27 March 2013: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has partnered with the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) to support up to ten PhD fellowships per year focused on weather, climate and water-related hazards. The fellowships aim to support students from least-developed and developing countries particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud underscored the “critical need for expertise in a wide range of climate-related subjects” across the developing world. Romain Murenzi, Executive Director of TWAS, noted that the agreement will provide “high-quality training opportunities to give developing countries the chance to build their own indigenous scientific capacity.”

The WMO-TWAS agreement will be in effect for the 2014 academic year, and the application process will begin in April-May 2013. Up to ten fellowships per year for full-time PhD study will be granted to successful applicants from developing countries who wish to study and research in one of the countries where TWAS has PhD programme partners, namely: Brazil, China, India, Kenya, Malaysia or Pakistan.

The agreement came about through a meeting of UN Senior Fellowship Officials held at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, in October 2012. [WMO Press Release] [TWAS Website]