Building the next generation of Tunisian scientists

This report documents a capacity-building workshop held on 6 May 2026 at the Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Sidi Thabet (ISBST), University of Manouba, co-animated by three researchers who had previously worked abroad and have returned to Tunisia. The workshop addressed three themes. The first was technical: the preparation of histological specimens, delivered with a practical exercise in which students reconstructed the correct order of staining steps and identified common errors. The second concerned grant writing and the navigation of funding opportunities available to Master's students, doctoral candidates and early-career researchers, including the framing and visual presentation of applications and the most frequent mistakes to avoid. The third surveyed national and international funding schemes, from Tunisian domestic calls through to Erasmus, Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowships, TWAS, DAAD, Italian national programmes, opportunities in Arab countries and the Chinese system, with attention to the recent expansion of AI and high-technology programmes at highly ranked universities. The report records the organisers' central observation: for these students the binding constraint is not access to technical information but the development of human resources and confidence in their own capacity to compete