Through the Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship, fellowship recipients can expect the following:

Innovative Research 

• Fellows will commit to up to 12 months of developing their doctoral dissertation research. Fellows develop research-based skills that are relevant to, and can have significant impact on, peacebuilding, security, and development scholarship, while producing evidence-based knowledge of relevance to regional and global scholarly debates.

Workshops 

• Fellows will participate in two mandatory APDD workshops occurring in July and January across different regions of Africa. These workshops will help refine recipients’ research focus and methods, further develop and strengthen their field-based research skills, engage key literature in their fields, and develop their capacity for scholarly writing, including dissertation chapters and academic publications.

African Scholarship and Knowledge Production 

• Fellows will contribute to the APDD program’s digital forums and social media platforms (Kujenga Amani, Facebook, and X). 

Fostering Community, Professional Development and Networking 

• Fellows are part of a network of highly visible and active African scholars and practitioners capable of voicing African perspectives on global discourses, as well as knowledge and practices of peacebuilding, security, development. 
• Fellows will receive mentorship from highly experienced senior scholars in the field. There are opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and collaboration. 
• Fellows will ain new knowledge and skills to advance their careers as academics or practitioners in their chosen fields.  

Eligibility

All applicants must:

• be African citizens who are residents of an African country.
• be enrolled and working towards a PhD in an accredited university, or affiliated to an institution in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, or Uganda.
• have a fully developed doctoral dissertation research proposal approved by a graduate school/program at an accredited university in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania or Uganda.