Call for Nominations for Annual Scientific Merit Award (ASMA), 2020
About AGNES
The African Group of Negotiators Experts Support (AGNES) is Africa’s premier think tank that provides scientific expertise and evidence based information to support a unified common African position in the international climate change negotiations and in informing regional and national climate policies and climate action. It also seeks to coordinate and facilitate the exchange of ideas between technical experts, negotiators and policy makers at the global, regional, sub-regional and national levels. The AGNES has established an Africa-wide network of technical experts and policy negotiators, creating an effective platform for strategic knowledge development, sharing and utilization among different stakeholders across the continent.
The Annual Scientific Merit Award (ASMA)
AGNES with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and other partners seeks to recognize and award outstanding young researchers and scientists who are contributing to generation of new scientific knowledge and evidence that is creating significant impacts to communities in Africa. The theme of this years’ ASMA Award is Advances for building climate resilience in the African agriculture sector. The Award will be offered as a reward to motivate, inspire and incentivize exemplary early stage researchers who are making seminal scientific contributions in aforementioned areas.
Eligibility and Selection Criteria
Selection of the awardees will be merit based on recommendations by an Independent Selection Committee (ISE). The ISE will assess the intrinsic merit of the research and innovation particularly on its contributions to fundamental advances or the substantial impact within the agriculture sector in Africa. The nominees for ASMA award must meet the following selection qualifications:
- A scientific paper within the scope of this year’s theme published in a scholarly peer reviewed journal between January 2019 and June 2020, or
- An innovation within the scope of this year’s theme with very high impact to communities and food security developed between January 2019 and June 2020;
- Be a citizen of any of the Africa Union member countries; and
- Be not more than 40 years of age by the deadline of the nomination submission.
How to Nominate
AGNES is inviting nominations from among the young African scientists across Africa. Nominations must be made by filling the nomination form and clearly stating the contribution made by the candidate in the nominated work (scientific paper/innovation) for which the prize would be awarded. The filled nomination form must be submitted to the AGNES by 15th January 2021, 23:59 East Africa Time (GMT+3) via email: [email protected] together with a brief resume of the nominee, two recommendation letters and a copy of the published paper or innovation. Self-nominations will not be considered. Only fully completed nomination forms submitted within the indicated date will be accepted. Late submissions will NOT be accepted.
THE AWARD
Two individuals will be selected on merit to receive the award, worth US dollars 1,500 each. The names of the winners will be announced during an AGNES organized event at which the winners will be invited to receive their award and give a talk.