South Africa's National Research Foundation has announced two new research chair initiatives in partnership with Canada's International Development Research Centre.
Both initiatives fall under the existing South African Research Chairs Initiative, and will focus on the natural sciences and engineering. The calls for applications from institutions to host the chairs will open on 3 January 2017 and close on 7 February.
The first programme will be a trilateral initiative, where current South African and Canadian research chairs will team up with a third partner in Africa. Only African countries with which the NRF has current bilateral agreements are eligible. They are Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
Three co-chairs will lead a maximum of two projects each worth a maximum of CA$900,000 (US$680,000) over five years.
The second initiative will focus on mobility. South Africa-based SARChI holders will team up with Canadian researchers with whom they have previously worked, or with whom they share a research focus. The NRF will award CA$20,000 to up to six South African researchers over two years which can be used for researcher and postgraduate mobility, to develop new research ideas and for hosting workshops.
An information session on the programmes was held during the South African Science Forum in Pretoria on 8 December.