Open Positions

YaBiNaPA is the Yaoundé-Bielefeld Bilateral Graduate School for Antiparasitic and Antimicrobial Natural Products Discovery funded by DAAD to strengthen the capacity of lecturers and researchers (Master and PhD students) in the domain of phytomedicine for sustainable development in developing countries as planned by the 2030 agenda of the UN on the theme “Transforming our World”. Thus, the Graduate School has as aim to provide specialized experts and lecturers with updated training at Masters, Doctorate, and Postdoc levels by making its expertise, equipment, database available and by organizing seminars, workshops and research stays in Germany and therefore move towards joint development and innovation.

Among the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, YaBiNaPA particularly focuses on Good Health and Well-Being (SDG 3) and Quality Education (SDG 4) with strong implications on No Poverty (SDG 1), Gender Equality (SDG 5), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), and Life on Land (SDG 15) to achieve a better and more sustainable future for the populations.

The Yaoundé - Bielefeld Bilateral Graduate School "Natural Products with Antiparasite and Antibacterial Activity (YaBiNaPA)" intends to exert impact in three dimensions:

• Improvement of Graduate Education: The network of scientists involved, together with improved technical resources and access to modern research technology, will provide the members of the Graduate School with a broad scope of timely disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills;
• Sustainability and translational research: The combination of disciplines in relation to the potential application of natural products as isolated compounds or standardized extract preparations for therapeutic applications will confer the idea of translational research to the members of the Graduate School. The necessity of sustainable availability and affordability of traditional phytomedicine, with an emphasis on access for poor populations;
• Improvement of quality of life: The joint research effort of scientists from different disciplines is expected to lead to a progress in the therapy of parasitic or bacterial diseases. In fact, YaBiNaPA will embark on generating guidelines for traditional phytomedicines by developing and providing international standards, technical guidelines and a valid quality control for formulations and methodologies. This will be achieved through a continuous exchange between traditional healers and researchers at high level, combined with quality education and trainings.

In the framework of the YaBiNaPA project, scholarships will be offered to students of the African universities and PhD holders to work on their project at the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon.

for a research stay in one of the YaBiNaPA laboratories at the University of Yaoundé I.

• 2 scholarships for 12 months
  • 1 natural product chemist and 1 biologist
• Monthly allowance: 500 EUR

1. The Natural Product Chemist should possess broad knowledge on isolation, characterization of secondary metabolites, compilation of spectroscopic data, management of the chemical library and database.
2. The biologist should have expertise in antibacterial, antifungal, antiplasmodial, antileishmanial and cytotoxicity testing.

to do research in the research group of Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry (Prof. Sewald) at Bielefeld University, Germany.

• 1 scholarship for 11 months
  • Monthly allowance: 1200 EUR
  • Monthly health insurance allowance: 271 EUR
  • Travel allowance

to do research in the research group of Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry (Prof. Sewald) at Bielefeld University, Germany.

• 6 scholarships for 6 months
  • for the best YaBiNaPA students of the first and second cohort recruited in 2021 & 2022
    • Monthly allowance: 1000 EUR
    • Monthly health insurance allowance: 100 EUR
    • Travel allowance

The following criteria are mandatory:

• Propose a project based on analytical chemistry, especially the quantification, dereplication or bioguided isolation of active secondary metabolites from plants, particularly only species for which an ABS permit have been granted by the ABS national committee.
• Only applicants from developing countries can be funded. There is no age limit applying for the scholarships. However, in the case of PhD scholarships, the Master’s Degree or equivalent diploma must not be more than 6 years old. If the doctoral project had begun before the start of the funding, it should not be more than 3 years prior to the submission of the application. With regards to applications submitted by scientists and young academics (postdocs), the doctoral degree at the time of submitting the application should not be more than 2 years old.