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Applications are open for the Politecnico di Milano Master in Science Diplomacy & Innovation for Sustainable Development 2025. Apply now!
Opportunity Details
The Master in Science Diplomacy & Innovation for Sustainable Development is a high-impact academic initiative designed to empower the next generation of African researchers, lecturers, and science policy leaders. This Specializing Master is organised and coordinated by the HEA (Italian Higher Education with Africa) Foundation, consisting of the University of Bologna, the University of Florence, the Politecnico di Milano, the University of Naples Federico II, the University of Padua and Sapienza University of Rome.
Program Objectives: Building Capacity for Lasting Impact
This Specializing Master program is designed with a threefold objective, specifically targeting early-career academic professionals:
The program targets young talents with academic career ambitions, such as junior faculty members and early-stage researchers. A full scholarship covering tuition and program costs will be awarded to 25 selected candidates from Africa. Additionally, up to 10 non-African postdoctoral researchers and junior lecturersmay enroll on a self-funded basis.
Partner universities will assist the IHEA Foundation’s Scientific and Management Committees in selecting a highly qualified cohort of participants who will receive cutting-edge training in skills, competencies, and innovative approaches. These capabilities are essential to guiding evidence-based and sustainable policymaking—an urgent need recognized by African governments, which are committed to strengthening higher education institutions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to build resilience against future crises.
Program Structure
The curriculum includes 3 core modules and 3 specialized modules, followed by a final project:
Final Project (13 ECTS):
Participants will work in teams to apply their acquired knowledge to real-world challenges, developing a research proposal relevant to their home institutions or designing an innovative syllabus for a new academic course, including modern teaching methods.
The planned workload is developed in line with a target group of working students.
The administrative costs of the training program are covered for 25 applicants by the organization: tuition fee, duty stamp, consumable and learning materials. Learning device, internet connection are reimbursed through a credit or prepaid card that allows international bank transfers (e.g. Revolut, Wise…). If training on campus are envisaged, the organizagtion will cover the expenses related to: travel, accomodation, lunch and insurance. Students will get reimbursement for the following expenses: VISA application, airport transfer/shuttle, dinner and other costs related to the studying-trip. The credit or prepaid card must be owned by each applicant by the time of the enrolment. In case part of the learing activities is held in person, insurance and VISA will be fully on the responsability of each students. More details will be provided after the selection process will be concluded.
ELIGIBLE PROFILES
The countries involved in the selection are the countries of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa with a preference for those included in the Italian government's Mattei Plan (Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Tanzania and Tunisia).
Admission is selective and the requirements are:
1) Bachelor or Master of Science in disciplines connected to the topics of the Specializing Master:
- copy of the degree in the original language and its translation into Italian/English/French or Spanish
- copy of the transcripts with the list of exams in the original language and their translation into Italian/English/French or Spanish or Diploma Supplement
2) Copy of a valid passport
3) Curriculum Vitae, in English with personal contact (address, email, mobile-phone number, max 2 pages);
4) Motivational letter , in English and prepared on purpose, highlighting the reasons for joining the training program, max 1 page);
5) Support letter prepared on purpose, in English and prepared on purpose, issued on headed paper and signed preferably by an institutional representative (Head of Unit or Department; Supervisor) of the home Institution/Authority/University (max 1 page).
A good knowledge of written and oral English is requested: the entire learning program will be held in English and the selection interview itself will be in English. If you have a Language Certification you can upload it in your application as an additional document.
For the Italian regulation, it is also essential to be willing to own a credit or prepaid card that allows international bank transfers (e.g. Revolut, Wise…) by the enrolment date.
Please note: Incomplete applications will be considered ineligible.
The Specializing Master Management team is located at Politecnico di Milano, Department of Energy - Specializing Master and Lifelong Learning Office. The Scientific Committee will ensure a selection process based on equal opportunity without prejudice, regardless of gender, race, religion, age, pregnancy or any disability.
STEP 1 – Firstly, the management team will evaluate each applicant’s documentation with respect to the Call for application requirements. The selected applicants will go forward to step 2.
STEP 2 - The Scientific Committee will invite the selected candidates for a video interview. During the interview, each candidate will need to demonstrate that they have:
The output of the selection process will be a ranking list based on the evaluation of the above mentioned criteria: from 1 point (lowest) to 5 points (highest). The maximum overall grade will be 60 points. The minimum grade will be 36. The ranking list will be sent by email at the end of the selection process (July 2025). A reserve list will be included in case of withdrawal of one or more of the selected applicants.
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