2013 NRF Freestanding Scholarships are open

The NRF is pleased to announce the call for applications for master’s and doctoral scholarships in the following listed programmes for 2013:

• NRF Free-standing Master’s and Doctoral Programme
• NRF-Innovation Master’s and Doctoral Programme
• NRF-Scarce Skills Development Fund (SSDF) Master’s and Doctoral Programme

Eligibility Criteria :

• Scholarships are open to South African citizens only (SSDF and NRF Freestanding Scholarships) and South African citizens and South African permanent residence (Innovation Masters and Doctoral Scholarships) with an honours or master’s degree in the listed fields of study.
• Applicants should have obtained an aggregate of at least 60% in their previous degree.
• Applicants must have obtained their previous degree in the minimum prescribed period. An exception is made for Black (African, Coloured and Indian) students who may have taken an additional year to complete their previous degree.
• Applicants that already hold a degree at the level for which they are applying are not eligible.
• Full- time employees of Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) are not eligible to apply.
• All NRF scholarships awards should be held as primary funding towards the research study.
• Scholarships must not be held simultaneously with a bursary/ scholarship from any other government,  NRF, or NRF administered source.
• Scholarship-holders are allowed to hold non- binding supplementary grants or emoluments to half the value of the NRF award or should the host university have an institutional capped value, the award can be supplemented to the university capped value for the level of study.
• Scholarship-holders must not hold full-time salaried employment during the tenure of the award.
• Scholarship- holders will be allowed to undertake a maximum of 12 hours of teaching, tutorials, assistance or demonstrations duties per week on average during the year of study and may be remunerated for these duties, provided that they are reimbursed at a rate not exceeding the normal institution tariff for services rendered.

All applicants, should only complete an application if they meet all the eligibility criteria of the call/ programme to be considered.

Applying for funding:

Applicants can apply by following the steps below:

• Applications must be submitted through an online application process to the National Research Foundation (NRF).
• Applicants can apply for the Freestanding, Innovation and Scarce Skills Masters and Doctoral Scholarship Call for 2013 by accessing the link: https://nrfsubmission.nrf.ac.za/
• Register/ Login using your ID number and password.
• Select create new application from the list of existing calls.
• Select the call for which you are applying to: Freestanding, Innovation and Scarce Skills Masters and Doctoral Scholarship Call for 2013
• Remember to complete all sections of the application.
• Please attach the necessary documents in one PDF file in the following order: ID document, proof of permanent residence (if applicable) and certified academic transcripts.
• Should you not follow the guidelines for attaching the necessary documents your application will not be considered.
• Remember to submit your application on completion.
• Complete applications will go to the host university for verification before being forwarded to the NRF for further processing.
• Incomplete applications will not be considered.
• Applications that do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be considered (please refer to call document for details on eligibility for the NRF, Innovation and Scarce Skills Masters and Doctoral programme).
• Please contact the university post graduate office if you have any queries.
• The closing date for submitting applications internally to SU is 24 August 2012.

No late or incomplete applications will be accepted