One of the largest projects currently running in the GROW community is the MSCA Project: Graduate Research On Worldwide Challenges (GROW). This project is co-funded by the EU through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND programme.
After an intense recruitment process in 2023-2024, the selected candidates joined Dutch universities as fully funded PhD candidates for four years. They are all working on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) topics in African countries, in collaboration with academic partners from Africa and/or the Netherlands.
Candidates are coming working in research groups with specializations in social sciences & humanities, engineering and natural sciences.
The research focuses on SDGs in African countries, making use of the research facilities and experts from the Dutch research & training infrastructure as well as the African network and context specialists.
All research projects will be supported by an advisory committee with experts coming from the field of interest, such as NGOs, Industry, Government etc.
All candidates applied with their own research ideas, regarding one or more of the UN SDGs. Understanding and addressing them is at the heart of this GROW Project.
Two PhD projects are being conducted at the School of Religion and Theology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam:
- Eva Kyeni, project: Prefiguring Transformative Faith: Engaging Churches in Eliminating Obstetric Fistula in Kenya, A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Maternal Health
- Nycholas Oliveira: On Earth as in Heaven: Prefigurative Strategies for Christian Development Efforts in Africa
More about this Research Project
Start/end Date
1 September 2024 – 31 August 2028 (PhD projects)
Team
Leader: Prof. Dr. Roel Kamerling, TU Delft
Team: at Vrije Universiteit, Prof. Dr. Mariecke van den Berg, Prof. Dr. Gijsbert van den Brink, Eva Kyeni (PhD student), Nycholas Oliveira (PhD student).
Fund
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND programme