Peru’s food security is frequently threatened by extreme climatic phenomena, especially droughts and excessive rainfall induced by The El Niño phenomenon. From October 2016 to February 2017, Peru faced the worst drought in years, with a state of emergency declared in 17 regions, and over 350 000 hectares of crops lost. Local food security becomes dependent on food imports (eg. in the highland Puno Altiplano region, 87% of food was imported from other areas during drought years, while years of excessive rainfall caused 60% import dependence). Thus, this workshop on water-saving agriculture, which aims to develop mitigation options via a participatory approach to water management, is timely and important. It requires knowledge exchange between participants and professionals from the two cohosting institutions, the Lancaster Environment Centre of Lancaster University (UK) and the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering of Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (Perú), the wider researcher base in both countries and local stakeholders.
Call for applications
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The Fellowship
Researcher Links Workshop grants programme, a part of the Newton-Paulet Fund, will provide financial support to bring together a UK/Peru bilateral cohort of early career researchers to take part in the workshop “Water Saving Agriculture to mitigate impacts of Climate Change”. The programme is supported by UK government and Peruvian government funding through CONCYTEC, and will cover all expenses (workshop fees, domestic and international transport, accommodation, meals and local transport) to 17 participants from Peru and 17 from UK.
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Target participants
Professionals (with relevant experience) and early career researchers (less than 10 years after obtaining their MSc or PhD degree) of diverse backgrounds including e.g. plant scientists, agronomists, environmental hydrologists, human nutritionists, social scientists, policy makers. Participants should aim to update their knowledge of how to meet new challenges of agricultural water management, and to mitigate climate change impacts on food and health security.
Eligibility criteria
Early career researchers (ECRs) recruited to participate in the workshop must:
- Have a PhD or equivalent research experience, with no more than 10 years after obtaining their postgraduate degree.
- In the case of MSc, it must be MSc degree + at least 5 years of proven research experience.
- BSc participants with professional title and at least 6 years of proven research activity, will be also considered in the participants selection process.
- A maximum of a third of ECRs can be affiliated to UNALM and/or LEC.
- Participants must be based in the UK or in Peru.
- Availability to attend the entire duration of a workshop from Monday 10 to Friday 14 September 2018.
- Involvement in agricultural water management issues and whether their present position allows them to implement management decisions.
- Selection of 50% female participants from both sides (Peru and UK) will be prioritized.
- Fulfilled Application Form, which includes a motivation letter (no more than 300 words) stating the relevance of the course to your professional development.
- English proficiency at intermediate level as minimum.
- For Peru: applications from participants based in provinces outside Lima city are encouraged.
- Participants from for-profit organisations and international institutions are welcome to apply, but (according to the funding rules) they cannot be granted. They must bear their own costs of participation (USD850 – international travel not included), which must be paid through a bank-transfer (details in page 6) by 17 July 2018.
How to apply
Send your CV (including contact details of at least two referees) and the fulfilled Application Form to workshop@lamolina.edu.pe. Please take into account that all applications will be acknowledged, but only short-listed participants will be contacted for a personal interview. Deadline for applications: July 6, 2018.
More information about the workshop: