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, more than 200 awards have been made, to enable Cambridge researchers to engage with African colleagues from 28 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.).
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
- conducting research training activities in Africa (e.g. setting up courses/workshops).
Please read carefully the Terms & Conditions including eligibility criteria, before applying.
Templates for the award letter and sub-contract may be found below:
- Template Award Letter (Signatory: Cambridge PI)
- Template Side Award Letter (Signatories: Co-PI and their Institutional legal authority)
Templates for the final reports:
Particularly note that the ALBORADA Research Fund cannot pay for overheads, administration costs, or for researchers to attend conferences.
How to apply
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.
If you are eligible to apply, but are unable to register on the page above, then please contact alboradafund@cambridge-africa.cam.ac.uk.
If you have already registered, please Log In to access the form.
The deadline to submit an application for collaborative research funding is Sunday 6th September 2020.
