The Commission of the African Union is committed to support the use and development of science in Africa and has, since 2008 been running the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence (AUKNASE).
The AUKNASE programme is implemented at national level for young researchers, regional level for women scientists and continental level open to all scientists. The Continental level is the highest level of the programme. The objective is to give out scientific awards to top African scientists for their scientific achievements and valuable discoveries and findings.
Under this programme prizes are awarded to top African scientists in each of the following two sectors
- Life and Earth Science and innovation; and
- Basic Science, Technology and Innovation at the national, regional and continental levels.
Eligibility:
To be eligible for the African Union Scientific Awards nominees shall be African scientists who:
- have made remarkable achievements, demonstrated by number and quality of their publications, number of trained research graduate students, applicability of the scientific work to Africa’s challenges, and its patentability. The award is intended to recognize those who demonstrate excellence in research of relevance to the developmental needs of the continent.
- Only nationals of the African Union (AU) Member States are eligible to participate in these Awards;
- Nominees shall be Africans residing in any of the AU member states and can be nominated only for achievements based on work conducted in an African country.
- APPLICATION for the CONTINENTAL PRIZE: Applicants should have nominees with a PhD degree, if the nominee is an Academic in a university must at least have a rank of Associate Professor. There is no age limit for this award. The nominee should meet at least four of the following:
- Must have published in journals (at least 20 articles with impact factor greater than 1.0)
- Must appear as senior/corresponding author in at least 15 of the 25 articles
- Must have a minimum H-index of 25
- Must have at least two international or four national patents registered
- Must have supervised or co-supervised at least 10 PhD students
- Must have won an international grant as a principal investigator
- Must have written a review article in his/her field of specialization
Nomination Criteria:
Online Nominations will be invited from any institution in the continent, from universities, research institutions, professional bodies, academies, industrial establishments, and so on. Nominations may be received from:
- individuals who may be senior individuals of the same or higher rank than the nominee;
- Heads of institutions who may have their own formalized procedure for nomination, chairpersons of committees who review the achievements of scientists in their institutions;
- The nominator is required to show the importance and impact of the research. The focus will be on the quality of the work and not necessarily the number of publications. The nominator should provide a narrative presentation (up to five pages) of the importance, relevance, quality and impact of the work. A full CV as well as 5-10 copies of best publications are to be submitted together with the nomination form.
- All successfully completed nominations on the on-line system will be automatically acknowledged.
Value of Award:
The African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence Programme (AUKNASE) shall be organized at three levels:
- Two Continental awards receiving each USD 100,000 of for pioneer scientists
- Regional award for women scientists two per each of the five regions and each award amounting to USD 20,000 and
- National awards for young researchers two per country and each award amounting to USD 2,000.
How to Apply:
The Nomination Form with all the supporting documents should be posted via physical courier to the following address (NOT by Fax or E-mail):
To:
The Officer in Charge
AU Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence 2017 Edition,
Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology
African Union Commission
Roosevelt Street
P. O. Box 3243
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
NB: On the right back side of the envelope, please insert the following information:
[From: Full Name, Contact and E-Mail Addresses of the Applicant] and “add the Following Note” [“AUKNASE /Not to be opened before the Opening Session”]
Important Notes:
Note that the above criteria are oriented to academics in a teaching or research institution. However, individuals or groups from non-academic establishments, such as industry, technical and vocational institutions where a patent or other trade secret may have been the basis for developing a product or service that has clearly made impact on society or have contributed in a significant way may be nominated even though many of the criteria above have not been fulfilled.
Application Deadline:
10th November 2017 (at 17:00 hours Addis Ababa time)