November 29, 2018, by jicke

New Rothamsted international fellowship scheme launched

A new initiative has been launched between the Future Food Beacon and Rothamsted Research to support 20 fellows as visiting researchers in the UK.

The Rothamsted International – University of Nottingham Fellowships  is part of a joint £5million investment to support early-career researcher opportunities in the field of international agricultural development. This collaboration focuses on vital, much needed agricultural research skills in low-and middle- income countries (LMICs).

The scheme will support up to 20 fellows for 6-12 months as visiting researchers in the UK. They will work on research projects created in collaboration with supervisors at either Rothamsted or Nottingham. The focus will be on developing skills that can be applied in the fellow’s home institution, who will also be encouraged to help design the fellowship programme activities.

Collaborative partnership

Rothamsted Research is an important collaborative partner for Nottingham, with a long history of excellence in agricultural research. Previously, Nottingham and Rothamsted have collaborated on many projects, which have helped to develop a greater understanding of:

• Important crop pests and diseases
• The movement of water and nutrients from soils into agricultural systems
• Ways to improve crop performance through breeding.

Current large collaborative projects between Nottingham and Rothamsted include GeoNutrition, a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) which is helping to understand and manage links between agriculture and nutrition/health outcomes in Ethiopia and Malawi, several projects looking to improve the yield and quality of wheat, and CEPHaS, a project with the British Geological Survey to develop capacity in understanding soil physics.

In addition to these new fellowships Nottingham and Rothamsted are also supporting 25 fully-funded international PhD studentships. The first five students on this scheme started in October 2018. Five new studentships starting in 2019/20 will be advertised in March 2019.

Two of the new Nottingham-Rothamsted PhD students are registered jointly at Nottingham and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), in Malawi. They are building on ongoing doctoral training capacity strengthening activities in sub Saharan Africa, including the Africa Capacity Building Initiative (ACBI), funded by the Royal Society and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

These fellowships are now open to applicants, for further details on eligibility and application steps, please see here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/beacons-of-excellence/future-food/studentships.aspx

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