The National Research Foundation (NRF) has announced its decision to increase the annual value of grants awarded to post-doctoral fellows. The cohort to receive increased grants will start their Freestanding, Innovation and Scarce Skills (FISS) and grant holder-linked post-doctoral fellowships in 2024. These are individuals who have completed their doctoral degree studies and are working towards developing their careers as academic researchers.
International Exposure & Advancement
The post-doctoral fellowship programmes fund outstanding young scientists and professionals to receive post-doctoral research training and international exposure strengthening their research profiles and career advancement. Already, several post-doctoral fellows have benefitted from the NRF’s financial and academic support, hailing it as key in establishing their early careers as researchers. Some of them include Dr Nokubonga Prudence Makhanya and Silindokuhle Jakavula who were recently featured in this publication.
They both are currently pursuing PhD studies in chemistry at the University of Johannesburg. Dr Makhanya said she is grateful for the NRF’s financial and academic support and mentorship, which made her academic journey enjoyable and bearable. She said: “Firstly, as someone from a financially challenged background, the NRF afforded me financial support by covering tuition fees, living expenses and research costs. This support relieved my financial burdens and allowed me to focus more on my academics without the stress of excessive financial obligations.” Added Jakavula: “The NRF had a great impact on my studies. If I didn’t get the funding, I wouldn’t have continued with my studies.”
New DSI-NRF Postgraduate Student Funding
According to the NRF, the funded post-doctoral fellows currently receive non-taxable stipends ranging between R200 000 and R255 000 annually and an annual R50 000 research grant. The new adjustments will move non-taxable stipends to R320 000 per annum while keeping research grants at R50 000. In addition, continuing post-doctoral fellowships which commenced in 2023 and are in their second or third year of funding, will still utilise the old values and their original conditions of grant will still apply.
The implementation of the new DSI-NRF Postgraduate Student Funding policy has resulted in a significant increase in the funding value of Honours, Masters and Doctoral students to R187 125, R205 795 and R212 318 at Full Cost of Study (FCS) for funding in 2024. Post-doctoral fellowships grants remained stagnant necessitating the NRF’s review of its post-doctoral fellowship values. The research body said the adjustment of grant values is intended to make fellowships competitive and increase their uptake, particularly by South African (SA) citizens.
Supporting STEM & SSH
“The NRF supports post-doctoral fellowships to promote research and research capacity development in all fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and the social sciences and humanities (SSH). The NRF recognises the importance of these fellowships which are aimed at providing a comprehensive training, development and mentorship programme for the establishment of an independent researcher involved in engaged research. “We trust that the increased values of the FISS Postdoctoral Fellowships and grant holder-linked financial assistance will make an added contribution in increasing the number and quality of post-doctoral research fellows in SA in all fields of research,” said the NRF chief executive officer, Dr Fulufhelo Nelwamondo.
The NRF is an independent statutory body established by parliament. In line with its mandate, the primary focus of its activities is to promote research and science development through funding cutting-edge research initiatives and projects. Furthermore, its goal is to create innovative funding instruments, advance research career development, increase public science engagement and to establish leading-edge research platforms with the motto of transforming the scientific landscape and inspire a representative research community to aspire to global competitiveness.
