The Alliance for African Partnership (AAP) seeks proposals from AAP consortium members and their partners for activities which directly address AAP's Transforming Institutions pillar (transforming institutions to be better able to participate in sustainable, equitable, and research-driven partnerships that make a broader impact on transforming lives). Successful applicants will receive seed funding to develop international strategic partnerships with universities, institutions of higher education and research, and/or organizations in the public or NGO sectors. Travel can include any of the following--within Africa, to Africa from external locations, to the US or to other locations outside of Africa. The partnerships should focus specifically on institutional strengthening and capacity development. Proposals that solely focus on research topics unrelated to institutional capacity development and do not directly address how the work contributes to institutional strengthening will not be considered.
Proposals may be submitted in one of the following three categories:
We highly encourage projects which incorporate South-South collaboration. This has been identified as an AAP priority and will be factored into the selection process. We also encourage collaboration across Francophone and Anglophone countries/consortium members.
Proposals that address building the administrative capacity of universities (e.g., research management, finance, fundraising and advancement, career services, communications and publishing, governance and leadership, etc.) will also receive priority in review.
Funding can cover travel and/or associated meeting or workshop costs (the grant will not cover salary costs and indirect costs are not allowable). AAP will consider proposals up to a maximum of $20,000 USD requested funds (not including cost share). Proposals should include a combined 20% cost share contribution across all of the partner institutions. This contribution could be monetary, in-kind, or a combination of the two.
Criteria that will be used to evaluate the impact of these funds will include:
A follow-up report including data on these criteria will be required two months after funds are utilized.
The partnerships should center on capacity building activities, including follow-on proposal development, that contribute to transformation at all partnering institutions. Proposed activities should ultimately lead to potential long-term collaborations among the partner institutions. Follow-on funding may be granted for continued support to develop these partnerships depending on the outcomes of the initial grant.
Transforming Institutions partnership funds will provide partial support of travel, meetings, workshop costs for AAP consortium faculty members and their partners. The Co-PIs’ colleges, faculties and/or departments will be expected to contribute to the costs of the proposed activities to ensure that the commitment to long-term partnering is shared by these units. A total of 20% match (monetary and/or in-kind) is required with contributions from all partners. These awards should ultimately result in the development and submission of a collaborative funding proposal (including partner institution faculty) for external funding as well as having positive impacts on other indicators of institutional transformation.
Proposals should include:
Please submit proposals via our online submission form. Be sure to include all required documents listed above (proposal narrative, letters of endorsement, and proposed budget using provided template).