Right Livelihood College (RLC) International Workshops 2025 for PhD Students from Developing Countries (fully-funded to ZEF, University of Bonn)

The RLC Campus at ZEF, University of Bonn, Germany, offers scholarships for PhD students from Africa, Asia and Latin America to participate in the transdisciplinary workshop “Transdisciplinary RLC Workshop on Rural Development and Smallholder Agriculture”, October 22-23, 2024, in Bonn.

Application Deadline: 8th August 2024

Eligible Countries: Countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

To Be Taken At (Country): ZEF and World Conference Center (WCCB) in Bonn, Germany

About the Award: The workshop will take place in Bonn from December 4 (arrival date) to December 7 (departure date), 2023. PhD students and senior experts will be participating together with a Laureate of the “Alternative Nobel Prize” and other selected experts from practice and research. Workshop language will be English.

Natural resources are the material, spatial and energetic basis of life. Their sustainable use and conservation are of principal importance for humankind. However, the overuse of natural resources and their irreversible destruction continues to dramatically increase worldwide. Almost all natural resources, such as soils, forests, water, biodiversity, and air, are under high pressure.

Every year, humanity consumes far more resources than natural processes can renew. In this context, the climate crisis is at the forefront of scientific engagement and public discourses, however, other crises such as loss of biodiversity and forests, soil degradation, water scarcity and the depletion of ocean ecosystems, also pose major and interconnected threats.

The situation is composed of a myriad of interconnected socio-ecological systems and local dynamics. Negative consequences are already massively and directly felt, especially in many countries of the Global South. Particularly affected are people whose livelihoods directly depend on the use of natural resources, who are affected by poverty, who live in precarious situations, often with low resilience, such as hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America.

There is urgent need to work on concepts and strategies that combine economic development with the use and conservation of natural resources and that can be concretely implemented on large scale in the short and medium term. Research from different disciplines has to work together with development and conservation practitioners, local communities and other stakeholders.

Upon this backdrop, the workshop will address questions on the current and future use and conservation of natural resources by providing remarkable case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, conceptual approaches and current scientific and practical discourses. PhD students will have the opportunity to present and discuss their own research work in a cohesive
transdisciplinary way by building on each participant’s expertise and experiences. 

The workshop targets the following objectives:

• to strengthen knowledge and understanding of concepts and methodological approaches,
• to critically assess different pathways of agriculture, local livelihoods and rural development,
• to present own case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America,
• to promote transmission of expertise and experience as well as networking between PhD students, an “Alternative Nobel Prize” Laureate and other experts working from around the world.

Type: PhD, Workshop

Eligibility: PhD students from Africa, Asia and Latin America who study at a university in Germany and in other countries in Europe, from disciplines in environmental sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, economic sciences, geography, and development studies. Fluent English is mandatory. Women applications are particularly welcome. 

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The scholarships will cover all costs for travel within Germany, hotel accommodation in Bonn, full catering, and working materials. The workshop will be embedded in a variety of social and cultural side-events.

How to Apply: Your application should consist of:
a. E-Mail application, indicating your PhD topic, the institute and university you are studying at, and the place from which you aim to travel to Bonn
b. CV in Europass Format
c. English abstract of your PhD project (not more than 300 words)
The deadline is August 8, 2024. Selected participants will be informed by August 15, 2024.

Please send your applications via e-mail to Dr. Till Stellmacher: t.stellmacher@uni-bonn.de

Visit the Program Webpage for Details