During the 2022 SEED Annual Symposium at IIT Bombay, the TUM SEED Center director, Prof. Dr. Frank-Martin Belz, granted two Ph.D. Scholarships relating “SEED Entrepreneurship in the Global South” to Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The two selected Universities went through a highly competitive and rigorous selection process, the CV of the proposed Ph.D. Candidate supervisors as well as the content of the research proposals were evaluated by three independent Entrepreneurship Scholars at the Technical University of Munich and the final decision was taken by the TUM SEED Selection Commission. 

The best proposals were submitted by the JKUAT Supervisory Team led by Prof. Florence Memba (Entrepreneurial Finance), Dr. Anaya W. Senelwa (Entrepreneurship), and Dr. Allan Mugambi (Humanities); and by the NUST Supervisory Team led by Prof. Dr. Sulaiman Olusegun Atiku (Human Resources) and Dr. Asa Romeo Asa (Entrepreneurship). The awarded proposal relates to “Informal Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development in Kenya” and “Informal Entrepreneurship for Societal Impact: A Focus on Semi-urban and Rural Communities in Namibia”, respectively. The selected supervisors will now engage in the process of announcing the Ph.D. position at their Universities and selecting a doctoral student, who will work on the proposed research topics starting from the beginning of 2023. The selection process will be rigorous, and transparent and enhance gender equality and diversity. 

At the beginning of 2023, two new SEED Ph.D. Students based in the Global South will join the SEED Center, and they will be granted full of opportunities to travel to Germany and to the living labs, to attend Ph.D. seminars as well as to participate in leading conferences all over the world. We look forward to enlarging our SEED team, and strengthening our collaboration and academic exchange at the intersection of sustainable energies, entrepreneurship, and development!