PhD Sandwich Scholarships for visiting PhD students of the Universität Hohenheim
to conduct research at a national or international research institute in a developing country
(“North – South PhD Sandwich Scholarships”)  

The Food Security Center (FSC) is a university center of excellence in development collaboration at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. FSC is one of five excellence centers of the pro-gram “exceed – Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation”, which is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany. FSC’s mission is to make effective and innova-tive scientific contributions in research, teaching, and policy advice to eradicate hunger and achieve food security in collaboration with partner research and education organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and national and international development and research organizations. Thematically, FSC’s activities deal with issues of sustainable food availability, food access, food use, and food utilization.

Description of North – South Sandwich Scholarship 2011

FSC awards up to two visiting Sandwich scholarships to PhD students from the University of Hohenheim for a period of six months in 2011. The Center wishes to attract outstanding PhD students pursuing a career in academia or development collaboration. The scholarship aims at increasing their previously gained scientific knowledge and skills relevant to food security related issues. Successful candidates will receive a scholarship for conducting PhD thesis related research studies and hence adding value to the PhD thesis and contributing to the mission of FSC.

For research collaboration, each successful candidate will work with the research staff of FSC’s partner universities, research centers or development organizations located in developing countries (e.g., one of the centers of the CGIAR) to conduct a specific research project contributing to the mission of FSC and relevant to her/his PhD thesis.

Funding for research is expected to be provided by the applicant’s and/or supervisor’s institute and/or other organizations. The objective of the collaboration is to write at least one joint, peer reviewed journal publication or paper and to present this work at an international conference that contributes to FSC’s mission and is relevant to the PhD thesis. Successful candidates should also present their research proposal, state of research and preliminary results in the partner institute’s se-minars/workshops. Participation in teaching and training activities on a limited scale, if possible, is desired.
Furthermore, FSC aims at establishing an active, long-lasting collaboration with the supported researchers and their home institutes through an interactive alumni-network.
The scholarship is awarded for a stay at a FSC partner institute, research center or development organization located in a developing country. The monthly grant will be EUR 500. In addition, FSC pays for traveling to/from the partner institute. Health insurance and other costs must be paid for from the stipend.

Required skills

The applicant must provide proof of:
• outstanding study performance in agricultural, nutritional, natural, social, economic or political sciences, or related disciplines with specification on food security related issues with a minimum MSc grade of 2.5;
• working on doctoral studies at the University of Hohenheim by the time of application and by the time the scholarship program commences;
• latest academic degree completed no more than 6 years prior to start of this scholarship;
• agreement on project proposal with host institute in the field of the own PhD thesis;
• confirmation of support of the host institute in a developing country;
• track record of knowledge in the proposed field of study;
• excellent proficiency in oral and written English;
• registration at the University of Hohenheim at the time of application.

Furthermore, the applicant must:
• be able to conduct innovative research;
• have excellent interpersonal skills and team spirit;
• be able and willing to work well in an interdisciplinary, multicultural environment with individu-als from different scientific, societal and cultural backgrounds and with organizations from the public, private and civil society sector;
• be available for the entire period of the research stay in 2011.

Application
Application is only possible by completing FSC’s application form, which can be downloaded from the box "Links & Downloads" on the right side. Besides the application form, the documents indicated in the application form are required for the application.

Applications will only be accepted, if the research proposal is based on FSC’s conceptual framework.

The deadline for the application is September 30, 2010.

FSC will confirm the receipt of all (complete) applications (i.e., if an application is not complete or not in the described format, FSC will not consider it and will not confirm receipt of the application).

The selection of the candidates will be in the beginning of December 2010, the scholarship program will start anytime in 2011, based on the agreement between supervisor of the hosting institute and the scholar.

All accepted applications will be selected according to the following criteria:
1. Fulfillment of announcement criteria (cf. “required skills” and “application”);
2. Quality of proposal and project feasibility;
3. Fulfillment of demands (e.g. of hosting institutes or emerging from collaborations with (devel-opment) organizations).

The selected applicants will be contacted no later than December 17, 2010. Please be aware that FSC will contact only successful candidates.

Please try to find answers to potential questions yourself before contacting FSC. Please keep in mind: FSC's Scholarship Program and the application process is described in depth in the announcement and in this application form. For important questions, please write an email to fsc-scholarships@uni-hohenheim.de - and please only to this mail address!