First OWSD WISDOM Scholars selected

July 30, 2024

Ten refugee or displaced women scholars have won the first ever awarded OWSD WISDOM scholarship to pursue a Master's degree in STEM subjects at Jordan's Hashemite University.

OWSD is happy to announce the selection of the first 10 women to be awarded Master's scholarships under the Women in Science Displacement Outreach Master's Program (OWSD WISDOM).

OWSD WISDOM was launched as a pilot project in 2024, with the objective of supporting refugee or displaced women STEM scholars who have fallen through the cracks. The new initiative is based on the central promise of 'Leaving No One Behind' (LNOB) laid out by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With generous financial support from Sida, and assistance from UNHCR, OWSD partnered with Hashemite University in Jordan to implement the first pilot of the new scholarship scheme. Selected scholars will receive comprehensive scholarship packages for up to 24 months’ study. The project will also focus on capacity building, working with selected institutes on gender-sensitive policies and raising awareness around protection needs.

The first Call for Applications was met with an outpouring of interest; these 10 women were selected from a pool of 129 eligible applications. Seven of the 10 scholars selected as part of the first cohort of scholars were also recipients of UNHCR's DAFI (Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative) scholarship programme for tertiary education.

The 10 women selected as the first cohort are: