Deadline: September 4, 2023
Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund 2023
The Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund supports pairs of researchers (post-doctoral level and above) from the University of Cambridge (or an affiliated institution such as the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, NIAB and British Antarctic Survey) and sub-Saharan African institutions, across all disciplines, to initiate and/or strengthen research collaborations.
To date, 300 awards have been made, to enable Cambridge researchers to engage with African colleagues from 34 African countries. Some awardees have been able to use the preliminary results from their seed fund/research collaboration to apply for and win significant funding (e.g. Royal Society/Leverhulme Awards, Global Challenges Research Fund, etc.). For this round, they may be able to consider applications from North Africa.
Funding
The Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund competitively awards grants of between £1,000 and £20,000, for:
- research costs (such as reagents, fieldwork and equipment)
- research-related travel between Cambridge and Africa (bearing in mind feasibility of travel due to COVID restrictions)
- conducting research training activities in Africa (e.g. setting up courses/workshops).
Eligibility
- Applicants from Cambridge apply jointly with applicants from universities/institutes in sub-Saharan Africa and co-create the projects.
- Both applicants must be at post-doctoral level or above, and by completing an application, it is understood that they are both doing so with support from their Head of Department or equivalent.
- Both applicants should have a formal link to a research group/department/faculty in their home institution. It is also expected that both applicants remain employed beyond the end date of their ALBORADA awards.
- The awards are not intended to support postgraduate students, however, limited support for students (e.g. as part of a research project or training visit) will be considered when there is a clear demonstration that this will enhance the relationship between the Cambridge and African Principal Investigators (PIs).
- The Cambridge applicant must be either working at the University of Cambridge, or at a Research Institute affiliated with the University. Previous successful Cambridge applicants have included those from Wellcome-Trust Sanger Institute, National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) and British Antarctic Survey.
- The Cambridge applicants will act as the lead applicants, for administrative purposes, as the awards have to be paid to their Cambridge Departments/Faculties/Institutes.
Application Process
The online application form has been designed to allow both applicants (Cambridge- and Africa-based) to log in, update, save and eventually submit electronically.
To access the form, the Cambridge based applicant must Register Here. Only applicants with @cam.ac.uk, @sanger.ac.uk, @babraham.ac.uk, @bas.ac.uk and @niab.ac.uk email addresses can register.
The Cambridge-based applicant must then log in to the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund application form, where they will see the words “Invite a 2nd applicant to view/edit this submission”. Click on this link in order to invite the Africa-based applicant to register and edit the forms.
