African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence (AUKNASE): Historical 2020 Edition

African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence (AUKNASE): Historical 2020 Edition

Status at a glance

This page is a historical reference, not an open application listing. The official African Union announcement currently linked here is for the 2020 Continental and Regional Edition. It set a submission deadline of 25 November 2020 at 17:00 East Africa Time, and that deadline has passed. The AU pages reviewed for this refresh did not identify a newer public AUKNASE call or a next application deadline.

The award programme itself is not described as discontinued in the official materials reviewed. That distinction matters: the evidence supports saying that the last public call found is closed and that a new round has not been announced, but it does not support inventing a future date or declaring the whole programme cancelled. Anyone considering a future nomination should verify a new announcement on the AU website before preparing or sending a dossier.

What the award recognizes

AUKNASE is a recognition programme for significant scientific, technological, and innovation achievements. The award is intended for work that has already produced meaningful evidence, not for a proposal that only describes what a researcher hopes to do next. The AU rules describe the prizes as one-time monetary awards for scientific achievements and discoveries, rather than lifetime-achievement awards.

The 2020 rules divide the programme’s work into two broad sectors. Life and Earth Sciences and Innovation covers fields connected with the planet and living organisms, including areas such as geology, geophysics, geodesy, agro-technology, animal science, plant science, biotechnology, biology, environmental science, food science, medicine, and tissue engineering. Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation covers fields outside that first group, including physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, artificial intelligence, materials science, manufacturing, metallurgy, textiles, energy, and other innovations.

The rules connect the programme to African development needs. A strong nomination therefore needs more than an impressive publication list. It should make clear what problem the work addressed, what the nominee personally contributed, what changed as a result, and why the result matters in an African context. The official criteria mention publications, graduate research training, applicability to African challenges, and patentability as examples of evidence.

Award amounts and levels

The 2020 rules describe AUKNASE as a three-level programme, although the archived public call in the linked announcement covered the Continental and Regional Awards.

At the Continental level, the rules provide two awards of USD 100,000 each for African pioneer scientists. The wording is a fixed published award amount for each of the two awards, not a project budget and not a maximum grant that can be increased through a larger proposal.

At the Regional level, the rules provide two awards for women scientists in each of the five geographical regions of Africa, with each award valued at USD 20,000. The regional track is therefore not a general regional grant open to every applicant. It is a recognition category specifically framed for women scientists.

The rules also describe a National level for young African researchers, with two prizes per country and prize values determined by the African Union Commission. That national-level description should not be read as an active national call on this page: the official announcement linked in this entry is the closed Continental and Regional 2020 Edition. A future national, regional, or continental notice could use different dates or instructions and would need its own verification.

Who could be nominated in the archived rules

The baseline eligibility requirements in the 2020 rules are specific. The nominee must be an African national of an AU Member State, must reside in an AU Member State, and must be nominated for achievements based on work conducted in an African country. The rules frame the award around research excellence that is relevant to the continent’s developmental needs.

The Continental Award was open to African pioneer scientists. The rules state that a nominee should have a PhD and, if an academic at a university, at least the rank of Associate Professor. There was no age limit. The nominee was expected to meet at least four of the listed criteria, including publication, authorship, H-index, patent, doctoral supervision, international grant, and review-article criteria. The rules also include an exception for people or groups in non-academic establishments whose patent, trade secret, product, service, or other work has made a clear social impact or contributed significantly to the programme’s development objectives.

The Regional Award was for women scientists. The rules state that the nominator should have a PhD and, when the nominator is an academic in a university, at least the rank of Associate Professor. There was no age limit. The nominee was expected to meet at least three listed criteria. Those criteria included at least five journal articles with an impact factor greater than 1.0, senior or corresponding authorship on at least three of those articles, a minimum H-index of 5, at least one international or two national patents, supervision or co-supervision of at least five PhD students, an international grant as principal investigator, and a review article in the field.

These thresholds belong to the archived rules. They are useful for understanding the standard of the closed call, but they should not be treated as the requirements for a future edition until the AU publishes new rules.

Nomination route

Self-nomination was expressly excluded. The rules invited nominations from institutions in the continent, including universities, research institutions, professional bodies, academies, and industrial establishments. They also allowed nominations from senior staff or academics of the same or higher rank than the nominee, heads of institutions using their own formal process, and committee chairs who review scientists’ achievements.

The nominator carried an important part of the case. The dossier had to explain the importance, relevance, quality, and impact of the nominee’s work in a narrative presentation of up to five pages. The AU rules say the emphasis is on the quality of the work and not simply on the number of publications. A nomination that lists accomplishments without identifying the specific contribution and its effect would be a weak fit for the stated process.

Materials required for the closed call

The 2020 rules required the Nomination Form, a full CV, and five to ten copies of the nominee’s best publications. The narrative from the nominator had to cover the importance, relevance, quality, and impact of the work. The application form also collected the nominee’s personal and academic background, employment history, publications, patents or other achievements, honors, and referee information.

For a future round, a prospective nominator would be wise to assemble the following evidence without assuming that an old form remains valid:

• a complete academic and employment CV;
• a short account of the specific discovery, method, product, or body of work being nominated;
• selected publications and accurate bibliographic details;
• publication, authorship, citation, patent, grant, and doctoral-supervision evidence where relevant;
• evidence of adoption, policy use, implementation, training, or other practical effect;
• a clear explanation of the work’s relevance to African development needs;
• referee and nominator contact details that match the official form; and
• any declarations or supporting documents required by the next edition’s rules.

Do not send this package as though the archived call were still open. The materials above describe the closed rules and preparation needs only.

How submission worked in the 2020 edition

The process in the archived rules was not an online application workflow. The practical sequence was:

1. A qualified institution, senior individual, head of institution, or committee chair identified a nominee and selected the Continental or Regional level.
2. The nominator completed the official Nomination Form and prepared the narrative, full CV, selected publications, and other supporting documents.
3. The complete package was checked for eligibility and completeness against the 2020 rules.
4. The nomination and supporting documents were sent by physical courier to the Officer in Charge, AU Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence 2020 Edition, Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology, African Union Commission, Roosevelt Street, P. O. Box 3243, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
5. The envelope was to identify the sender and specify the award level, with the note “AUKNASE / Not to be opened before the Opening Session.”
6. The Commission could perform a technical review. Only nominations received by the deadline were considered, and the jury then evaluated eligible submissions.

The official rules specifically said not to submit the package by fax or email. That instruction is part of the archived procedure and may not apply to a future edition, so a new call and its current form must control if the programme reopens.

Exclusions and practical checks

The rules listed several reasons a nomination could be declined. Self-nominations were not accepted. An incomplete dossier or missing supporting document could be rejected. A nomination based on work that had already received an AUKNASE could be excluded. The rules also identified AU sanctions affecting a Member State and employment by an AU organ or Regional Economic Community as exclusion conditions.

Before a new call is announced, the most useful preparation is evidence cleanup rather than writing a speculative application. Confirm that the nominee’s nationality, residence, work location, academic rank, authorship, patents, grants, supervision record, and impact claims can all be documented. Ask the prospective nominator to confirm that they can make the nomination through the route required by the next official rules. Keep the final narrative focused on one clearly described contribution or connected body of work instead of turning it into an unstructured career biography.

What to do now

There is no current deadline to apply through the archived announcement. Do not mail a dossier to the historical address unless a new AU notice explicitly reopens the process and confirms that address and procedure. Monitor the African Union announcements and the Education, Science, Technology and Innovation pages for a new AUKNASE notice. When one appears, compare its edition, deadline, award levels, eligibility rules, application form, submission channel, and contact details against this archive before acting.

The official rules list [email protected] for enquiries about the programme. Because contact details and procedures can change between editions, use that address only in the context of a current AU notice and confirm that the new call refers applicants to it.

Official sources

• African Union announcement: AUKNASE Continental Award 2020 Edition
• African Union Rules of Procedure: Continental and Regional Awards, 2020 Edition

The announcement is the source for the closed call and its deadline. The Rules of Procedure are the source for the award amounts, eligibility thresholds, nomination route, exclusions, supporting documents, jury process, and physical-courier instructions. No future deadline is listed here because the AU has not published one in the official materials reviewed for this refresh.