Applications are now open for the 2026 Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund (grants of up to £25,000 awarded)

Ednah Carrick June 7, 2026

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Closing Date: 3 September 2026

Applications are now open for the 2026 Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund (grants of up to £25,000 awarded)

The 2026 Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund is now open for applications.

Since 2012, the Fund — supported by The ALBORADA Trust — has made 392 awards, connecting University of Cambridge researchers with colleagues across 38 African countries to build research collaborations in every discipline.

The 2026 Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund round offers competitive grants of up to £25,000 (research) and up to £15,000 (workshop/training). Applications are made in pairs: one researcher at Cambridge (or an affiliated institution) and one at an African institution, both postdoctoral level or above.

Overview

The Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund was established in 2012, with generous support from The ALBORADA Trust. The Fund supports pairs of researchers (post-doctoral level and above) from the University of Cambridge (or an affiliated institution such as the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, NIAB and British Antarctic Survey) and African institutions, across all disciplines, to initiate and/or strengthen research collaborations. To date, 392 awards have been made, to enable Cambridge researchers to engage with African colleagues from 38 African countries. Some awardees have been able to use the preliminary results from their seed fund / research collaboration to apply for and win significant funding (e.g. Royal Society/Leverhulme Awards, Global Challenges Research Fund, etc.).

The Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund competitively awards grants of between £1,000 and £25,000, for:

research costs (such as reagents, fieldwork and equipment)
conducting research training activities in Africa (e.g. setting up courses/workshops).

Eligibility

The purpose of the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund is to encourage research, training and engagement activities between Cambridge and Africa. Applicants from Cambridge apply jointly with applicants from universities in Africa and co-create the projects. It is important that the funding is not simply used to provide services that will be carried out at one institution on behalf of the other, and that true collaboration is demonstrated in the application.

An important function of the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund is to act as a seed fund/catalyst to enable the development of new research activity and further joint funding applications. Priority will be given to applications that build new partnerships (or expand existing ones) with the potential for long-term collaboration. Projects should also ideally strengthen research capacity of the Africa researcher and/or the African research institution/university.

Both applicants must be at post-doctoral level or above, and by completing an application, it is understood that they are both doing so with support from their Head of Department or equivalent. Both applicants should have an employment contract to a research group/department/faculty in their home institution. It is also expected that both applicants remain employed beyond the end date of their ALBORADA awards. The awards are not intended to support post- graduate students, however, limited support for students (e.g. as part of a research project or training visit) will be considered when there is a clear demonstration that this will enhance the relationship between the Cambridge and African Principal Investigators (PIs).

The Cambridge applicant must be either working at the University of Cambridge, or at a Research Institute affiliated with the University. Previous successful Cambridge applicants have included those from Wellcome Sanger Institute, National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) and British Antarctic Survey. The Cambridge applicants will act as the lead applicants, for administrative purposes, as the awards have to be paid to their Cambridge Departments/Faculties/Institutes. The African applicant must be based in an African University or a Research Institute of equivalent standing to a
University.

Should you be successful, there are Terms & Conditions in receiving a Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund award. The the types of award letters that would need to be signed by the Cambridge and African PI are shown here.

Particularly note that the ALBORADA Research Fund cannot pay for overheads, PI salaries, administration costs, bench fees or for researchers to attend conferences.

How to apply

The online application form has been designed to allow both applicants (Cambridge and Africa-based) to log in, update, save and eventually submit electronically.

To access the form, the Cambridge based applicant must Register here. Only applicants with @cam.ac.uk, @sanger.ac.uk, @babraham.ac.uk, @bas.ac.uk and @niab.com email addresses can register.

The Cambridge-based applicant must then log in to the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund application form, where they will see the words “Invite a 2nd applicant to view/edit this submission”. Click on this link in order to invite the Africa-based applicant to register and edit the forms.

If you are eligible to apply, but are unable to register on the page above, then please contact [email protected].