SWIFT Travel Awards
With the generous support of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, ABIC is pleased to make a select number of SWIFT Awards available to the African life sciences community. These awards are to support travel within Africa for the purposes of carrying out microscopy research in any biological field. Each award is intended to fund the air travel and accommodation for one researcher currently based at an African research institute, to travel to a lab or facility elsewhere in Africa, and thereby gain access to light microscopy resources needed for their research.
The SWIFT Awards alternate between two categories:
SWIFT Pilot Work Awards
By helping contribute towards travel expenses, the SWIFT Pilot Work Award aims to facilitate access to microscopy technologies and expertise linked to performing a microscopy-based experiment for the first time. The goal of supporting pilot and proof-of-concept experiments is to enable researchers to explore and determine the utility of microscopy in their research in preparation of future work and potential funding applications.
The first round of applications for this award are currently under review.
SWIFT Collaborative Work Awards
To foster intra-continental collaboration within Africa, the SWIFT Collaborative Work Award is aimed to alleviate the cost of travel associated with collaborative works within Africa. Specifically, this award is purposed to contribute towards the travel and accommodation of a researcher involved in a collaborative project requiring microscopy. Both new and established collaborative efforts will be considered.
The applications call for this award will be announced in July 2023.