The Fellowship is offered to women scientists from science- and technology-lagging countries (STLCs) to undertake PhD research in the natural, engineering and information technology sciences at a host institute in another developing country in the Global South.

Please note that an applicant, at the time of application, must NOT have an active research grant or fellowship with The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) or have already submitted an application for a TWAS programme within the same given year. Only one application per year is possible across all TWAS and OWSD programmes. Applicants will not be eligible to visit another institution in that year under the TWAS Visiting Professor programmes.

An exception is made only for the head of an institution who invites an external scholar to share his/her expertise under the TWAS Visiting Professor programmes; she may still apply for another programme.

ELIGIBILITY: Latin America & the Caribbean

Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay

Formerly, OWSD had a list of eligible countries which included all LDCs and any additional countries in sub-Saharan Africa. With this new list, effective for any fellowship from 2017 onward, some countries in Africa (including Nigeria) are no longer considered low income and are therefore no longer eligible for fellowships support. Some new countries outside Africa have been added.

The immediate effect is that OWSD Fellowships will now be open to applicants from 47 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) identified by the United Nations, plus 19 countries selected because of their low income levels and specific needs for support in building research capacity. 

We will do our best to work with those countries that are no longer on the list to see if we can provide partnership funding for fellowships in the future.