The Women for Africa Foundation (FMxA), in line with its mission of contributing to the development of Africa through the drive of its women, is launching the 7th Edition of SCIENCE BY WOMEN programme, with the aim to promote African women’s leadership in scientific research and technology transfer and to foster the capacity of the research centres in their home countries.
The main goal is to enable African women researchers and scientists to tackle the great challenges faced by Africa through research in health and biomedicine, sustainable agriculture and food security, water, energy and climate change.
Considering the exceptional challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the fellowships are focused on the research and innovation carried out by African women scientists from the diverse and interdisciplinary approaches.
Women’s lives are significantly affected by the repercussions of uncontrolled development; however, social, structural and economic barriers limit their capacity to tackle the great challenges faced by the continent. The gender disparities in science and technology in both the public and private spheres affect Africa’s population as a whole. Narrowing this gap, which has severe consequences on the balanced and sustainable development of African countries, is vital to achieve long-term progress and equal growing.
The programme´s ultimate goal is to enable African women researchers to play a leading role in the transition of Africa to a knowledge-based and innovation-led economy through research that can be transferred into products, processes, services and technologies having impact on people´s lives.