4th Call

The 4th Africa-UniNet call for funding is closed

About Africa-UniNet

With Africa-UniNet an instrument has been created to enable and strengthen existing and new interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research cooperation between Austria and African countries.

Africa-UniNet was initiated by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) and launched by Austria's Agency for Education and Internationalisation (OeAD-GmbH) and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) in order to create a long-term, stable basis for cooperation between Austrian and African universities and research institutions. Africa-UniNet intends to promote new contacts and deepen existing scientific cooperation.

Africa-UniNet promotes excellent research based on mutual knowledge exchange. It creates a space for international cooperation between researchers and with other actors by financing cooperative research projects. While the thematic scope of the projects is not restricted, they set out to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the same time they enhance the scientific foundation of the involved institutions and reinforce the formation of the network itself by promoting new partnerships between Austrian and African universities and research institutions and by strengthening existing ties. Overall, they form the basis of a strong and profound Austrian-African Research Network – the Africa-UniNet.

Africa-UniNet endeavours to provide infrastructural and administrative structures that promote partnership-based cooperation between actors on a personal and institutional level. Projects can be submitted and coordinated by non-Austrian and Austrian partners alike. The General Assembly – in which all member institutions have equal voting rights – co-determined the orientation of the following financing measures within the Africa-UniNet statutes.

Reviewing and Selection | January - April 2024

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  • The Africa-UniNet Office at OeAD will check whether the formal requirements of the project applications have been met:

    • Application was submitted within the deadline, by the Africa-UniNet representative of the coordinating institution.
    • Not more than 2 applications per coordinating institution.
    • Complete application, including signatures.
    • Eligibility of institutions.
    • Eligibility of project coordinator, contact persons and team members.
    • Compliance with financial regulations (not more than 3,000 EUR material costs; not more than maximum amount according to the number of project partners)
    • All documents have to be in English

    Please note that the receipt of applications is acknowledged by Africa-UniNet per email. In case you did not get an acknowledgement within one week please get back to us

  • Formally correct proposals will be evaluated by an evaluation group consisting of independent reviewers between January and April 2024.

    The reviews will consist of a scoring matrix (max. 100 points) and narrative assessments. Evaluation criteria will be:

    • Project design, quality of the project proposal and the partnership, contribution to the formation of the network (max. 50 points)
    • Contribution to the SDGs, integration of a gender and diversity perspective (max. 20 points)
    • Sustainability and application of results (max. 20 points)
    • Risk management and cost-effectiveness (max. 10 points)

  • Ranking on the basis of the average score of the reviews (maximum score 100). In order to facilitate a fair distribution, preference is given to highest ranking project proposal of each submitting institution above the set threshold.

    The list of selected projects has to be approved by the General Assembly and the BMBWF. This is envisaged to take place in May 2024

    Earliest possible start of the projects: June 2024

Reporting

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  • Projects can be funded for a duration of up to 2 years.

  • All projects have to submit a mid-term as well as a final report. Detailed Guidelines for Reporting as well as templates for the technical mid-term report, the technical final report as well as for the financial mid-term and final report can be found here: https://africa-uninet.at/en/activities/project-reporting 

    The exact dates of reporting will be stipulated in the project contract. Generally, the following reporting obligations apply:
     

    Projects with a project duration of 24 months:

    • Technical mid-term report: covering project months 1-12, to be submitted at the end of project month 14
    • Mid-term financial report: covering project months 1-12, to be submitted at the end of project month 14
    • Technical final report: covering project months 1-24, to be submitted 2 months after project end
    • Final financial report: covering project months 12-24, to be submitted 2 months after project end
       

    Projects with a project duration of 12 months:

    • Technical mid-term report: covering project months 1-6, to be submitted at the end of project month 8
    • Technical final report: covering project months 1-12, to be submitted 2 months after project end
    • Final financial report: covering project months 1-12, to be submitted 2 months after project end

  • The funding amount according to the contract will be divided and transferred in instalments at the project start, after approval of the mid-term report and after approval of the final report. The dates and amounts of the instalments will be stipulated in the contract. Generally, the following instalment schedule applies:
     

    Projects with a project duration of 24 months:

    • 1st instalment: 40 days after project start and returning of signed contract (up to 50% of funding amount)
    • 2nd instalment: 40 days after evaluation of technical mid-term report and mid-term financial report (up to 40% of funding amount)
    • 3rd instalment: 40 days after evaluation of technical final report and final financial report (up to 10% of funding amount)

    Only actual expenses submitted with the financial reports and verified and approved by OeAD are subject to funding. Unused funds have to be returned to OeAD.  
     

    Projects with a project duration of 12 months:

    • 1st instalment: 40 days after project start and returning of signed contract (up to 80% of funding amount)
    • 2nd instalment: 40 days after evaluation of technical final report and final financial report (up to 20% of funding amount)

    Only actual expenses submitted with the financial reports and verified and approved by OeAD are subject to funding. Unused funds have to be returned to OeAD.