Google Africa PhD Fellowship Program 2020 for African Students

Application Deadline: 15th April 2020

Eligible Countries: African countries

About the Award: Nurturing and maintaining strong relations with the academic community is a top priority at Google. The Google Africa PhD Fellowship Program has been created to support and recognize outstanding students pursuing or looking to pursue PhD level studies in computer science and related areas.

Fields of Study: Computer science and related areas

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: Students and professionals are welcome to apply to the PhD Fellowship program.

For current PhD Students

1. Applicants must be enrolled into a full-time PhD program at a university in Africa. Applicants who are currently in their first year of a part-time PhD program and transferring to full-time positions are also welcome to apply.
2. Students should be early PhD students, i.e, should not have been into more than 1 year of their PhD. Applicants for the 2020 Fellowship must have started their program on or after 1-Jan-2020.
3. Students must remain enrolled in the PhD program for the duration of the Fellowship or forfeit the award.
4. Applicants must be pursuing a PhD in Computer Science or related areas.
5. Google employees and family members of Google employees are not eligible
6. Students who are already receiving another corporate fellowship are not eligible.

For current Undergraduate/Masters students and Professionals

1. Grant of the fellowship to this category of applicants is contingent on them joining a full-time PhD program at a university in Africa within the calendar year of the award.
2. Student applicants must be full-time Undergraduate or Masters students enrolled at an African university. Professionals must be employed/affiliated with an organization registered in Africa.
3. The Google Fellowship award shall be contingent on the awardee registering for the full-time PhD program at an African university, in Computer Science or related areas, within the calendar year 2020, or the award shall be forfeited.
4. Grant of the Google Fellowship does not mean admission to the PhD program of a university. The awardee must also complete the PhD admission process of the respective institute/university where he/she wishes to register for PhD.
5. Grant of the Google Fellowship will be subject to the rules and guidelines applicable in the institute/university where the awardee registers for the PhD program.
6. Google employees and family members of Google employees are not eligible.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Details of Google Africa PhD Fellowship: 

• Successful students receive named Fellowships, which include a $10,000 award per year over 3 years.
• The funds are given directly to the university to be distributed to cover the student’s expenses and stipend as appropriate.
• The funds are given as an unrestricted gift, and it is Google’s policy not to pay for overhead on unrestricted gifts.
• In addition, the student will be matched with a Google Research Mentor who we hope will become a valuable resource to the student.
• There is no employee relationship between the student and Google as a result of receiving the fellowship.
• Fellowship recipients are not subject to intellectual property restrictions unless they complete an internship at Google.
• Fellowship recipients serving an internship are subject to the same intellectual property and other contractual obligations as any other Google intern.
• If a Fellowship student is interested, an internship at Google is encouraged, but not guaranteed or required.

How to Apply: 

• Applications are accepted directly from students. There is no limit to the number of students who may apply from each university.
• Applicant’s areas of research interest must be one of the areas listed at https://research.google.com/.

Instructions for Applicants

• Gather the following documents:

• 1. Applicant’s resume with links to publications (if available).
  2. One-page resume of the student’s PhD program advisor.
  3. Available transcripts (mark sheets) starting from first year/semester of Bachelor’s degree to date.
  4. Research proposal (maximum two pages).
  5. Three letters of recommendation from those familiar with the applicant’s work (at least one coming from the thesis adviser in case of current PhD students). If the recommendation writers want to send the letter separately, they can mail it directly to research-africa@google.com with the subject “Recommendation for [applicant-name]”.

Submit your applications by clicking on this link.

Visit Program Webpage for Details