MAINSTREAM Mobility Scholarships

Who can apply

Currently a Master's or PhD student enrolled at, or holding a degree from, one of the consortium's African partner universities (Mountains of the Moon University, Uganda; Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Kenya; Université de Kara, Togo; Université du Sine Saloum El-Hadj Ibrahima Niass, Senegal; University of the Free State, South Africa; Arsi University, Ethiopia), or from any other African university outside the consortium
Mobility must cross national borders: applicants cannot apply to a host institution in their own country
Not eligible if you previously received a MOBAF 2022-2027 Intra-Africa Mobility scholarship
Proposed research or coursework must be relevant to climate change

Not a full-degree scholarship, and the project is explicit about that

This is not a scholarship for a full degree, and the project’s own page is explicit about that: it funds a short-term, credit-seeking stay at a partner university in a different African country, up to six months for Master’s students or up to twelve months for PhD candidates, to do coursework or research that feeds into a degree you’re already pursuing elsewhere. If you’re looking for full-programme funding, this isn’t it.

Mobility only runs across borders, within a defined consortium

Mobility only runs across borders. You need to already be enrolled at, or hold a degree from, one of six consortium partner universities across Uganda, Kenya, Togo, Senegal, South Africa, and Ethiopia, or from any other African university outside that consortium, and you cannot apply to a host institution in your own country. Your research or coursework also has to connect to climate change specifically, since that is the project’s organising theme. A seventh consortium member, Hochschule Weihenstephan-Triesdorf in Germany, sits alongside the six African universities as a project partner, though the mobility-flow tables on MAINSTREAM’s own page only show the six African institutions as eligible mobility destinations for this call.

What the money covers, and what it doesn’t

Funding covers the mechanics of the placement itself: participation costs, meaning tuition and registration fees at the host institution, plus medical insurance for the stay, and a monthly subsistence allowance, 890 euros for Master’s students or 1,230 euros for PhD candidates. What it does not cover is your flight, your visa, or your accommodation; all three come out of that same stipend rather than being paid separately.

A project built partly around closing agriculture’s gender gap

MAINSTREAM’s own background statement frames part of its purpose explicitly around gender: women make up roughly half of Africa’s farm labour force but are underrepresented in higher agricultural education, and the project states it uses this mobility scheme partly to challenge cross-African gendered perceptions that underestimate women’s participation in agriculture, alongside building a gender-sensitive learning environment at partner institutions. If that focus on women in African agricultural sciences is what drew you here specifically, the AWARD Leadership Program for Emerging African Women in Agricultural Sciences is built entirely around that goal rather than being one part of a wider mobility scheme. The project’s overall target across its full run is 70 Master’s mobility placements; this specific third call offered 32 Master’s and 15 PhD places across the six African host institutions.

The current call is closed; watch for results and the next round

The call closed at midnight GMT+1 on 22 August 2026, though MAINSTREAM’s own page still displays that date without an updated closed banner. Results for this round are expected by the end of November 2026. No date for a fourth call has been published yet, so check mainstreamafrica.org directly if you missed this window.