National Research Foundation (NRF)

Closing Date: 21 August 2013

As part of the “In-Country Scholarship Programme”, in which more than two dozen African universities and university networks participate and which annually supports some 800 African postgraduates, DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) in partnership with the National Research Foundation (NRF) is able to offer scholarships for postgraduate studies at South African universities.

The programme is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the National Research Foundation (NRF). The scholarship is aimed at future academic staff development without neglecting other sector demands for academically trained personnel.

Target Group
The programme targets candidates who are working towards a master’s or doctoral degree. Preference will be given to full-time registered young South Africans or permanent resident university staff members considered for teaching / research staff recruitment either for their own university or any other institution of higher education in South Africa.

Staff members should be enrolled for full-time studies and be exempted from teaching. In exceptional cases, a limited extent of teaching obligations may be accepted but has to be motivated in writing. The host institution has to document precisely and convincingly the quantity and content of the lecturing duties and their compliance with the prevailing goal of the academic qualification of the candidate.

An intrinsic link between the teaching obligations and the content of the degree programme is indispensable. DAAD and NRF offer up to 100 scholarships (new awards) for Master’s and Doctoral studies in 2014.

Scholarship Details

The scholarships are designed for full-time two-year Master’s courses or three-year doctoral degree studies.

Please Note: The initial award is for one year only. For extensions of the award an annual progress report will have to be completed by the applicant with input from the supervisor of the proposed research and submitted to the NRF via the university financial aid/ postgraduate/ research office.

Scholarship values are as follows:
Master’s degree : ZAR 60,000.00 p.a.
PhD degree : ZAR 90,000.00 p.a.

Students upgrading from a Master’s degree to a PhD are expected to complete an annual progress report, stating clearly that they have upgraded their studies. Upgrades will be included in the DAAD/NRF Joint In-Country Scholarship Programme. Scholarship holders are not allowed to change to any other DAAD or NRF funding streams during the tenure of the award.

However scholarship holders are encouraged to apply to other funding streams/ programmes on completion of their funding (e.g. completion of Master’s degree and wanting to apply for doctoral funding).

Eligibility Criteria

Please carefully read through the eligibility criteria before applying.

• Applicants must be South African citizens or hold permanent residence status in South Africa (in the latter case, both certified proof of university employment and residency must be provided).

• Applicants must have obtained an accumulative grade average of 65% and above to be considered.

• Female candidates and those belonging to historically disadvantaged groups are particularly encouraged to apply.

• An age limit of 36 years at the time of application applies.

• Applicants may come from all fields of study that have a strong relevance to the national development of the country. Fields include: the natural sciences, mathematics, ICT, engineering, agricultural sciences, and applied social sciences. Humanities and fine arts are excluded from this programme. However, Humanities applications may be considered if the research has a social focus.

• Applicants who already hold a qualification for the level of funding they are applying for are not eligible.

• Scholarships-holders are allowed to hold supplementary bursaries, grants or emoluments which may be capped in line with NRF and university policies.

• The scholarship must not be held simultaneously with a bursary/scholarship from any other NRF source, NRF administered source or other government sources without prior NRF/ DAAD permission.

• If the applicant does receive supplementary funding during the duration of the scholarship, this has to be declared to the NRF/ DAAD.

• Scholarship-holders must not hold full-time salaried employment during the duration of the scholarship. They will be allowed to undertake a maximum of 12 hours of employment which includes teaching, tutorials, and assistance or demonstration duties per week on average.

• University staff members applying to the programme will have to provide a supporting letter from their human resource department clearly indicating their working hours and status of employment during the tenure of the award.

It is the responsibility of the student to find a suitable supervisor and ensure that the supervisor sends a referee report to the NRF as part of the application.

Application Documents
The following documents are required in the application attachment section.

• Proof of South African Identity Document (ID) or proof of Permanent
Residency together with letter indicating university employment (if applicable, only at PhD levels).

• Official and certified university degree certificates and transcripts indicating a minimum accumulative academic requirement of 65% in previous degree.
• Recommendation by Supervisor (compulsory for doctoral applicants).
• Admission letter indicating full-time registration (if available). This will be required if successful.

• Reference Letters (if available).

Please note the following: That all required documents must be attached as one PDF file in the following order:

Identity document, proof of permanent residence and university employment letter (if applicable), certified university degree certificates and transcripts, recommendation by supervisor (compulsory for doctoral applicants) letter of admission (if available) and any reference letters (if available).

 Application Procedure
Applications must be submitted through an online application process of the NRF:

Applicants can apply for the DAAD/NRF Joint In-Country Scholarship Programme by accessing the link: https://nrfsubmission.nrf.ac.za/

• Register/ Login using your ID number and password.

• Select create new application from the list of existing calls.

• Select the call for which you are applying to: DAAD-NRF In-Country Scholarships Programme 2014.

• Remember to complete all sections of the application.

• Please attach the necessary documents in one PDF file in the following order: ID document, proof of permanent residence and university employment letter (if applicable), certified university degree certificates and transcripts, recommendation by supervisor( compulsory for doctoral applicants)
letter of admission (if available) and any reference letters (if available).

• Should you not follow the guidelines for attaching the necessary documents your application will not be considered.

• Remember to submit your application upon completion.

• Complete applications will go to the host university for verification before being forwarded to the NRF for further processing.

• Incomplete applications will not be considered.

No late submissions of applications will be considered.

• Applications that do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be considered (please refer to funding manual and call document for details on eligibility of the DAAD-NRF In-Country Scholarship programmes).

• Please contact the university postgraduate office or research office if you have any queries.

• The closing date for submitting applications is 21 August 2013.

• Your application will be directed to the NRF for further assessment and selection through a DAADNRF selection panel.

• A list of successful applicants that will be funded for 2014 will be found on the NRF website under the student link towards the end of December 2013.

For More Information:

Download the 2014 DAAD-NRF In-Country Masters and Doctoral Scholarship Programme Call for Applications

Submit your Application for the 2014 DAAD-NRF In Country Masters and Doctoral Scholarship Programme