The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) invites applications for its prestigious PhD Fellowships for the year 2025. CARTA is a collaborative initiative involving eight African universities, four African research institutes, and eight non-African partners. Our mission is to bolster the capacity of African institutions to conduct globally competitive research, with a particular focus on addressing health and development challenges in the region.
As part of its innovations, CARTA offers a collaborative doctoral training program in public and population health. This program has been developed in response to the great challenges faced by Africa’s institutions of higher education in addressing the training and retention of the next generation of academics in the region. Specifically, CARTA seeks to fund candidates who will be future leaders in their institutions. That is, young, capable, and committed individuals who, in time, will ensure that their universities will be the institutions of choice for future generations of academics and university administrators wishing to make a positive impact on public and population health in Africa.
The multi-disciplinary CARTA PhD fellowship is open to staff members of participating institutions who are interested in conducting their PhD research on topics relevant to the broad fields of public and population health. We welcome applications from any discipline, such as public health, demography, anthropology, communication, and economics, among others, as long as the research question aims to contribute to public and population health issues in Africa. CARTA is committed to gender equity in access to the training programs and governance structure and implements a series of interventions to support the progress of women in academia (see CARTA’s gender position). Women are therefore particularly encouraged to apply.
Successful applicants will attend CARTA’s innovative series of Joint Advanced Seminars (JASES) for cohorts of doctoral students admitted and registered in the participating African universities. Both the development and delivery of these courses are jointly led by regional and international experts. The seminars include didactic sessions, discussions, demonstrations, and practice labs. These activities collectively serve to:
JASes are offered once annually for four years to each cohort and build skills and conceptual depth from year to year. Each JAS runs for 3 to 4 weeks. Specific topics covered in each JAS include the following:
In 2025, the CARTA program plans to offer up to 15 PhD fellowships and two additional fellowships reserved for staff members of the Somali National University (SNU), Somalia, who will be mentored by one of the CARTA partners, Makerere University, Uganda. The fellowships, which are tenable at the CARTA African universities, include the following benefits:
Note: The CARTA fellowships run for a maximum of four years. Fellowships will only cover tuition fees, medical insurance, and travel support for fellows registered at a partner institution different from their own.
Respective African partner institutions need to commit to continue paying fellows’ salaries (or equivalent) as faculty members and to modify their workloads for the fellows, to enable them to fully participate in CARTA-organized activities pertaining to their PhD program and also to concentrate on their PhD studies. The partner institutions will also need to commit to waive the fellows’ fees if they are registered at the institution where they are employed. Fellows are encouraged to seek supplemental funding to cover additional costs of their doctoral program.
a. The full application includes:
b. Applications will be accepted ONLY through the official portal. Nominated candidates need to make sure to receive an official ID to log in and submit within the time stipulated by the system. No late or incomplete application will be considered under any circumstance.
5. Final fellowship decision, which is independent of the university nomination, will be communicated by the CARTA Secretariat by November 1, 2024.
For more information, contact us at carta@aphrc.org
P.O. Box 10787 – 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
cartaenquiries@aphrc.org
+254 (20) 400 1000, 266 2244, 266 2255