APECS Project

Program Overview

Through funding from the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS), CALS Global in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech's Center for Communicating Science (CCS), and Egerton University’s Center of Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management (CESAAM) are pleased to implement the Agricultural Productivity Enhancement & Communicating Science Project in Kenya (APECS).

For 2024, APECS will host the first Science Communication Learning Series and Case Competition. The purpose of the learning series and case competition is to build the capacity of agricultural researchers to communicate scientific findings and important implications of their research.

The learning series and the case competition will build skills across our virtual and in-person sessions. Participants should expect active discussion, experimentation, and embodied learning. Facilitated by faculty from Virginia Tech's Center for Communicating Science, this experiential learning series will help build your muscles of connection, communication, and collaboration with diverse individuals and communities.

At the end of the capacity building sessions, participants will understand how science communication dynamics influence translating science to policy and agricultural technology adoption.

Program Details

Applications are closed.

• The learning series will take place online over a period of weeks between February 15th and May 1st, with approximately 20 hours of effort required of participants.
  
• 1 hour virtual check-ins every two weeks.
• All participants and facilitators will gather at Egerton University in Kenya from Monday, May 6 through Friday, May 10 for 5 full days of in-person engagement culminating in the Science Communication Case Challenge (The S3C).

Eligibility

Applications are closed.

• Early career agricultural researchers (PhD candidates and recent PhD holders)
• Researchers enrolled or working in any agricultural entity in Kenya, excluding CGIAR Centers.