Africa Collaboration Grant

Are you an SU staff member wanting to host a workshop or visit/host an African bilateral partner? Or perhaps you’re a postdoctoral fellow seeking to forge ties with an African partner, or a postgraduate student wishing to attend a conference in another African country? The Africa Collaboration Grant caters to all of these categories.

The Centre for Collaboration in Africa (CCA) at SU International, invites applications for the Africa Collaboration Grant (ACG). The ACG has been expanded to also offer Conference Grants to postgraduate students and Partner Development Grants for postdoctoral fellows, in addition to opportunities for Stellenbosch University staff. The call for applications to the ACG has also been restructured on a semester basis:

Call date	Time-frame for costs incurred	Deadline for submissions
September 2019 (open)	1 January 2020 to 30 June 2020	4 October 2019
March 2020	1 July 2020 to 31 December 2020	To be determined early 2020

The emphasis of the awards made by SU International is in support of the internationalisation of a) the specific academic environment and b) the institution.

DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE CALL IS SET OUT BELOW.

1. CATEGORIES AND CONDITIONS

Category 1: SU Staff

To organise a workshop/ conference jointly with a partner/partners from SU’s institutional bilateral partners from other African countries.

This category is aimed at SU staff
Applicants must demonstrate how the workshops/conference will be organised and hosted jointly with one or more institutional bilateral African Partners

1.1. Award amount: R 80 000.00 (maximum) for Category 1.

Category 2: SU Staff

To undertake a research visit (outgoing) to one or more of SU’s institutional bilateral partners in other African countries :

This category is aimed at SU staff
Meeting with a researcher or research team on the African continent in view of future research collaboration
Meeting with a researcher to collaborate on a joint scientific article
Meeting with a researcher or research team on the African continent as part of an existing collaborative project
Where more than one applicant from the same Department applies to undertake the same visit, only one grant will be given to the Department. Funding could be awarded at the discretion of the Dean and relevant Chair, to one of the applicants, or divided amongst the applicants.

To host a senior international visitor (incoming) at Stellenbosch University for collaborative purposes;

This category is aimed at SU staff who wants to host a visitor from other African countries
Hosting a visitor for meetings with a researcher or research team at SU in view of future research collaboration
Hosting a visitor at SU to collaborate on a joint scientific article
Hosting a visitor as part of an existing collaborative project
Hosting a visitor to meet with senior researchers as well as postgraduate research students as part of a research capacity building initiative.
Where more than one visitor is invited this must be within the context of a joint collaborative project.

2.1 Award amount: R 30 000.00 (maximum) for either Category 2(a) or 2(b)

Category 3: Postgraduate Students

To attend an academic conference in other African countries

This grant is aimed at postgraduate students.
The research supervisor should support the application.
Confirmation that the conference organisers have accepted the abstract.

3.1 Award amount: R 20 000.00 (maximum)

Category 4: Postdoctoral Fellows

To visit one more of SU’s International bilateral partners in other African countries

This grant is aimed at Postdoctoral fellows
Copies of the invitation(s) received from the host/s must be included.
Where more than one applicant from the same Department applies to undertake the same visit, only one grant will be given to the Department. Funding could be awarded at the discretion of the Dean and relevant Chair, to one of the applicants, or divided amongst the applicants.

4.1 Award amount: R 30 000.00 (maximum)

Please note this grant is not intended for:

Attending conferences beyond Africa
Within South Africa
Funding a keynote speaker to South Africa for conference purposes only.

2. ELIGIBILITY

Only full-time staff members (permanent or contract) [Category 1 and 2], senior post-graduate students [Category 3] and postdoctoral fellows [Category 4] of Stellenbosch University may apply.
Preference will be given for projects involving collaborations based at one or more of the following institutions.
For ARUA partner institutions**, preference will be given to collaborations related to thematic Centres of Excellence awarded to these partners. For more information on the ARUA partners, click here: http://arua.org.za/:

3. CRITERIA

The Africa Collaboration Grant should supplement grants provided by other sources (e.g. Dean’s fund research fund, third stream funds), as the ACG award should not exceed 66% of the total budget to a maximum of the respective amounts above.
The applicant must indicate how the funding will support collaboration, whether at the level of research, teaching or capacity development with partners based at one of SU’s bilateral partner institutions in Africa.
An applicant will only be eligible for the same category of the ACG every two years within one category.

4. FUNDING

Only a limited number of category 1 awards will be made.
Applications for category 2 visits with the goal to prepare joint funding proposals for third stream funding (e.g. African Union Grants, Intra Africa Grants, European funding aimed at African/South-South collaboration, etc.) will be given priority.
The Africa Collaboration Grant amounts will not exceed the amounts for the respective categories stated in article 1, and/or will not be more than 66% of the projected budget.
Supplementary funds should be sought from other sources.
The African Collaboration Grant provides funding for collaborative projects with the expectation that initial activities will attract funding from other sources for further collaboration.
Proof of price quotations (e.g. flights, accommodation, etc.) should be attached to the application.
The budget should be given, per budget item, in the relevant part of the application form.
Student mobility cannot be funded from ACG funds. SU’s institutional bilateral partnership agreements make provision for student exchanges and as such, may be initiated on that basis via the Stellenbosch University International.

5. APPLICATION PROCEDURES

An electronic version of the application form with inserted signatures must be submitted electronically to Ms. Sue-Vicky Brandt at brandt@sun.ac.za
Deadlines should be strictly adhered to. Late applications will not be considered.
The applicant must ensure that the application form is complete with all the required documents attached. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Please note that the award of the Africa Collaboration Grant is made on a competitive basis.

6. REPORTING

Grant holders must submit a report within three months after the visit/ activity.

7. AUTHORISATION

Application forms must be signed by the Head of Department or equivalent manager. In the case of the Post-Graduate students (category 3), applications must be signed by the research supervisor. Please elaborate further on the relevance and value of the application for the Faculty and/ or Department. Unsigned forms will not be accepted.

The outcome of application and payment of grant: Please note that it could take up to 4 weeks before the results of applications are made known and further 2-3 weeks for the payment of the grant.