Iso Lomso Fellowships for Early Career African Researchers 2018 (Fully-funded)

Applications for the Iso Lomso Fellowships for Early Career African Researchers are now open. Iso Lomso fellowships provide an exceptional early career opportunity for Africa’s brightest minds in academia. Iso Lomso means ‘the eye of tomorrow’ in isiXhosa: seeing towards the future, laying the foundations for tomorrow.

Iso Lomso fellowships provide a three-year attachment to STIAS to enable fellows to develop and conduct a long-term research programme of their preference. The aim is to facilitate and support them towards becoming established scholars in their fields.

Benefits

Iso Lomso Fellows enjoy:

• a three-year attachment to STIAS during which time they may spend a total of ten months in residence at STIAS to develop and pursue a long-term research programme;
• the possibility of a residency at a sister institute for advanced study in North America, Europe or elsewhere;
• funding to attend up to three international conferences or training workshops anywhere in the world;
• support to convene a workshop with collaborators at STIAS;
• lecturer replacement subsidy for the fellow’s home institution during residency periods.

The main means of support is STIAS residencies. Residential periods will be agreed mutually between the fellow, his or her home institution and STIAS, and may vary between six weeks and five months per residency. A first period of residency will typically be of longer duration to be taken up during 2019/2020, followed by two further residencies through mid-2022.

While in residence fellows receive regular 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.

Iso Lomso Fellowships Eligibility

To be eligible applicants must:

• be a national of any African country;
• be born after the 1st of January 1977;
• 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 2012;
• 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 the second half of 2019 or the first half of 2020.

All disciplines are 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.

Iso Lomso Fellowships Criteria

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

During final selection, additional consideration will be given to:

• gender representation;
• diversity of nationalities;
• diversity of disciplines;
• participation in previous or current research projects;
• previous international experience

How to Apply for Iso Lomso Fellowships

Download the Iso Lomso Application Form 2018 in Word format or the Open Document format

For more information, visit Iso Lomso Fellowships.