The purpose of the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund is to encourage research, training, and engagement activities between Cambridge and sub-Saharan Africa. Applicants from Cambridge apply jointly with applicants from universities/ institutes in sub-Saharan Africa and co-create the projects. It is important that the funding is not simply used to provide services that will be carried out at one institution on behalf of the other, and that true collaboration is demonstrated in the application.
The Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund was established in 2012, with generous support from The ALBORADA Trust. The 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.
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 the feasibility of travel due to COVID restrictions)
- Conducting research training activities in Africa (e.g. setting up courses/workshops).
Particularly note that the ALBORADA Research Fund cannot pay for overheads, PI salaries, administration costs, bench fees, or for researchers to attend conferences.
The Cambridge-Africa Programme emerged as a bottom-up initiative from a number of individual, mutually-beneficial, long-term, collaborations between Cambridge and African researchers. Professor David Dunne, a parasitologist in the Department of Pathology, was the founding Director of Cambridge-Africa and served in this post from 2008 until his retirement in 2018. His inspiration for establishing Cambridge-Africa stemmed from his own collaborative research on neglected tropical diseases across Africa in long-term partnerships with many highly talented African colleagues.
Location:
United Kingdom, African CountriesBenefits
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 the feasibility of travel due to COVID restrictions)
- Conducting research training activities in Africa (e.g. setting up courses/workshops).
Eligibilities
- Both applicants must be at the 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 post-graduate 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.
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 at the given link. 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 and apply.
Application Deadline: September 4, 2023
Application ClosedOfficial link
