Opening date of the call: 8 December 2025.
Closing date of the call: 29 January 2026.
The workshop
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, we have 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.
Participants
To strengthen the connection between scientists and governmental officials, decisionmakers and diplomats, applications to attend the course are being invited from ‘participant pairs’. For more information about this innovative model for science diplomacy training, see this article written by the organizing team: https://www.sciencediplomacy.org/article/2024/pairing-model-bring-scientists-and-decisionmakers-closer-together
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.
Through the application, all applicants have the opportunity to inform organizers whether they can support their own expenses. Although participant pairs from countries not listed above may apply, if selected, their participation will be conditional to their ability to pay for their travel expenses to attend the course, except for meals and transportation within Trieste, which is offered by organizers.
Both participants in the participant pair should ideally be living and/or working in the same country, but not be working at the same institution.
The applicants in the ‘participant pair’ should share some common interest in the areas of science, technology and innovation. However, it is not necessary that they work or have been working together in the past.
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.
Since 2021, 164 scientists and decisionmakers from 51 countries have attended the course as participant pairs. Alumni of the course will join a global network of young leaders and innovators reaching across borders to address societal challenges and become agents of change in their countries and sectors.
Pairing format of the course
The aim of the pairing is to help develop long-term science policy connections. Therefore, early-career scientists applicants are encouraged to check with their supervisor and/or leadership of their home institute for suggestions on possible, suitable co-applicants from the policymaking arena.
The two participants in the participant pair must confirm the identity of their partner on their application and explain why this is a good partnership. Thus, participant pairs must have agreed in advance about their ‘twinned’ applications.
Important: Applications that do not identify a participant partner will not be considered. Therefore, it is necessary to find a partner co-applicant before applying.
In addition, commitment to attend all days of the course is expected from both members of the selected pairs. Therefore, if one member of the pair will not be able to commit to attend the whole workshop, this will automatically disqualify the participation of the other member of the pair.
Application and selection process
- Applications must be submitted online via the TWAS web portal and are not accepted by email submission.
- Important: There is one single online application form for the participant pair. To apply the participant pair must use the 'apply now' button at the bottom of this webpage to start the application.
The online application is divided in two parts:
a) The first is for Participant 1 (the Early-Career Scientist - ECS).
b) The second part is for Participant 2 (the Co-Applicant Decisionmaker - DM), from the policymaking arena as indicated above.
Important: The Early-Career Scientist (ECS) is responsible for filling out both parts of the application and submitting the completed document on behalf of the participant pair.
To facilitate this, the early-career scientist must download the "Co-Applicant Decisionmaker Information and Consent form" (see Word file at the bottom of this web page or available for download in the online form), and pass it to the Co-applicant Decisionmaker to fill out, sign and return to the Early-Career Scientist, who is then asked to include that information in the second part of this online application. The early-career scientist will also need to upload this signed form in the space requested, together with the Co-applicant Decisionmaker's CV and passport.
Applications that do not specify their participant partner will be considered incomplete and will not be considered.
Participant 1 (Early-Career Scientists) is required to have completed a PhD degree and be preferably no more than 40 years of age, while Participant 2 (the co-applicant Decisionmaker) does not need to have a PhD and there is no age limit for him/her.
Applications and all accompanying documents must be completed in English. In addition, candidates must indicate their level of knowledge of the language in the application form and, if selected, they must be able to speak comfortably in English throughout the course.
As part of the application, some accompanying documents must be attached to the TWAS online form. These required documents are the following:
a) Accompanying documents for Early Career Scientist (ECS):
1. A scanned copy of passport, preferably not expired. Only the page with picture and personal details is required.
2. Curriculum vitae (CV), no longer than three pages.
3. Two or three Reference letters. The letters must be on official headed paper and must be SIGNED.
4. Supporting statement (on official headed paper) SIGNED by the head/director of the applicant’s current employment.
Please note: The referees should be preferably different from the author of the supporting statement. There is no standard format for the reference letters or the supporting statement but they must be signed.
b) Accompanying documents for the Decisionmaker (DM):
1. A scanned copy of passport, preferably not expired. Only the page with picture and personal details is required.
2. Curriculum vitae (CV), no longer than three pages.
- Candidates should not have participated in any previous AAAS-TWAS course on science diplomacy, including regional workshops.
- Women are especially encouraged to apply, as are refugee or displaced scientists.
- The course will be held in person in Trieste, Italy. Commitment to attend all days of the course is expected from both members of the selected pairs. Therefore, if one member of the pair will not be able to commit to attend the whole workshop, this will automatically disqualify the other component of the pair.
An expert committee will be established by TWAS and AAAS to review the applications.
- The deadline for submitting applications is 29 January (at midnight, CET time zone).
Important: It is strongly suggested that candidates do not to submit applications too close to the deadline in order to avoid that last minutes technical glitches or time zone differences may impede submission of the online application on time. - Successful candidates will be informed at the end of April 2026.
For more information on the science and diplomacy programme, please see http://twas.org/science-diplomacy.
For any queries, please contact: sciencediplomacy@twas.org
Course fee information
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.
