The University of Minnesota in collaboration with Acceligen is taking applications for the Acceligen Fellowship program for Women Researchers from the Sub-Saharan part of Africa in the United States in 2021.
About Acceligen
At Acceligen, they are concerned about the health and welfare of the animals that give sustenance to the world. They are a leader in precision breeding, an established technology that tackles enduring challenges in animal health and caretaking. Their team is operating with farmers and ranchers globally to assist them provide safe, more than enough food by raising healthier animals in a more viable manner.
They are part of a team of professionals pursuing solutions to international food security, an urgent problem as populations increase, cropland shrinks, and the climate changes. They anticipate that with their technology, international consumers will get better access to the meat and dairy products they relish, and farmers will be able to breed fewer animals with fewer natural resources.
Their ability to accurately deliver traits on the basis of gene editing technology offers animal breeders new chances to accelerate genetic enhancement. By introducing distinct and significant genetics, they can considerably reduce the development cycles common with conventional selective breeding. Their work has been documented in more than 300 peer-reviewed journals and has been covered a lot of times by both scientific and consumer media channels. They are pioneering Precision Breeding with the use of the latest advances in animal genetics science to grow, test and deliver the safest and most precise solutions to enhance food animal health and welfare.
Acceligen is devoted to rearing better livestock for better livelihoods. It has obtained funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create bovine genetics enhanced with traits needed by smallholder dairy farmers.
The breeding program adds to more sustainable production by making use of traits that improve farmer income and increase animal health for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) dairy systems.
Thus, the fellowship program is structured to support eligible, female graduate scholars from the Sub-Saharan region to get a research doctoral degree program in 2 areas of study:
Animal Science Degree – Acceligen Fellowship
The applicant for Animal Science will carry out a Ph.D. thesis project backing research to come up with selection methods and/or breeding programs for dairy farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. This will be carried out with the use of Acceligen’s precision bred Gir, Holstein, and Girlando animals to enhance sustainable production from their present animals or herds.
Course work is provided in linear model methods, advanced dairy cattle breeding, statistical genetics and genomics, selection index theory, and molecular biology methods. Scholars in the Genetics program typically are expected to take courses from the campus-wide available courses, comprising courses in statistics, evolutionary genetics, population and quantitative genetics, developmental biology, cell biology, and molecular genetics.
Vet Med Degree – Acceligen Fellowship
This applicant will carry out a Ph.D. thesis project backing research to distinguish animal health phenotypes from bovine dairy animals bred by gene editing to have traits for immunity to bovine tuberculosis and trypanosomiasis.
Worth of Acceligen Fellowship at University of Minnesota
As a beneficiary of the Acceligen Fellowship program for Women Researchers, you receive up to five years of complete funding support to acquire a research doctoral degree program.
Eligibility for Acceligen Fellowship at University of Minnesota
- The fellowship program is structured to support qualified, female graduate scholars from the Sub-Saharan region.
The animal science degree program is for
- eligible scholars looking to acquire a Ph.D. in Animal Science while being part of a bigger team research project on – Precision crossbreeding for African Dairy Production Systems.
While the vet med degree program is for
- eligible scholars looking to acquire a PhD degree in the Veterinary Medicine Graduate Program while being part of a bigger team research project on – Precision crossbreeding for African Dairy Production Systems.
How to Apply for Acceligen Fellowship at University of Minnesota
All applications for the Acceligen Fellowship are to be made online through the official website.
Application Deadline
The application closing date is April 30, 2021.
