STIAS is pleased to announce its 10th cohort of Iso Lomso Fellows for applications submitted during the February 2026 Call for Applications, for which over 140 applications were received.
Iso Lomso means ‘the eye of tomorrow’ in isiXhosa and connotes seeing into the future or laying the foundations for tomorrow.
The fellowship targets African scholars who have obtained a doctoral degree within the preceding seven years, have completed a post-doctoral programme and hold an academic position at a university or research institution on the African continent. All disciplines are considered.
The following candidates have been awarded the three-year fellowship and will be attached to STIAS from 2027 to 2029. They are listed with their project titles, in the order of their appearance from left to right, top to bottom:
Adwoa Owusuaa Bobie, Centre for Cultural and African Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.
Project: The conflicting integration of African businesses in global flow.
Farai Mlambo, Graduate School of Business Administration (Wits Business School), University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Project: Uncertainty-aware Artificial Intelligence for business decision-making in Africa.
Claire-Anne Lester, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
Project: Commissions, capital and the eye of History.
Rachel Raïssa Ngono Mvondo, Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering; National Advanced School of Engineering, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon.
Project: Towards an integrated framework for the selection of biosourced construction materials in tropical African climates.
Ousman Bajinka, School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, University of The Gambia, The Gambia.
Project: From lungs to mind: Developing a multi-omics and 3 PM framework for respiratory infections and neurodegenerative risk in Africa.
Danille Elize Bester, Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Project: Bearing witness to forgotten service: The afterlife of racialised military service.
Blasius Henry Ngayakamo, Civil Engineering, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, Tanzania.
Project: Reconceptualising quarry stone fines as strategic secondary resources for low-carbon concrete infrastructure in Africa: A circular economy systems approach.
Akeem Sikiru, Animal Science, Federal University of Agriculture Zuru, Nigeria.
Project: The epistemology of resilience: Integrating Indigenous and scientific knowledge for climate-adapted African livestock systems.
John Akanni, Applied and Basic Sciences, KolaDaisi University, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Project: Living with disease: Rethinking endemicity and the mathematics of “Permanent Epidemics” in African contexts.
The next Call for Applications will open on 15 October. Visit https://www.stias.ac.za/fellowships/apply/ for more information and to apply.