Successful launch of the program funding Africa-based researchers

As part of a generous funding from the Simons Foundation, at the beginning of 2022 IHES launched a special program dedicated to visiting researchers from the African continent, that will be carried over ten years. Thanks to this funding, as part of its visiting program, on top of the package offered to all visitors, IHES can now refund traveling costs of researchers coming from the African continent.

The aim is to make the opportunity of visiting IHES available to the largest number of researchers, especially those coming from African countries, currently underrepresented at the Institute.

The Institute has already been able to measure the impact of the program on the number of applications: IHES received more than a hundred requests for a visit from researchers affiliated to an institution based in the African continent ahead of the June selection by the Scientific Council. At the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, it had received only seven applications.

This important increase in the number of applications from Africa-based researchers is already a sign that covering travelling costs for Africa-based researchers is a significant improvement, opening the access to the Institute’s visiting program to a larger number of scientists.

Considering the Institute’s capacity and the available resources, the Scientific Council could only accept six Africa-based applicants in 2022 but IHES will be accepting new applications for the December selection starting in November, and scientists interested in this opportunity will be able to participate in a new selection process.

Dedicated funding for this program is secured for the next ten years, which will allow to develop a longstanding relationship between IHES and various communities of mathematicians and physicists on the African continent, thus increasing the perspectives of collaboration and the program’s impact over the long term.