Upcoming Funding Opportunities
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Local AIMday Grants, 16 March – 3 June, 2026
Support for organising Academic Industry Meeting Days (AIMdays) – a concept that connects researchers with industry, government, and civil society to discuss real world challenges and explore collaborative solutions.
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Collaborative Research Grants, 16 March – 3 June, 2026
Funding for projects addressing societal challenges and creating measurable impact. These grants encourage partnerships between researchers and societal organisations such as local municipalities, industries, NGOs, and public agencies.
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Seed Funding for Intra-African Collaboration, 5 August – 15 October, 2026
A call focused on strengthening collaborations within the African continent, broadening partnerships between Swedish and South African universities. This initiative is carried out in collaboration with the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI), a pan-African platform supporting research funding and capacity development across the continent.
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Long-Term Mobility Grants (PhD Students & Postdocs), 2 October – 4 November, 2026
Opportunities for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from Swedish and South African SASUF+ partner institutions to spend minimum of five months at a partner university in the other country. These stays promote knowledge exchange, joint research, and lasting academic connections, and can be connected to an already funded SASUF+ project.
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Fieldwork & Data Collection Stipends for Honors and Masters Students, 8 April – 28 April, 2027
Short-term grants (1–3 weeks) for students conducting degree project research abroad at a SASUF+ partner university. Designed to support data collection and strengthen collaboration within ongoing SASUF-funded projects.
STINT Initiation grants
https://www.stint.se/en/program/initiation-grants/
Swedish Institute - Public Sector Innovation Programme (in Swedish but with Enligsh guide)
https://si.se/utlysningar/bidrag-finansiering/si-public-sector-innovation-programme/
Swedish Institute Scholarships for Global Professionals – Scholarship for South African
students to pursue a master degree in Sweden
https://si.se/en/apply/scholarships/swedish-institute-scholarships-for-global-professionals/
The Guild of Research Intensive Universities has produced an overview of different programmes in education, research, and innovation open to EU-Africa cooperation
We would like to highlight the following programmes to fund collaboration between Sweden and South Africa. Most of the calls are recurring annual calls, so if the application period is over, please check again later. For more information, please contact sasuf@uu.se.
Past Funding Opportunities
THE CALL FOR SASUF – NRF SEED FUND GRANTS
Deadline 28 April 2023.
100 000 SEK (SASUF portion), 130 000 ZAR (NRF portion)
Swedish researchers apply via SASUF (see instructions below)
South African researchers apply via NRF
Please make sure to check the guidelines for the proposal.
The Seed Grants for Collaborative Research programme is implemented in partnership with the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. These seed grants aim at building and supporting new teams which might not have any prior collaborative track record to develop creative research and technical approaches addressing critical, and even untested, novel ideas contributing to the SDGs. This programme therefore, provides a basis for initiating, developing and expanding collaborative research projects.
Application for South African researchers
1. Apply via the NRF Connect system at https://nrfconnect.nrf.ac.za. Please see the guidelines for the application process on page 6 in the document “guidelines for the proposal” above.
Application for Swedish researchers
1. Fill out the project description template.
2. Upload the project description and fill out the project details. Please note that this must be completed in one step, so make sure you have all the information you need before starting the process.