Carnegie Corporation of New York Higher Education and Research in Africa

Overview

To strengthen Africa’s higher education sector by improving the training, retention, and research productivity of academics in select countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Carnegie Corporation of New York has been a major American philanthropic supporter of higher education in Africa for over two decades. Our grantmaking seeks to deepen and expand the continent’s advanced academic communities, networks, and universities, and promote policies that inform the growing higher education sector.

As African governments increasingly recognize the benefits of knowledge-based economies, research-active academics, whose training is relevant to the African context and who work in universities equipped to retain them, becomes essential. With a steady increase in both the number of universities and student enrollment, keeping pace with the growing need for academic staff is a daunting challenge. More skilled and knowledgeable university lecturers must be trained, and a number of universities must move from being largely undergraduate teaching institutions toward building robust research programs as training grounds for future lecturers. This transition requires new thinking about the provision of researcher development and retention on the continent.

With the aim of nurturing a vibrant corps of African academics working within dynamic and supportive university environments, our grantmaking is focused on:

• Early-career African academics with emphasis on their advancement and retention through support for universities and university networks that show potential for becoming strong regional centers of doctoral education and research 
• African academic diaspora with emphasis on bridging African universities and the diaspora communities in ways that benefit research and training at African universities and create lasting, mutually beneficial relationships
• Higher education policies and practice with emphasis on generating and disseminating data-driven research and publications on Africa’s higher education sector and promoting policy dialogues on national priorities relevant to the sector

While anyone can apply, the sponsor notes that they do not "seek, and rarely fund, unsolicited grant applications."

Letters of inquiry are accepted on a rolling basis; there are no deadlines. Applicants will be notified via email if their letter of inquiry is declined, or if they have been invited to submit a full proposal. This process usually takes four to six weeks. Only full proposals that have been invited will be considered.

Awards range from $95,000 to $2.6 million, with an average award of $1,029,000.

Grants must benefit primarily higher education stakeholders living in a country that is part of the British Commonwealth. Projects must aim to strengthen research capacity of African scholars, scientists, and/or higher education institutions, or support higher education policy initiatives and/or research programs on higher education in Africa.