AI4D Scholarship 2025 In Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning For Sub-Sahara African Women

AI4D Scholarship 2025 in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning For Sub-Sahara African Women

About AI4D Scholarship 2025

The African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) has received a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to support the scholarship of women candidates in sub-Saharan Africa.

The funding will support the training of PhD students in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) as well as the research work of Early Career Academics in AI & ML.

The research work within the AI4D Scholarship 2025 program must be in AI that addresses any of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The award of the AI4D Scholarship 2025 shall strive to achieve uniform distribution of beneficiaries across Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone sub-Saharan Africa.

There will also be an effort to achieve fair distribution in terms of region.

The supported studies MUST adhere to responsible AI and is into 2 categories namely;

Registered PhD Students
Early Career Academics (ECAs)

Summary of the AI4D Scholarship 2025 in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Type: Ph.D scholarships
Sponsor: International Development Research Center (IDRC)

Eligible Countries: Sub-Sahara Africa
Benefits: Tuition costs, Research expenses, Research infrastructure, Travel costs and others
Deadline: March 14, 2025

Criterias for the AI4D Scholarship 2025

The applicant must be a woman.
Each applicant must have held a PhD in AI and ML, for not more than 5 years as at application.
All applicants should have competent academic credentials and demonstrate motivation and commitment to pursue an academic career.

All applicants must be nationals or permanent residents of an eligible sub-Saharan country
All applicants must have all necessary national or other approvals to conduct the proposed research.
Please note, the approval process may be conducted in parallel with the grant application, if necessary.

All applicants must have the technical capacity or the ability to create sustainable AI solutions addressing social challenges faced by user communities.

Benefits of the AI4D Scholarship 2025

Benefits of AI4D Registered PhD Students

Each successful student will receive a partial scholarship of up to US$28,000 distributed as shown below:

Tuition fees for two years up to $ 4,000
Research activities up to $ 24,000

Benefits of AI4D Early Career Academics (ECAs)

Each successful ECA will receive a scholarship of up to US$ 41,500. This will cover:

Research costs up to $ 25,000
Research infrastructure up to $ 10,000.

Travel costs up to $ 2,500.
Tuition fees for 2 MSc students for two years up to $ 4,000 (@ $2,000 per student)

Capacity Strengthening

The following complementary activities will be provided to strengthen the capacity of beneficiaries of the scholarships (PhD candidates and their supervisors; ECA candidates and their MSc students);