The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (UNESCO TWAS)—a programme unit of UNESCO, based in Trieste, Italy—promotes scientific capacity and excellence in the global South through a series of programmes and opportunities offered to scientists, including research grants, awards, fellowships and workshops. Eleven Nobel Prize laureates are Fellows of the Academy.

UNESCO TWAS manages, in cooperation with national science agencies in leading developing countries, the world’s largest South-South PhD and postdoctoral research fellowship programme, with almost 260 fellowships available in 2020. The Academy awarded more than 2,630 grants between 1986 and 2020.

Founded in 1983, UNESCO TWAS currently has almost 1,300 Fellows, of whom about 84 per cent come from developing countries, as well as more than 350 Young Affiliates/Alumni—from 105 countries. A major portion of TWAS funding is provided by the Italian Government.