PhiDoc Launches Research Platform for African PhD Candidates

In Short

PhiDoc has launched an integrated research platform for African PhD candidates and early-career researchers.

What Happened

Founded earlier this year by Oussama Elasri and two co-founders, PhiDoc went live in September. The product maps thesis progress and surfaces funding calls and conference opportunities filtered by discipline and career stage. It also includes a researcher directory for networking and collaboration.

PhiDoc also offers a research assistant for methodology support and connects emerging researchers with mentors across the continent.

Elasri told Disrupt Africa that doctoral researchers across Africa face “limited funding visibility, isolation from peer networks, and absence of accessible mentorship”. He said information often moves through WhatsApp groups and email forwarding, sometimes reaching researchers after deadlines have closed.

Elasri, who is a PhD researcher in management sciences at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, said he got the idea after discovering an Erasmus+ opportunity in 2025, a day after it had closed. He began tracking funding calls and conferences in a spreadsheet shared with colleagues, and said that within weeks dozens of researchers were using it.

The platform is available in English, French and Arabic.

Why It Matters