news

➡️ To access the call for papers in English, please click here.

➡️ Pour accéder à l'appel à communications en français, veuillez cliquer ici.

➡️ Para aceder à chamada de trabalhos em português, por favor clique aqui.

The Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP), with support from the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF), is excited to launch this call for research papers under the South-South Academia Cooperation (SSAC) initiative, which aims to foster knowledge sharing among African universities in the transport sector. 

With this call, SSATP is inviting early career researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to form teams to develop research papers that investigate technologies that can support the improvement and integration of informal public transport (IPT) operations. The papers can be in English, French or Portuguese.

SSATP will provide financial support to selected teams to undertake their research, participate in research exchange visits, prepare their papers and disseminate their findings at an international workshop. SSATP will also support dissemination of high-quality papers through other channels.

The proposed papers should focus on identifying physical or digital technologies that can support IPT improvement and integration across different SSA cities, and address one or more of the following thematic clusters: 

• Vehicle motive power and related energy systems that promote decarbonization of the IPT sector.

• Technologies that improve road, vehicle and/or passenger safety in the IPT sector.

• Management or information system technologies that support more efficient IPT operations.

Papers must focus on at least two different SSA countries and offer a comparative analysis of the identified technologies, public/private sector actors involved in their local adoption, and benefits and challenges to such adoption, amongst other cross-cutting issues that are set out in the full call document. 

Teams comprising three to four early-career researchers are invited to make submissions to this call. Eligibility criteria include that all team members are enrolled in a PhD or master’s degree or are within five years of graduating from such a degree, are based in SSA, and are affiliated with a university or research institution located in SSA. Teams must also represent different academic disciplines and include at least one female member. 

Submissions must take the form of a one-page abstract and a one-page CV for each team member. The submission deadline is Monday, December 2, 2024, at 17:00 (UTC+1). Details of the submission requirements, selection process and how to submit queries prior to submission are set out in the full call document. 

All teams that make submissions must ensure that they are available and ready to start their research preparations by the end of 2024, undertake their research and research exchange visits in the first quarter of 2025, and draft and finalize their papers in the course of the second quarter of 2025. This timeline is subject to revision. 

➡️  View the full call document and responses to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ⬅️