ELIGIBILITY:

To be eligible for the 2026 call, applicants must:

Be a national of any African country;

Be born after the 1st of January 1984;

Have an affiliation at a research or higher education institution in an African country, and continue to do so for the foreseeable future;

Have obtained a doctoral degree from any recognised higher education institution (worldwide) after the 1st of January 2018;

Have completed a post-doctoral fellowship or equivalent post-PhD research programme;

Be in a position to commence a first period of residency at STIAS during 2027.

All disciplines will be considered.  Applicants from non-Anglophone African countries may conduct their research in the language of preference; however, the application documents must be completed in English. Applications will be evaluated and selected on the basis of the following criteria:

Level: the applicant’s academic excellence and the originality and scholarly strength of the proposed research project;

Innovation: the project’s promise of new insights and the potential to produce new knowledge;

Interdisciplinarity: whether the project methodology allows for drawing from different disciplines and its potential to facilitate an interdisciplinary discourse;

Relevance: the project’s relevance for scholarship and knowledge production in Africa;

Feasibility: whether the research design and the research plan are convincing and realistic.

During final selection, additional consideration will be given to: gender representation, diversity of nationalities, diversity of disciplines, participation in previous or current research projects, and previous international experience.

BENEFIT:

STIAS fellow support, which includes:

An economy return flight;

Comfortable accommodation within walking distance from the institute;

Individual offices equipped with a PC, telephone and printer;

A monthly stipend for daily living costs;

Access to the Stellenbosch University library (including electronic resources) and a high-speed internet connection;

Participation in the regular STIAS fellows programme, including daily lunch, weekly fellows’ seminars, STIAS public lectures and social events;

A child care subsidy for fellows accompanied by young children while in residence.