UK’s Department for International Development (DfID

Application Deadline: September 11th 2017

The REACH Programme is a 7-year, £15m programme funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID). This project, led by the University of Oxford, involves a research consortium of global leaders in water science, policy and practice. It aims to improve water security for 5 million poor people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia by 2022. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of an ambitious research programme and global science-practitioner partnership working to deliver significant benefits for people living in poverty.

REACH is launching a call for proposals for an African postdoctoral fellowship in hydro economics. Up to £60,000 of funding will be available until March 2019 for a researcher to help us deliver improved water security in Sub-Saharan Africa by investigating what evidence exists for water-related economic drag in Ethiopia’s highly significant Awash basin. The Fellow will contribute to answering this question by designing and undertaking independent research to develop a hydro economic/optimization tool/model that is useable by the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity and the Awash Basin Authority.

• These Fellowships are intended for early to mid-career academics and researchers.
• Applicants must be nationals of a Sub-Sahara African country and should hold a PhD at the time of application.
• Applications from PhD candidates will not be considered.
• Early to mid-career’ is defined as within 10 years of completion of a PhD at the time of application; however career breaks can be taken into account and should be made clear in the CV. REACH partners are eligible to be host institutions.

Each host institution must be able to demonstrate that it:

• has internal controls which provide reasonable assurance that the use of resources is consistent with all relevant laws, regulations, and award terms; and
• is able to safeguard resources against waste, loss, and misuse; and will obtain, maintain, and fairly disclose reliable data in reports.

• Projects are expected to begin as soon as possible after award. All projects should be finalised by March 2019.

• Funding available for this project is subject to a maximum £60,000 for the entire period.

Funding requests cannot exceed this amount.

• All budgets must not allocate more than 20% of direct costs to overheads.
• Per diems will not be permitted under the REACH funding agreement but travel costs will be covered such as accommodation, food and others as per REACH guideline.

• Description of proposed research (up to 4 A4 pages)
• Career development plan (up to 1 A4 page)
• Research into action (up to 1 A4 page)
• Budget / Justification of resources requested
• CVs (maximum two pages) for the Fellow and host institution supervisor
• Letter of support from host institution/s expressing its intention to collaborate and endorsement of the proposed Fellowship, and the value of the proposed Fellowship. This should also include a declaration from host institution with the letter of support.
• Letter of support from your nominated supervisor outlining their relationship to you, the role they have had in developing the proposal and their agreement to supervising you.