NRF Post-Doctoral Fellowship

NRF Freestanding, Innovation and Scarce Skills Postdoctoral Fellowship Funding Calls for 2013

2012 Post-Doctoral Funding Call

Application Deadline: CLOSED

Eligibility Criteria :

• Fellowships are open to South African citizens for full-time research at institutions in South African and approved institutions abroad.
• Outstanding foreign candidates that wish to pursue full-time post-doctoral research in South Africa.
• Exceptional doctoral graduates who recently received their doctoral degrees (within the last five years) and who wish to undertake research are encouraged to apply.
• Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis, taking into account the applicants' academic achievements, outputs and research potential. Publications weigh heavily in the assessment of the application and applicants are encouraged to ensure a full list of their publications is included when they complete the CV details of the application. The application can be deemed incomplete if a list of research outputs is not included
• Fellowship will preferably not be granted to an individual in the same university department immediately after completion of a doctoral degree at that institution. Special consideration will be given to applicants where the individual’s research training and outputs may be enhanced by continuing with postdoctoral research at the same institution or under the same mentor. In such instances the applicant must provide a detailed motivation describing the benefits to the applicant and for advancing innovation.
• Applicants must have obtained their previous degree in the minimum prescribed period. An exception is made for Black (African, Coloured and Indian) students who may have taken an additional year to complete their previous degree.
• Applicants that are applying for a third round of post-doctoral support are not eligible.
• Full- time employees of Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) are not eligible to apply.
• All NRF fellowship awards should be help as primary funding towards the research study.
• Fellowships must not be held simultaneously with a fellowship from any other government or NRF source or NRF administered source.
• Fellowship-holders are allowed to hold non- binding supplementary grants or emoluments to half the value of the NRF award or should the host university have an institutional capped value, the award can be supplemented to the university capped value for the level of study.
• Fellowship-holders must not hold full-time salaried employment during the tenure of the award.
• Fellowship- holders will be allowed to undertake a maximum of 12 hours of teaching, tutorials, assistance or demonstrations duties per week on average during the year of study and may be remunerated for these duties, provided that they are reimbursed at a rate not exceeding the normal institution tariff for services rendered.

All applicants, should only complete an application if they meet all the eligibility criteria of the call/ programme to be considered.

Depending on the field of study of the application, the NRF has the final decision to fund the candidate within a particular funding programme. Please refer to call documents for areas of study supported under the various programmes and programme gender and equity targets.

How to apply for funding:

Applicants can apply by following the steps below:

• Applications must be submitted through an online application process to the National Research Foundation (NRF).
• Applicants can apply for the NRF Free-standing, Innovation and Scarce Skills Post-doctoral Fellowship Call for 2013 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: NRF Free-standing, Innovation and Scarce Skills Post-doctoral Fellowship Call for 2013
• Remember to complete all sections of the application.
• Please attach the necessary documents in one PDF file in the following order: ID document and certified academic transcripts, doctoral degree certificate (if available).
• Should you not follow the guidelines for attaching the necessary documents your application will not be considered.
• Remember to submit your application on 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.
• Applications that do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be considered (please refer to call document for details on eligibility for the NRF, Innovation and Scarce Skills Masters Post-doctoral Fellowship Programme).
• Please contact the university post graduate office or research office if you have any queries.
• The NRF closing date for submitting applications is 15 September 2012.
• The Research Office internal closing date for submitting applications is 31 August 2012.