Awards and Fellowships

Learn more about each of the awards available for early career agricultural scientists and senior scientist exchanges.

CLIFF-GRADS, launched November 2017, is a joint initiative of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA). CLIFF-GRADS aims to build the capability of early career agricultural students in developing countries to conduct applied research on climate change mitigation in agriculture.

CLIFF-GRADS provide short-term grants for students currently enrolled in PhD programmes to undertake scientific training and research on topics related to measurement and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and/or carbon storage in agricultural systems and quantification of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potential from food loss and waste.

Funding for CLIFF-GRADS grants is provided by the Government of New Zealand, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and CGIAR Trust Fund donors.

NZ-GRADS is a PhD scholarship offered to science students from developing countries to complete their PhD at a New Zealand university.

The PhD research topics must be related to greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural systems, primarily livestock, but innovative and novel aspects of this will be considered, especially related to new technologies or new applications of existing technologies.

The GRA offers a wide range of capability building and research programmes through various partners within New Zealand and internationally. These PhD students would be actively supported through various extension and networking events that we host in New Zealand.

The Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship Program promotes food security and economic growth by providing training and collaborative research opportunities to fellows from developing and middle-income countries.

Borlaug fellows are generally scientists, researchers, or policymakers who are in the early or middle stages of their careers. Each fellow works one-on-one with a mentor at a U.S. university, research center or government agency, usually for 8-12 weeks. The U.S. mentor will later visit the fellow’s home institution to continue collaboration. Fellows may also attend professional conferences and events within their field, such as the annual World Food Prize Symposium.

The Borlaug Fellowship Program honours Norman E. Borlaug, the American agronomist, humanitarian and Nobel laureate known as the “father of the Green Revolution.” Since the program’s inception in 2004, approximately 800 fellows from 64 countries have participated in research and training focused on a wide array of agriculture-related topics, including agronomy, veterinary science, nutrition, food safety, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, natural resource management, agricultural biotechnology, agricultural economics, and agricultural policy. By improving participants’ understanding of agricultural science, the program helps foster science-based trade policies that improve international market access for U.S. agricultural products.

Targeted Research Areas:
1. Developing Tools for Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Sequestration Assessments
2. Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity in Crop Production Systems
3. Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity in Livestock Production Systems
4. Developing Databases and Strategies for Synthesis, Integration and Decision Support to Manage Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Systems

The GRA-RUFORUM Graduate Research Awards (GRA-GRG) are a joint initiative of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA). The GRA-GRG are aimed at building the capability of graduate and post-graduate level students in Africa to conduct applied research on agricultural GHGs.

The GRA-GRG are administered by RUFORUM to participating universities. Each award supports a Principal Investigator (an individual senior lecturer of a RUFORUM member university) and two Master of Science students.

Funding for the first round of the GRA-GRG was provided by the Government of New Zealand and the Netherlands.

The Livestock Emissions Abatement Research Network (LEARN) was New Zealand’s competitive fellowship programme under the GRA. It provided opportunities for early career scientists to undertake research stays in New Zealand.

The Global Research Alliance Senior Scientist (GRASS) awards provided short term exchange opportunities for senior scientists from New Zealand and other GRA member countries to encourage global research collaboration.

The LEARN and GRASS awards were put on hold indefinitely in 2020. Please direct any queries about potentially similar future opportunities to the GRA Secretariat.