Before You Apply

Eligible Countries:

The eligible countries are presented in the table below

Regions of Africa Countries

• Central: Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and São Tomé and Principe
• Eastern: Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania
• Northern: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco
• Southern: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe
• Western: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo

Credit Seeking Master (Exchange) (10 months):

• 3 scholarships for candidates of Target Group 1
• 1 scholarship for candidates of Target Group 2

Degree Seeking Master (Full Degree) (24 months):

• 3 scholarships for candidates of Target Group 1
• 2 scholarships for candidates of Target Group 2

Credit Seeking Doctorate (Exchange) (12 months):

• 1 scholarship for candidates of Target Group 1
• 1 scholarship for candidates of Target Group 2

Degree Seeking Doctorate (Full Degree) (48 months):

• 1 scholarship for candidates of Target Group 1
• 1 scholarship for candidates of Target Group 2

Academic and administrative staff mobilities (minimum and maximum 1 month):

• 3 scholarships for candidates of Target Group 1 from ELbM partner institutions

Our scholarships include:

• Roundtrip flight ticket and visa costs (using a preferred travel agent and calculated against direct linear distance)
• Participation costs such as tuition fees, registration fees and service fees where applicable
• Comprehensive Travel Insurance (Health, Accident and Travel)
• A monthly subsistence allowance for the mobility period
• Settling in Allowance
• Research Costs: only eligible to students on mobility for 10 months or more and to students who are registered for a minimum of 2 years. The distribution of funds from this pool shall be decided by the partners on the basis of the actual research needs of selected students. Students will be required to submit a budget for research.
• An extra allowance corresponding to the monthly subsistence allowances will be paid per academic year to female master students and doctoral candidates, for mobility equal or longer than 2 academic years.
• You are eligible for a second return ticket in case the mobility is equal or longer than two academic years.

Participation costs are transferred directly the host institution. Insurance is arranged by the co-ordinating institution on behalf of students. Exchange opportunities (Masters and PhD): Students registered as full-degree students at one of the partner ELbM universities comprising the consortium, spend a short period (10 months minimum) at one of the other institutions in the consortium and return to their home institution after the exchange period to complete their degree at the home institution. Exchange students will spend their period at the host university as researchers mainly, being engaged in literature reviews, specialised theoretical or methodological training, sample characterisation, or field studies and they will closely co-operate with their host and home university supervisors. Full degree ELbM scholarships for Master and Doctoral students: In order to be eligible for this scholarship applicants must:

• Be a national and resident in any of the eligible countries covered by the relevant lot; (Students cannot apply to study in any institution within their home country)
• Be registered/admitted at one of the HEIs within the Partnership at the time of the application for a scholarship (Target Group I) or be registered/admitted in a HEI (not included in the partnership) of a country of the lot or having obtained a HEI degree (or equivalent) by an institution of a country concerned by the lot (Target Group 2);
• Have sufficient knowledge of the language of the courses in the host Institutions.

Academic and administrative staff mobilities: These opportunities are designed to address the need for professional development of university staff and are limited to staff employed by the consortium partner universities, and aside from the individual opportunity, are aimed at building enhanced mutual institutional knowledge. This is intended to lead to the development of cooperative projects, benchmarking exercises, guest lecturing, curriculum development, sharing of knowledge and academic resources such as libraries and infrastructure and sabbatical research periods are included in this type of mobility. Individual projects will require strong support of the sending institutions and a matching host mentor / academic colleague will be found to support all staff during their mobility period. In addition to the above criteria there may be others defined internally by the partner institution to which you are applying. It is strongly recommended that applicants liaise with the relevant contact persons at the host institution and carefully read the “Guidelines for Applicants” and institutional and study programme information prior to submitting their application.

Available Fields of Study

Find here more information on the fields of study funded by ELbM ELbM will ONLY fund scholarship for mobility in the following fields of study associated with manufacturing engineering

• industrial & manufacturing engineering
• industrial engineering
• mechanical engineering (design & production engineering)
• mechanical engineering (industrial engineering)
• mechanical engineering (industrial & production engineering)
• mechanical engineering (metallurgical & materials engineering)
• manufacturing engineering

Note: ELbM scholarships will not fund an application outside these academic offerings

Required Documentation

All documents must be provided in English language.

Each Host University may require for additional mandatory documents (e.g. Pre-Acceptance Letter, specific certificates, etc.) so you must check carefully its Academic offer where this information has been specified. For some documents you can find the template to be used, you find the template in the Downloads section on the right.

• Master Full Degree
• Master Exchange
• Doctorate Full Degree
• Doctorate Exchange
• Academic/Administrative Staff Mobility

5.1 Master Full degree

5.1.1 MANDATORY DOCUMENTS:

• Passport or National ID
• Bachelor’s certificate
• Transcript of Records of your Bachelor studies
• At most 4-page Curriculum Vitae
• Motivation letters: 1 per Host University. You can apply up to a maximum of 3 Host Universities. If you apply for 3 Host Universities, you must upload 1 motivation letter per each Host University. The 3 letters must be different!
• Three (3) reference letters: One of the references must be from your last project supervisor.
• Previous Intra-Africa/ACP Award Declaration. This is a declaration whose template is provided by ELbM consortium. You can find the template to be used in the “Downloads” section, at the top right of this webpage

Downloads Intra-Africa/ACP Award Declaration

5.1.2. OTHER DOCUMENTS:

• Language certificates. These are mandatory only if required by the Host University
• Disadvantaged group supporting documents. These are mandatory only if you state to belong to a disadvantaged group
• Target group 2 supporting documents. These are mandatory only if you apply under the Target Group 2 (A letter confirming your registration for postgraduate degree in your home institution).
• All other documents you consider useful to evaluate your profile.
• Pre-acceptance Letter issued by the Host University. All Host Universities require a pre-acceptance letter in order to be evaluated for ELbM Scholarship. If you do not upload this document when submitting your ELbM application, your application will not be considered valid and be excluded.

5.2 Master Exchange

5.2.1 MANDATORY DOCUMENTS FOR ALL TARGET GROUPS:

• Passport or National ID
• Proof of registration at a Master programme in your Home Institution
• Transcript of Records of your Master studies
• Bachelor’s certificate together with its Transcript of Records
• At most 4-page Curriculum Vitae
• Motivation letters: 1 per Host University. You can apply up to a maximum of 3 Host Universities. If you apply to 3 Host Universities you must upload 1 motivation per each Host University. The 3 letters must be different!
• 2 Reference letters: One reference letter from your home institution supervisor
• ELbM tentative study plan (your proposed mobility project). In the case you apply for 3 Host Universities you must upload 3 ELbM tentative study plans (1 per Host University). You must use the template found in the Downloads section, at the top right of this webpage
• Previous Intra-Africa/ACP Award Declaration. This is a declaration whose template is provided by ELbM consortium. You can find the template to be used in the Downloads section, at the top right of this webpage

Download Intra-Africa/ACP Award Declaration ELbM Study Plan Template ELbM Research Proposal Template

5.2.2. OTHER DOCUMENTS:

• Language certificates. These are mandatory only if required by the Host University
• Disadvantaged group supporting documents. These are mandatory only if you state to belong to a disadvantaged group
• All other documents you consider useful to evaluate your profile
• Pre-acceptance Letter issued by the Host University. All Host Universities require a pre-acceptance letter in order to be evaluated for ELbM Scholarship. If you do not upload this document when submitting your ELbM application, your application will not be evaluated.

5.3 Doctorate Full Degree

5.3.1. MANDATORY DOCUMENTS:

• Passport or National ID
• Bachelor and Master certificates together with their Transcript of Records.
• At most 4-page Curriculum Vitae
• Motivation letters: 1 per Host University. You can apply up to a maximum of 3 Host Universities. If you apply for 3 Host Universities you must upload 1 motivation per each Host University. The 3 letters must be different!
• 3 Reference letters: One of the reference letters must be from your Master supervisor
• ELbM Research project proposal. In the case you apply for 3 Host Universities you must upload 3 ELbM Research project proposals (1 per Host University). You must use the template found in the Downloads section, at the top right of this webpage
• Previous Intra-Africa/ACP Award Declaration. This is a declaration whose template is provided by ELbM consortium. You can find the template to be used in the Downloads section, at the top right of this webpage

5.3.2. OTHER DOCUMENTS:

• Language certificates. These are mandatory only if required by the Host University
• Disadvantaged group supporting documents. These are mandatory only if you state to belong to a disadvantaged group
• All other documents you consider useful to evaluate your profile
• Pre-acceptance Letter issued by the Host University. All Host Universities require a pre-acceptance letter in order to be evaluated for ELbM Scholarship. If you do not upload this document when submitting your ELbM application, your application will not be evaluated.

5.4 Doctorate Exchange

5.4.1. MANDATORY DOCUMENTS:

• Passport or National ID
• Proof of registration at a PhD programme in your Home Institution
• Bachelor and Master certificate together with their Transcript of Records.
• At most 4-page Curriculum Vitae
• Motivation letters: 1 per Host University. You can apply up to a maximum of 3 Host Universities. If you apply for 3 Host Universities you must upload 1 motivation per each Host University. The 3 letters must be different!
• 3 Reference letters: One of the reference letters must be from your Home Institution supervisor
• ELbM Research project proposal. In the case you apply for 3 Host Universities you must upload 3 ELbM Research project proposals (1 per Host University). You must use the template found in the Downloads section, at the top right of this webpage
• Previous Intra-Africa/ACP Award Declaration. This is a declaration whose template is provided by ELbM consortium. You can find the template to be used in the Downloads section, at the top right of this webpage

5.4.2. OTHER DOCUMENTS:

• Transcript of Records of your PhD studies, if any
• Language certificates. These are mandatory only if required by the Host University
• Disadvantaged group supporting documents. These are mandatory only if you state to belong to a disadvantaged group
• All other documents you consider useful to evaluate your profile
• Pre-acceptance Letter issued by the Host University. All Host Universities require a pre-acceptance letter in order to be evaluated for ELbM Scholarship. If you do not upload this document when submitting your ELbM application, your application will not be evaluated.

5.5 Academic/Administrative Staff Exchange

5.5.1. MANDATORY DOCUMENTS:

• Passport or National ID
• Proof of registration. This a certificate issued by your Home University stating that you are an Academic/Administrative Staff employed at your Home University.
• 4-page Curriculum Vitae
• For Academic staff only: list of main publications, research projects, titles and awards received
• For Administrative staff only: description of the position covered, tasks and responsibilities
• Motivation letters: 1 per Host University. You can apply up to a maximum of 3 Host Universities. If you apply for 3 Host Universities you must upload 1 motivation per each Host University. The 3 letters must be different!
• Reference letters: at least one issued by the Head of your Department/Office responsible to approve your leave.
• ELbM Work plan proposal. In the case you apply for 3 Host Universities you must upload 3 ELbM work plan proposals (1 per Host University). You must use the template found in the Downloads section, at the top right of this webpage
• Previous Intra-Africa/ACP Award Declaration. This is a declaration whose template is provided by ELbM consortium. You can find the template to be used in the Downloads section, at the top right of this webpage

5.5.2. OTHER DOCUMENTS:

• Language certificates. These are mandatory only if required by the Host University
• Disadvantaged group supporting documents. These are mandatory only if you state to belong to a disadvantaged group
• All other documents you consider useful to evaluate your profile
• Pre-acceptance Letter issued by the Host University. All Host Universities require a pre-acceptance letter in order to be evaluated for ELbM Scholarship. If you do not upload this document when submitting your ELbM application, your application will not be evaluated.

Downloads

• ELbM Study Plan Template

• ELbM Research Project Proposal Template

• ELbM Workplan Proposal Template

• Previous Intra-Africa-ACP Award Declaration

Selection process and criteria

Find below the Selection process Step by Step and Announcement procedure and timing. Step 6.1 – Eligibility Check Step 6.2 – Academic Evaluation Step 6.3 – Rejection Notification and Appealing procedure Step 6.4 – Allocation of Scholarships Step 6.5 – Announcement of Selection results

Step 6.1 – Eligibility Check

All applications will be checked under the following criteria: –Completeness: All the mandatory documents have been uploaded by the candidate in her/his official ELbM application form. We will not accept any document sent via e-mail, fax or regular mail. All the documents must be enclosed in your official on-line ELbM application.

6.1.1 Eligibility requirements:

• the candidate meets all the Intra-Africa eligibility requirements.
• the candidate meets all the ELbM requirements: Acceptance letter from Host Institution + Agreed workplan/research proposal with host supervisor.
• ONLY FOR TARGET GROUP 1: The candidate meets proposed Host University internal admission requirements. We invite these candidates to contact ASAP the ELbM contact person at their proposed Host University in order to verify the internal admission requirements.

6.1.2 Scholarships

: The candidate did apply for an available type of scholarship for her/his level and type of mobility. Please check our scholarships offered under this First call for application. –Target Group: The candidate did apply for the correct Target group. In the case the candidate did not, she/he will be moved to the correct Target Group. Actors in charge to carry out the Eligibility Check:

• Target group 1 candidates: ELbM Co-ordinating Office + ELbM Selection Taskforce
• Target group 2 candidates: ELbM Co-ordinating Office + ELbM Selection Taskforce + Inclusion Taskforce.

Step 6.3 – Rejection notification and Appealing procedure

In the case an application is “rejected” from the selection process at Step 6.1 or Step 6.2 the candidate will be notified via e-mail and will have the opportunity to appeal within 5 days against the rejection reason by providing well justified reasons. Nevertheless, all candidates should be aware that at this stage it will not be possible to provide additional documents or missing documents that have not been previously enclosed in the official application form at the time of submission of application. Therefore, in the case the reason for rejection is “the applicant did not provide a Transcript of Records” or “the applicant did not provide the Language certificate” and so on, the only applicable appeal will be to demonstrate that the supposed missing document has been actually uploaded in the application form. We strongly recommend that all applicants save the PDF version of their application form and supporting documents upon submission of their application.  The Rejection notification and Appealing procedure will start as soon as both Step 6.1 and Step 6.2 are concluded. Only Rejected candidates will receive a notification message via e-mail. Once the Rejection Notification process and the Appealing procedure are concluded, a message board will be sent through the Application Tool.

Step 6.4 – Allocation of Scholarships

The allocation of available scholarships will be carried out by the Selection Committee starting from the Academic evaluation received at Step 2 and considering the following general balance criteria: 6.4.1 Distribution of scholarships per country, type of mobility and target group according to the budget approved by the EACEA; 6.4.2 Balanced distribution among host universities; 6.4.3 Balanced distribution among home universities; 6.4.4 Balanced distribution among the fields of study; 6.4.5 Gender balance 6.4.6 Disadvantaged groups will be favoured during the allocation; 6.4.7 Candidates who submit a research proposal or work plan based on application of laser-based manufacturing technology will be favoured during the allocation; 6.4.8 Priority will be given to applicants who have never received an Intra-Africa/ACP scholarship and have never have opportunity to study abroad (outside their home or resident country). The results of the Allocation of Scholarships will be:

• One Selected List with the list of people who will receive ELbM scholarship;
• One Reserve List with the list of candidates who did successfully pass Step 6.1 and 6.2 but eventually it has not been possible to assign them ELbM scholarship. This Reserve List will be used only in the case of a candidate from the same competition group will reject our scholarship offer or in the case of additional funding.

As a matter of principle, no application will be rejected during Step 6.4 unless there exist justified reasons to do so. The Selection Committee can decide to reduce the Reserve List in case of huge numbers of successful applications. In this case further applications can be rejected also at Step 6.3 according to specific criteria that will be established during the Selection Committee meeting. Step 6.4 does not foresee any opportunity for the candidate to appeal against the Selection Committee decision. The candidates can request the ELbM Coordinator the criteria applied during the distribution of the available scholarships and why the Selection Committee decided to assign the scholarship to the applicants that will appear in the Selected List. We remind you that the main objective of the Selection Committee is to find the best balance among the criteria 6.4.1, 6.4.2, 6.4.3, 6.4.4 and 6.4.5 above listed.

Step 6.5 – Announcement of Selection Results

Find below the timing and procedure that will be followed in order to announce the results. As you know this First call for application schedules a single deadline for all prospective applicant. Therefore, results will be also announced on a single timing for all successful applicants.  March 31st 2021: The List of Selected grantees will be published on the ELbM website. Selected candidates will be notified via e-mail together with the notification package consisting of: Nomination letter, Acceptance/Not acceptance Letter, Scholar Contract and Info Sheet. Some information for future ELbM grantees are already available at the page “What next if I win” where you can already have an idea of what expects you in case of being awarded an ELbM scholarship. All successful ELbM Master and PhD scholars will be asked to start their mobility according to the commencement of the academic calendar of each Host University as shown below:

All ELbM scholars must abide with the starting date as specified in her/his Scholarship Award Letter. Where the institutional regulations permit, all ELbM scholars will be requested to agree a starting date with their Host University/Supervisor. In all cases, all scholars selected during First Call for Application must start their mobility before 30/06/2021. Staff candidates will be asked to agree a starting date with their Host University. In all cases, all staff candidates must start their mobility before 30/06/2021.