The University of Murcia through the CMN renews its annual collaboration with the Women for Africa Foundation

09 Dec 2023
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The University of Murcia through the Campus Mare Nostrum Office has signed a collaboration agreement with the Women for Africa Foundation (FMxA) to promote the training of African women through the Learn Africa Programme, through the modality of a research stay for a young researcher, either in pre-doctoral training stage or at the beginning of the research career (less than 5 years after the reading of the thesis).

In the last editions, the University of Murcia has been offering a grant for a 6-month research stay in one of the UMU research groups. During this period, the University of Murcia guarantees financial support that will cover travel expenses, health insurance, as well as accommodation and meals for a total amount of 6000 euros, the working language being English.

The selection process begins with the publication of the call for applications and vacancies offered both at the UMU and at other Spanish universities and research centres by the Women for Africa Foundation in March/April each year, which then carries out a pre-selection of the candidates. Finally, it is the research group of each institution that selects the candidate.

The general requirements to participate are generally:

  • be a woman
  • be african
  • have an academic degree from an African university

In the case of UMU, the characteristics of the position and requirements to apply for the grant of a predoctoral or postdoctoral stay in the position offered this year in the 'Fungal Genomics and Molecular Biotechnology' group are:

  • Predoctoral or postdoctoral stay in the Immunobiology Research Group for Aquaculture.
  • Modality: Face-to-face
  • Duration: 6 months
  • Start/end date of stay: 1 October 2023/30 March 2024
  • Language of instruction: English (B2)

Academic requirements:

  • Bachelor's and Master's degree in Biology, Biotechnology, Marine Sciences or similar.
  • Predoctoral PhD student or Postdoctoral for young PhD researchers, maximum 5 years.

Additional Requirements:

  • Interest in fish or invertebrate studies, interest in aquaculture.

Research lines of the host group offered for the internship:

  • Fish immunity
  • Fish Immunomodulation by natural substances.
  • Antimicrobial peptides from fish skin mucus.
  • Establishment and characterisation of invertebrate cell lines.

Currently, Dr. Soumicha MAHDJOUR, a graduate in Biotechnology from the University of Science and Technology of Oran (USTO) in Algeria, is carrying out a research stay in the group E026-06 Fungal Genomics and Molecular Biotechnology since September and will finish in March 2024.

The University of Murcia is pleased to be part of this important programme for African women through Campus Mare Nostrum.

  • Translation carried out by Isabel Capote, student of 4th year of Studies “Grado de Traducción e Interpretación” at the University of Murcia.