Career development and Leadership initiative for Early Career African Scientists – Zimbabwe Science Leadership Program

Call for applicants 2024

APPLICATION LINK : /tiba/sites/sbsweb2.bio.ed.ac.uk.tiba/files/Z-SLP%20FINAL%20Application%20form%20disseminated%204-6-24%20%283%29.docx

Background

It is becoming increasingly evident that the training of many young scientists features little focus on soft skill development, personal branding and leadership development within their respective fields. It is imperative to prepare the next generation of scientists for the complexities that inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches to science entail. There is an internationally emerging paradigm that recognizes that the focus on individual leadership is often inadequate to address complex challenges; and that instead, a collaborative leadership approach is more appropriate. This however, requires skills across many sectors and collaborative processes. The Zimbabwe workshop will therefore focus on developing soft skills and collective leadership strategies that will help fellows contribute to personal branding and identifying individual leadership initiatives. We will also have a general discussion of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how leadership initiatives can be aligned to addressing the SDGs for the good of Africa.

Workshop Outline

The Z-SLP workshop is a joint initiative of the Africa Science Leadership Programme (ASLP) and the University of Edinburgh and is aimed at developing excellent early to mid-career African academics in the areas of thought leadership, team management and research development, with the intention of enabling them to solve the complex issues facing both Africa and the global community.

The ASLP is part of the Future Africa initiative led by the University of Pretoria in partnership with the Global Young Academy and has been running for the last five years in South Africa. In a bid to expand the ASLP to the different regions of Africa, the ASLP has partnered with the TIBA partnership to run the first ever Zimbabwean African Science Leadership workshop for early career researchers in the region.  

As part of the Z-SLP, we intend to expose the participants to global leaders of African origin who are making a transformative contribution to lives on the African continent, particularly through progressing efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and African Union’s Agenda 2063 targets. The programme aims to creating a lasting network of science leaders on the African continent, spanning not only across countries, but also across disciplinary boundaries.