Call for proposals – Scholarship for Early-Career Researchers for Research Stays in Africa

The Scientific Coordination Office (WKS) Bavaria-Africa supports Early-Career-Researchers with funds of the Bavarian State Chancellery to initiate and perform research in African countries and build international networks.

The scholarship program aims to foster collaboration in research and innovation between Bavaria and African countries. It seeks to bridge the funding gap between student programs, such as summer schools, and various research funding schemes for senior researchers. The program provides new opportunities for participants to enhance their academic careers and networks, fostering work in international environments.Therefore, it is anticipated that the research stay not only includes research components, but also networking activities.

Eligibility

Early-Career-Researchers (maximum age 35 at time of application submission) of any nationality, who are either enrolled in a PhD programme or are working in a Post-Doc position situated at a public University or University of Applied Sciences situated in Bavaria, are eligible for funding. The programme welcomes applications from any discipline.

The scholarship funds a research-stay in collaboration with an African (research) institution for a maximum duration of one month. The funding will be granted on a lump-sum basis, the payment will be transferred in advance to the research stay. This research-stay shall include collaboration components with African entities of the respective country, which must be described in the proposal. In general, visits to all African countries are eligible, whereas a special emphasis is upon the countries enlisted in the Bavarian Africa strategy (Ethiopia, Kenia, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia).

Research stays as a mere “fly-in-fly-out” measure, without local interaction and network building, are not eligible.

Funding Period

The research stay must have started in the calendar year 2024.

Amount of Funding and Funding Type

The scholarship will be paid as a lump-sum fund for flight, accommodation and living expenses up to a maximum duration of one month. The maximum grant amount must not exceed 3,500€ and a detailed budget plan has to be provided in the proposal.

Application

The application must be submitted as two separate documents to the e-mail-address below. One document is the administrative cover letter (Part A), the second document is the proposal (Part B) for the research stay, including the budget plan. The call templates provided are to be used in given format.

Template Cover Letter – Part A

Template Proposal  – Part B

Deadline for submission: 15/02/2024 17:00 CET

By submitting the application, the applicant confirms that the WKS Bavaria-Africa Scholarship funds will explicitly be used for the research stay, which has not received any other funding.

Selection and Payment Procedure

Part B (the proposal text) will be evaluated first hand, irrespective of Part A (administrative cover sheet) to allow for a first anonymized assessment of the concept.

Applications for research stays in all African countries are eligible; however, priorities will be given to high-quality applications for research stays in the five focus countries of the Bavarian Africa strategy, Ethiopia, Kenia, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

Results will be communicated by end of March 2024. After the grant signature, the scholarship fund will be transferred timely to the scholars’ accounts within two weeks.

Additional Informations

The applicant is obliged to prepare a short final report after his/her stay and submit it to the WKS Bayern-Afrika.

We would be delighted to welcome all scholarship recipients to our kick-off event in the beginning of April at our premises in Munich or Nuremberg.

Contact

Questions and the submission can be directed to bayern-afrika@bayfor.org