Call for Proposals

Students fascinated by physics and curious about the universe live in every country in the world, which is where ICTP's Physics Without Frontiers (PWF) programme hopes to meet them. Working to inspire, train, and educate university students, PWF organizes a rich schedule of projects every year to help build the next generation of scientists.

You can add your ideas to that schedule: PWF is currently soliciting project proposals with an open call closing 31 March 2023. Details on how to submit a proposal and more information can be found on the PWF website. Proposals should include project motivations and goals.  PWF will work with those projects that are selected to develop a full project proposal to be agreed by all project partners.

PWF's work focuses the following three areas: training university students in cutting-edge research in physics and mathematics and teach transferable skills in computing, programming and machine learning, mentoring top students studying at universities without Master's or PhD programmes, and supporting physics and mathematics departments in universities with little or no research activities.

Projects can take a lot of shapes, but they all share one goal: to break down barriers to accessing physics and mathematics research and training. PWF is especially focused on students and scientists from groups less represented in science: women and girls, those from poorer economic backgrounds, those from ethnic minority backgrounds within regions, those who are geographically isolated, and those from conflict regions. PWF believes that the luck of birth and location do not determine who can contribute to science and the community of scientists.

That community is the source of the extensive network of enthusiastic volunteers that fuels PWF's work. Scientists from a wide variety of physics and math fields, from different phases in their careers, and from all over the world are part of organizing teams for projects. The teams customize each project to meet specific needs of the students in the host region and country. From an annual school on atmospheric science in Nigeria, to a workshop on particle physics in Afghanistan, to a condensed matter physics course in Nepal, to a multiple-country South American high energy physics roadshow, the projects come in all shapes and sizes, energized by volunteers' knowledge and experience.

Some of those volunteers work with PWF to organize regular projects within the same communities, building relationships with host universities and mentoring students. Multi-year projects are one of the flagships of PWF's work, with project series developed in Nepal, Palestine, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and other countries.

Join the PWF volunteer network;  submit a project proposal now!