We are looking for PhD students from around the world who would like to participate in a three-month research program in South Africa. We welcome applications by students with a general interest in theoretical ecology and evolution, and are particularly interested in hosting research projects related to modeling adaptive ecological networks, food-web dynamics, speciation, coevolution, and evolutionary community assembly.
Research projects will be carried out at the at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa from 1 November 2014 until 31 January 2015, and are meant to result in a published article and a corresponding chapter in an applicant's PhD thesis. Funding to cover travel to Bloemfontein and living expenses while there is available for successful applicants. The Southern African Young Scientists Summer Program (SA-YSSP) is currently accepting applications from doctoral students from The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis' (IIASA) twenty National Member Organization (NMO) countries, Southern African Development Community member states, and South Africa. Applications are due on 3 August 2014. Researchers from IIASA and South Africa will work in teams to supervise one or more SA-YSSP participants. These supervisory teams have jointly defined 15 research themes that will serve as the basis for the participants' work. These themes fall into 4 interdisciplinary clusters: Risk, Policy & Governance, Energy & Climate Systems, Ecosystems & Water, and Population, Health & Aging. Several themes, including Theme 10 Stability and complexity of adaptive ecological networks, address salient issues in theoretical and mathematical ecology. SA-YSSP information on the IIASA website: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/education/sayssp/About-the-Program.en.html SA-YSSP information on the UFS website: http://conferences.ufs.ac.za/default.aspx?DCode=720 Application form and procedures on the NRF website: http://www.nrf.ac.za/funding_overview.php?fid=207
