ICBA and CRDF Global Launch Major Competition for Arab Women Scientists

Celebrating this year's theme of gender parity for the International Women's Day, the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) and CRDF Global announced today the launch of a joint research grant competition for early-career Arab women scientists collaborating with US researchers in agricultural science. The aim of this competition is to facilitate long-term international research partnerships.

"We place great emphasis on supporting women in every way possible. This cuts across all our initiatives at ICBA. Empowering women is important to ensuring food and nutrition security, and boosting economic development. And this idea informs the new research grant competition we are launching with CRDF Global for Arab women scientists to strengthen their research and leadership skills," said Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, ICBA Director General.

This competition will open up new opportunities for Arab women scientists working in the field of agricultural science to expand their vision and knowledge. Project proposals will be accepted under the following disciplines:

• Breeding/genomics around important food crops and resilience to climate change and salinity;

   

• Water, soil and nutrient management to enhance resilience to climate change and salinity.

"With MENA's high rates of population growth and constrained water and land resources, it's urgent to address challenges facing the agriculture sector, such as natural resource allocation, climate change, crop productivity, diversity, and aquaculture," said Ms. Siri Oswald, CRDF Global Director of Research Partnerships. "These international collaborations will bring global expertise and vision to some of the world's most pressing challenges. By focusing on Arab women, we are ensuring a critical voice is given to talented scientists that are too often underrepresented," said Ms. Oswald.

The competition is open to teams of scientists working in the MENA region and the USA. Research teams must be led by a female principal investigator from the MENA region. The participating countries in the MENA region include Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Winning project proposals will be awarded up to USD 100,000 for a period of one to three years.