Meryl Williams Fellowship 2020/21 for Women in Agriculture Research and Development from Oceania & South East Asia

Deadline: September 15, 2019

The prestigious Meryl Williams Fellowship is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR) to support women in agriculture research and development to enhance their leadership skills and increase their impact through a combination of immersive learning, mentoring, networking and professional development. The program will involve a variety of activities that take place across a 15-month period from January 2020 to April 2021.

The Meryl Williams Fellowship supports a 15-month program that includes the following activities:

• The program commences with a two-week immersive workshop in Australia to develop Fellows’ management and leadership skills to assist them to be more effective and have more impact in the agriculture research for development sector. To be held 20th January to 1st February 2020;
• Immediately following the immersive workshop, a six-day Mentoring Orientation Workshop will be held (3rd to 8th February 2020). This workshop brings Fellows and mentors together to explore the mentoring process and agree mentoring plans;
• 15-months of mentoring support from a mentor in their home country plus a mentor in Australia;
• Opportunity to participate in a professional development activity that may be an internship of 1 to 3 months in a relevant institution in Australia (or other country) or other professional development activities such as attendance at a relevant international conference or specific skills training workshops;
• A final five-day workshop to be held in April or May 2021 in Australia. This final workshop will include a scientific writing workshop plus a synthesis of what has been learned through the program.

Eligibility

• Applicant must be a woman who is a citizen or permanent resident of Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Laos,Papua New Guinea and Vietnam;
• Applicants must be employed in the agriculture research for development sector. This might be as a scientist in an agriculture research and development institute or university. Or it might be as a position that has responsibility for research administration or policy and strategy development, within a research institution or a government department other agency that has responsibility for managing or overseeing agriculture research and development;
• Applicants must have at least a Bachelor degree in a subject relevant to agriculture research and development plus at least 2 years professional experience after their most recent qualification.
• Applicants with Masters or PhD are particularly encouraged to apply;
• Applicants must be able to demonstrate that they have management and leadership potential and that they will be able to apply the skills they develop to have impact in the agriculture research and development sector;
• Applicants must be committed to and available to participate in all activities in the Fellowship program;
• Applicants must provide proof that their employer supports  participation in the Fellowship program and that they will release them from employment duties to participate in all the program activities.

Application

• Before completing the on-line application, make sure that you have carefully read this description of the Fellowship program and that you understand the program, that you are eligible to apply, and that you are able to participate in all of the Fellowship program activities.
• Before completing the on-line application form you should also download the following forms:
  • Employer approval form. This form certifies that your institution is aware that you are applying for the Fellowship and that they will support you to participate in all the activities of the program. It is to be signed by a person of authority in your institution. You should email a scanned copy of the signed form (a good quality photograph of the signed form is also acceptable) to the GEAReD applications email address [email protected].
  • Referee template. This form you provide to the two referees that you nominate in your application. Your referees complete this template and then email it to the GEAReD applications email address [email protected].

The forms above must be received by GEAReD before the application closing date. You are encouraged to make sure that the forms are submitted as a soon as possible after you complete your on-line application. Applications that do not have the institute approval plus the two referee reports by the application closing date will not be considered.

Click here to apply.

For more information, visit Meryl Williams Fellowship.