CARTA is now in its third phase dubbed CARTA 2025 which builds on the successes of the first two phases and has four interlinked strategic objectives:
1
Maintenance of a Pipeline of High-Quality Early Career Researchers (ECRs)
CARTA2025 aims to maintain a pipeline of ECRs by:
Providing doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships;
Running Joint Advanced Seminars (JASes) to equip doctoral fellows with transferable research skills; and
Providing training to nudge ECRs into research leadership.
Creation of Research Hubs in partner institutions
2
CARTA2025 aims to create multidisciplinary, cross-institutional research hubs in partner universities by:
Competitively selecting host institutions;
Providing support for the establishment of research teams that incorporate ECRs; and
Facilitating the research hubs to co-design research agenda and to develop large-scale competitive grant proposals, embedding PhD and postdoctoral training.
3
Mainstream CARTA Interventions at partner institutions
CARTA2025 supports the creation of research supportive environments in African partner institutions by:
Enhance supervisors’ understanding of and commitment to the goals of doctoral supervision, exposing them to best practices in doctoral supervision and mentorship – through Supervisors Workshops;
Enhancing critical staff members’ understanding of their critical roles in supporting postgraduate students, while also keeping them abreast with best practices in their functionary areas – through the Faculty and Administrative Staff (FAS) seminars;
Supporting partner institutions to independently run existing CARTA interventions – through Mainstreaming projects.
Engage CARTA Community with Society
4
CARTA2025 aims to enhance the engagement of the CARTA community with society by:
Facilitating partnerships between research hubs and policy actors through co-design of research;
Strengthening CARTA ECR’s competencies in science communication, policy engagement and knowledge translation
Supporting uptake of research products from ECRs through publications, conferences, and different forms of media
