EARTHS EARTHS

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), with financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), supports academic qualification measures for individuals from developing countries who participate in the In-Country / In-Region Programme. Every year, the DAAD awards more than 1,000 BMZ-funded scholarships to junior researchers from Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, South East Asia and South Asia to help finance their Master or PhD programmes in their home country or region. The programme aims to enable trained professionals to address and deal with diverse societal, economic and ecological issues in developing countries. A further objective is to sustainably improve the teaching and research conditions in the partner regions and to strengthen their higher education profile.

As an additional offer for scholarship holders of the In-Country / In-Region Programme, the DAAD cooperates with German universities in organising a range of summer schools in Germany. These four-week measures give the students and young researchers an opportunity to take part in a high-class academic training in a selected subject area, meet and exchange with peers from across the world, and make their own, unique experiences of the German society, culture and history. In general, the selected candidates are invited to Germany to attend the course, however on account of the Covid-19 pandemic induced restrictions the courses will be offered in an ‘Online’ format over a period of several weeks

Target Group
The training programme is directed towards current DAAD In-Country/In-Region scholarship holders (Master and PhD students) in developing countries who have a primary qualification in health sciences, public health, veterinary sciences or a life sciences related field with a human health focus.

Focus of the EARTHS Summer School
The EARTHS Summer School is designed as a six-week online training programme which aims to prepare university students and junior researchers for the tasks of teaching and research in their respective institutions. The focus will lie on scientific research methods, selected science communication tools targeting different audiences, and interactive teaching and presenting skills. The facilitators and lecturers will use a mix of teaching methods including interactive lectures, group work, workshops, presentations and plenary discussions during the teaching sessions. The course language will be English throughout.

Organisers
The ‘Hamburg University of Applied Sciences - Health Sciences Department’ will organise the summer school in cooperation with the ‘Bernhard-Nocht Institute of Tropicial Medicine’. 

Location and Date
The EARTHS 2021 Online Summer School is to be conducted over a period of 6 weeks from July-August 2021. This will encompass around 15-20 days of synchronous (live) sessions with a duration of 4-6 hours each and a number of asynchronous (recorded) sessions.

The summer school addresses university students and young researchers from developing countries. To be eligible for application the candidates are required to meet the following criteria:

People with disability are explicitly encouraged to apply! Should you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the coordinators at the university or the team at the DAAD.

Kindly note that applying for and attending one of the summer schools must not compromise your regular study programme commitments or duration. This should be considered especially by those applicants that have reached the final year of their scholarship. Attending a summer school will not be accepted as justification for extension of your current In Country/In Region scholarship.

Please mind that participation is possible only once: If you have joined one of the In-Country / In-Region programme’s summer schools in the last years, it will not be possible to participate again in 2022.

• Applicants must be an active scholarship holder of the DAAD’s In-Country / In-Region scholarship programme, as of 1^st January 2021 (if your scholarship expires before or starts after that date, participation is not possible)
• Applicants should hold at least a Bachelor’s degree and be enrolled in a Master’s program with focus on a human health related field such as:
  • Medicine, Pharmacy, Ethno-botany, Physiology, Psychology, Medical Physics etc.
  • Public Health, Epidemiology, Health Science etc.
  • Veterinary Medicine or Entomology or Food Science etc. with a human health focus
  • Any equivalent life science discipline with a human health focus
• Applicants who already hold a Masters degree and are enrolled in a PhD program in one of the above mentioned fields may also apply.
• Applicants must have an excellent command over both spoken and written English language
• Applicants should not be older than 40 years of age
• Having worked or working in a research project and/or holding work experience of at least 6 months in one of the above fields (at Bachelor, Master or more senior level) is desirable
• Having gained international exposure through, working, studying or researching abroad is an asset but not required

The deadline for the submission of the application is 6 ^th April 2021, 23:59 Uhr Central European Time. Applications received after this date or incomplete applications will not be considered.

To apply, the following information and documents are required:

1.     Application Form - fill out the online application from, upload all requested documents in the space provided and then submit the online form. Before you start, please take a look at the application form to get an overview of the information you are required to provide. You will receive an automated response once you have successfully submitted the form.

2.     DAAD reference number (PKZ number) - in the application form you will be asked for the PKZ number and the ending date of your current DAAD scholarship allowance as well as the study programm for which you are receiving the allowance, please have this ready

3.     Statement of Motivation - a letter of motivation specifying why you want to attend the summer school, what your academic interests and professional experiences are, how you feel the summer school could complement these and why we should select you (maximum length 500 words) (please upload as one pdf file and name the file as follows: 'family name_Motivation_Letter' e.g 'Ahmad_Motivation_Letter')

4.     Academic degrees - a scanned copy of your academic degrees (Bachelor and Master) and a transcript of records detailing the subjects and topics covered and the marks obtained  (please upload as a single pdf-file and name the file as follows: 'family name_Degrees' e.g 'Ahmad_Degrees')

5.     Proof of English language proficiency - such as TOEFL (score 80), IELTS (Band 6.5), Cambridge English certificate or proof of English being the medium of instruction during your studies (please upload document as single pdf-file and name the file as follows: family name_ English proficiency e.g 'Ahmad_English proficiency') 

The selection committee comprising of professors and staff from the involved institutions will convene in April 2021 to review and rank the applications in a multi-step process. The selection of candidates will be based on a mix of criteria, care will be taken to have a balanced representation of countries, gender, master and PhD candidates and academic and professional experience. 

The selected candidates will be informed about the decision of the selection meeting by mid May 2021

Selected candidates will be required to send a legally binding signed 'Declaration of acceptance', within ten days of notification, by email. With this declaration students commit to attend the full 6 weeks online summer school course.  Selected students will be required to attend all the synchronous sessions and participate in the group activities and practical sessions in order to obtain a certificate of participation.

Selected candidates will also be required to send a 'Letter of endorsement' within ten days of notification, by email. The 'Letter of endorsement' certifies that you are a regular student of the university and that the university has no objections to your attending the summer school. The letter needs to be signed, dated and stamped by your PhD supervisor (for PhD candidates) or head of the degree programme (for M.A. candidates). A template of both the declaration and the letter of endorsement will be sent to you with the notification of being selected, by email. Further details on terms and conditions will be communicated to the selected applicants later.

During the summer school, certain expenses will be covered:

•  Course costs: The costs for the online summer school course will be covered for mainly by the DAAD through funds provided by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
•  Data for airtime: An allowance to partially cover the airtime costs incurred in connection with attending the online sessions, data transfer etc. will be provided.

Objectives

The objectives of the online programme are:

•  To gain an insight into the basics of evidence-based public health, scientific writing, basic statistics and selected health science topics
•  To learn and practice the skills of clear and impactful scientific presentation in teaching and research
•  To explore and practice different science communication tools
•  To network with the DAAD scholarship holders, students from the HAW Hamburg, some DAAD and HAW Hamburg colleagues and external researchers
•  To get a feel of Hamburg city and some peculiarities of the German language, culture and cuisine
• …. And a lot more….

EARTHS Programme Topics:

The following topics will be covered during the 6 weeks Online EARTHS Summer School 2021:

• Presenting with impact (workshop)
• Video story telling (workshop) - tentative
• Basic statistics
• Evidence based Public Health
• Scientific writing and systematic literature search
• Impulse sessions on selected health science topics
• Social and cultural activities

The programme will use a mix of teaching approaches including interactive face-to-face lectures for providing a broad introduction into the topic; group work and workshops enabling an in-depth analysis of selected topics and also the learning of different soft skills; and short presentations and plenary discussions activating students to share their ideas and experiences and enhance the understanding of the concepts and theories learnt. Students will also be required to hold a short presentation applying the skills learned during the interactive teaching and didactic workshop, followed by a discussions of their presentation. Lecture materials will be made available to the students via an E-learning platform.

• 1^st March 2021- Opening of online application
• 6^th April 2021- Deadline for submission of application
• May 2021 – Acceptance letter sent to the selected candidates
• May 2021- Selected candidates send legally binding signed ‘Declaration of Acceptance’ and ‘Letter of Endorsement’ within 10 days of notification, certifying that they wish to attend the online summer school
• July-August 2021- EARTHS 2021 Online Summer School

The synchronous sessions will be organised via Zoom over a period of 6 weeks, encompassing a total of 15-20 working days. Each session will be of 4-6 hours.

The Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW) is the academic coordinator of this programme and will conduct this summer school in partnership with the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM). The administrative coordination and oversight of the programme lies with the DAAD.

The Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW) is one of the largest applied science teaching and research institutes in Germany with over 17,000 students. A wide range of Bachelor and Master programmes in engineering, IT, life sciences, design and media as well as business and social sciences are offered. In the Health Sciences Department, undergraduate and postgraduate training in both German and English language is offered to students seeking to specialize in epidemiology, health economics, health promotion and public health since over twenty years. It has renowned professors, highly qualified lecturers and a wide network of external experts with long standing experience in the field of Health Sciences. Website: www.haw-hamburg.de/english.html

The Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hamburg is Germany's largest institution for research, services and training in the field of tropical diseases and emerging infections. Research topics include clinical studies, epidemiology and disease control as well as the biology of the respective pathogens, their reservoirs and vectors. The institute runs a range of courses in the field of tropical medicine, diagnostics of tropical diseases and tropical medicine for nursing staff. The BNITM has an international collaboration with the Ghanaian Health Ministry and the University of Kumasi and operates a modern research and training center in the West-African rain forest, which is also available to the external researchers. Website: www.bnitm.de/en/

In order to apply for the EARTHS 2021 Online Summer School, interested DAAD scholarship holders are required to fill an online application form and upload the requested documents (e.g. degree certificates, proof of English, motivation letter etc). The link to the online application form is provided below. 

Please take a look at the pdf version of the application form provided here, before you start filling out the online application form. This will help you to collect and organise all the required information.

Apply now using the online application form  (this needs to be filled out)! 

Application deadline is 6^th April 2021, 23:59 Central European Time

Impressions of the last years

The last summer schools

EARTHS 2020

EARTHS 2019

EARTHS 2018

EARTHS2017