This award, named after TWAS President Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim, is designed to honour women scientists in Least Developed African countries for their achievements in Biological Sciences. It carries a cash award of USD5,000 generously provided by Professor Abdool Karim.

Benefits of TWAS Award in Biological Sciences

A cash award of USD5,000 generously provided by Professor Abdool Karim.

Requirements for TWAS Award in Biological Sciences

The award recognizes women scientists for their achievements in Biological Sciences.

Eligible nominees for the 2025 award are female scientists not older than 45 years of age nationals of a Least Developed African country who have been living and working there for at least two years immediately prior to their nomination.

Selection Process

SELECTION: A pre-screening of the candidates will be done at TWAS, the nomination dossiers of the qualified candidates will then be submitted to jury members for their evaluation. Based on this evaluation Prof. Quarraisha Abdool Karim will select the winner.

Application Documents

Nominator contact details;

Nominee contact details (self nominations and nominations from jury members are not accepted) and general information on the nominee, including the country where she has been working and living in the past 2 years;

Authorization from the nominee (i.e. the candidate) to process her personal data for the purposes of her nomination, in conformity to Art. 13 of the Italian Legislative Decree 196/2003. This authorization can only be submitted through the online platform. The privacy authorization form is available for download in the section ‘nominee’s personal data’. The form must be filled in and signed by the candidate and then uploaded onto the on-line platform.

Suggested citation (15-20 words highlighting the nominee's scientific achievements in Biological Sciences).

Supporting statement regarding the nominee’s contribution in Biological Sciences. Supporting statements should explain in detail the work performed by the candidate and its significance in the relevant scientific context. Clear reference should be made to the scientific impact of the nominee's work. Vague supporting statements will not be considered and will negatively affect the evaluation.

Clear and detailed account of any time spent abroad by the nominee in the past two years.

PhD: information on subject area, year and awarding institution.

Brief information on membership in academies and societies.

Brief information on awards and honours received.

List of 10 most significant publications listed in an internationally acceptable format.

The nominee's brief CV (max 20,000 characters).

The nominee's complete list of publications are also to be uploaded, separately, onto the online platform;

The nominee's h-index in Google Scholar and the associated number of citations.

Application Deadline

March 14, 2025

How to Apply

Interested and qualified? Go to The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) on onlineforms.twas.org to apply

Nominations can only be submitted electronically through the on-line platform by clicking on the “NEW NOMINATION” button at the bottom of this page.

To resume working on saved nominations, click on the "RESUME" button at the bottom of this page.

The deadline for submitting nominations is 14 March 2025, however we strongly recommend that you do not wait until the deadline but submit the nomination as early as you can to enable us to process it as quickly as possible.

Before starting compiling the nomination, PLEASE PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE MAXIMUM CHARACTERS ALLOWED.