AIMS NEI Fellowship Program for Women in Climate Change Science

Climate change represents one of humanity’s greatest challenges of the 21^st century. The continued ascent of our species depends to a significant extent on our ability to limit further catastrophic changes to the climate and to adapt to both past and future changes. In many parts of the world, changes in climatic variables – including incessant increases in temperature and declines in precipitation – are already having detrimental impacts on food security, human health, energy, biodiversity, etc. Some of these impacts further alter the climate – e.g. plant biodiversity loss reduces CO₂ sequestration and contributes to rising temperatures – creating positive feedback loops with increasingly perilous consequences for humanity.

It is recognized, including by international institutions like the United Nations that a sustainable societal response to these challenges requires the collective participation of both men and women. However, women have historically had fewer opportunities than men to play significant roles in society’s quest for solutions to climate change. This is despite the fact that in many parts of the world women’s livelihoods are more dependent on climate-sensitive services afforded by natural ecosystems, making them more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

The AIMS-NEI Fellowship Program for Women in Climate Change Science (WiCCS) seeks to increase women’s participation in, and contribution to, a more sustainable societal response to climate change. This fellowship program was made possible by a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada, www.idrc.ca, and financial support from the Government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada (GAC), www.international.gc.ca. It is part of a broader effort by AIMS-NEI to build the intellectual capital needed to better our understanding of the causes of climate change in Africa, and to solve the myriad challenges to Africa’s development resulting from climate change.

Applications are invited from outstanding female scientists currently residing anywhere in the world. Successful applicants are expected to execute, in a suitable African host institution, a self-initiated project with the potential to contribute significantly to the understanding of climate change and its impacts, and/or to the development and implementation of innovative, empirically‑grounded policies and strategies for climate change mitigation, adaptation and/or resilience, among others.

Because mathematics is important for establishing rigorous linkages between observations, their explanations, and the evidence needed to support impactful decision-making, preference will be given to applicants proposing projects that make substantive use of the mathematical sciences, be it for modelling climate change, quantifying its impacts, evaluating the cost-effectiveness of interventions, designing experiments, analysing data, or other relevant activities.

Click here to access the full call for applications