Deadline: January 29, 2026
Applications are open for the AAAS-TWAS Course on Science Diplomacy 2026. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington DC, USA, and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Trieste, Italy, are seeking candidates to participate in the annual summer course on science diplomacy to be held on 20-23 July 2026 in person in Trieste, Italy.
The workshop will take place as follows:
- 20 July (Monday): welcome dinner
- 21-23 July (Tuesday – Thursday): workshop
- 24 July: participants return to their home countries
The AAAS-TWAS Science Diplomacy training program was established in 2014 to expose scientists, decisionmakers, diplomats and other interested stakeholders and institutions to science diplomacy concepts, explore key contemporary international policy issues relating to science, technology, environment and health, and build a skillset to allow for careers at the intersection of science and diplomacy. Over the past years, TWAS has trained over three hundred emerging leaders from more than 50 countries to address science diplomacy from global and regional perspectives. The course receives key funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Golden Family Foundation.
Costs
- Organizers will cover the expenses of pairs selected, including transportation, accommodation, visa processing fees, meals and incidentals.
- Additionally, there will be opportunities for a small number of self-supported participant pairs (including from high-income countries) to attend the course if selected. Those participants will be responsible for paying their costs in connection to their attendance to the course, except for meals and transportation within Trieste, which is offered by organizers.
Eligibility
To strengthen the connection between scientists and governmental officials, decisionmakers and diplomats, applications to attend the course are being invited from ‘participant pairs’.
The ‘participant pair’ will include:
- Participant 1: a Early-Career Scientist (ECS) who should be preferably 40 years or below, must have earned a PhD degree and whose research and wider engagement has international policymaking implications or applications, and
- Participant 2: a Decisionmaker (DM) from the policymaking arena, working on science, technology, and innovation-related matters. There is no age limit for the co-applicant decisionmaker nor the requirement of a PhD degree. On the other hand, this person should belong to one of the following policy-related categories:
- A local or national government official;
- A policymaker;
- A diplomat;
- Civil servant;
- A representative of a research funding institution;
- Staff or expert working for an international (e.g. UN) organization.
Eligible Countries
The call is open to all countries, however due to limited slots available, priority will be given to the following countries that have not had representation in the course over the past five years. Financial support from the organizers is limited to successful applicants from this list of countries:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Central African Rep., Chad, Chile, China, Comoros, Congo Rep., Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Congo DRC, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Rep., Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Qatar, Türkiye (Turkey), Rwanda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, State of Palestine, Suriname, Syrian Arab Rep., Taiwan (China), Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, and Zambia.
Application
The deadline for submitting applications is 29 January (at midnight, CET time zone).
For more information, visit AAAS-TWAS Course on Science Diplomacy.
