Imperial College London has announced the launch of a new scholarship programme aimed at supporting PhD students from sub-Saharan Africa who are interested in pursuing a career in engineering. The programme unveiled on March 20th, will see four students fully funded to study at the university's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The scholarships will cover all tuition fees, as well as living and travel costs, and are an extension of a previous scholarship programme that was offered only to students from Sudan. The scholarships are specifically intended for students joining the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and are made possible by an endowed gift from the late Professor Shawki Saad, a Professor of Civil Engineering at Khartoum University in Sudan.

In addition to the scholarships, the Department has also announced the Africa Plus Annual Prize, which is a $500 award given to the best Civil and Environmental Engineering MEng student project in a sustainability-related area of relevance to sub-Saharan Africa. The prize is to be awarded for at least the next five years and is funded by Africa Plus Partners, an asset management company.

Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London, expressed his gratitude for the generous support from Professor Shawki Saad Endowment Fund and Africa Plus Partners. He believes that this support will help to bring through the next generation of rising stars in engineering and strengthen College links with sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Professor Ochieng, the scholarship and prize are part of Imperial College London's efforts to tackle global systemic challenges in engineering and sustainability. He believes that by nurturing and developing the next generation of engineering leaders, the world can solve some of its most pressing challenges, such as sustainable transport and water security. He added that engineering research needs to be supported, and a pipeline of skilled young engineers in sub-Saharan Africa can make a vital impact on society.

The scholarship is open to research projects in various areas, including Transport, Fluid Mechanics, Environmental and Water Resources, Structures, Systems, Materials, and Geotechnics. Interested applicants can find more information about the scholarship programme on the university's website.

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Article by Jed Mwangi

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/243791/imperial-launches-scholarship-sub-saharan-africa-phd/