Applications are open for 12 fully funded PhD fellowships under the Climate and Development doctoral training programme offered through the Africa Climate Collaborative, hosted by the African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI) at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

The four-year programme is designed to develop a new generation of African researchers working on some of the continent’s most urgent climate and development challenges. It combines one year of structured doctoral coursework with three years of supervised thesis research and additional doctoral skills training.

About the Programme

The fellowship programme brings together doctoral researchers working across climate science, development, governance, technology, biodiversity, water, energy, fisheries, urban resilience and other areas connected to Africa’s sustainable future.

Each of the 12 fellowships is linked to a specific research topic and supervisory team. Applicants are therefore expected to carefully review the available topics and select a research area that matches both their academic background and research interests.

The programme structure includes:

• Year 1: Structured pre-doctoral coursework
• Years 2–4: Independent thesis research under supervision
• Doctoral skills training throughout the programme
• Research focused on climate and development challenges across Africa

Available Research Topics

The 19 research topics include:

• The politics of care in an African urban flooding-health context
• Managing locust outbreaks under climate change
• Multi-level governance of electricity commons for implementing the Paris Agreement in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Governing water infrastructure investment under climate change in African cities
• Knowledge, governance and urban climate adaptation in southern African cities
• Sustainable concrete technology for African urbanisation
• Climate-model-predicted ENSO swings and energy systems in Southern Africa
• Biodiversity change in the Cape Floristic Region using remote sensing and causal inference
• Climate-compatible transition to electric cooking in Africa
• Equitable and relevant climate and development education in Africa
• Climate-resilient fisheries in the southern Benguela
• Evaluating climate adaptation in South African fisheries
• Remote sensing for smallholder climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa
• Hydrological reorganisation under climate and development pressures
• Climate-resilient estuaries and nature-based solutions
• Indigenous and locally defined ecosystem values for coastal adaptation
• Collective action for scaling business climate adaptation
• Biodiversity spatial planning and climate-resilient conservation
• The changing architecture of Chinese power finance in Africa

Applicants should apply to only one research topic and must meet the disciplinary requirements specified for that topic.

Applicants must prepare all required documents and submit a complete application while clearly indicating one research topic.

Don't miss out on the application deadline which is 15 October 2026 at 23:00 SAST.