to a specific FAC theme.

Awards

Three types of awards are available:

1. One-year fulltime post-Masters or post-doc appointment (£10,000 each). Four positions are available for African nationals conducting research in Africa.
2. One-year part-time post-Masters or post-doc appointment (£5,000 each). Three positions are available for African nationals conducting research in Africa.
3. Six-month fulltime post-doc appointment (£12,500 each). Two positions available for researchers based in the UK.
   

General Eligibility Criteria

Candidates should have no more than three years active post-Masters or post-doctoral experience at the time that their FAC Fellowship starts. Those who submitted their Masters dissertation or doctoral thesis more than three years before the date they wish to start their fellowship will not be eligible, except where the applicant has interrupted their career for family, health or other personal reasons.

Applications are invited from young researchers who have recently completed their degree in an appropriate development-related field, including agricultural or applied economics, anthropology, development studies, environmental science and policy (including climate change), gender studies, geography, political science, public administration, rural sociology, science and technology studies, etc.

The focus is on junior candidates early in their careers with a strong interest in conducting research on agricultural policy issues in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Please note that awards 1 and 2 are open to African nationals only. Award 3 is open to applicants seeking to do post-doc work on African agricultural policy from a UK base.

Eligible women candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Application Submission

Applications are only accepted by e-mail to FAC-Fellowships@future-agricultures.org. Only complete applications in MS Word format will be reviewed and must include details in all form fields including: personal history; proposed area of research; institutional affiliation; and FAC theme and organisation/member with whom the candidate proposes to work.

Application form can be downloaded here: FAC Early Career Fellowship Application 2011

Details of FAC research themes and members are available on the FAC website: www.future-agricultures.org.

Key Dates

The deadline for this round of applications is 15 February 2011. Awards will be communicated to successful candidates in early April 2011.

Linkage to FAC Themes, Members and Institutions

Selected grantees will be assigned to specific FAC members and affiliated with their associated institutions. These include African and UK universities, policy research institutes, think tanks and consulting companies in Africa. Shortlisted candidates will be given an opportunity to formalise those links.

Responsibilities and Resources for FAC Members

FAC members are expected to play a major role in making a success of this programme. They will be asked to publicise the FAC Fellowship programme to potential candidates and encourage applications from those whose research interests are aligned with their own work.

The mentor is expected to provide support and leadership to the FAC Fellow and agree a programme of work that meets their respective needs and interests. Some funds will also be provided to FAC members to cover the costs of supervising and supporting their FAC Fellows.

Expected Outputs

Each FAC Fellow will be expected to produce at least one substantive output that can be published as a Future Agricultures Working Paper and distributed via the FAC website. Opportunities may also be pursued for contributing to other Future Agricultures publications, such as FAC Policy Briefs. Editorial, layout and design assistance will be provided to the Fellow by the Consortium. In addition, production of other key outputs, such as journal articles and book chapters based on their research and which relate to FAC themes, will be supported.

Final Assessment

Each FAC Fellow will be required to submit a brief end-of-award report within two weeks of the end of their award period. The report should comprise details of the work undertaken, how the award has or is expected to develop the fellow’s career and details of any publications or forthcoming publications. The report will need to be signed off by someone with administrative authority within the host institution before submission. The Future Agricultures Consortium will use these assessments when it evaluates the scheme.

Governance and Coordination Arrangements

The FAC Fellows Programme will be publicised on the Future Agricultures Consortium website with appropriate key words registered with key search engines. Applications will be screened by a small committee and forwarded to an independent grant making team.

Contracting and financial arrangements will be made through the normal FAC Secretariat at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK.

Overall coordination of the FAC Fellowship programme is led by Gem Argwings-Kodhek, a FAC member associated with Tegemeo Institute of Egerton University in Kenya. He can be contacted at FAC-Fellowships@future-agricultures.org.