ADC: Call for Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development

Deadline: 31 May 2016

The Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) is currently inviting applications for its Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development (APPEAR) with an aim to implement its strategy for support of higher education and research for development on an academic institutional level in the ADC’s southern priority countries and key regions and in three priority countries of the South Caucasus and Black Sea Region.

The overall objective is to strengthen the institutional capacities in higher education, research and management in the addressed countries through academic partnerships with Austrian higher education institutions and master’s and PhD scholarships as a contribution to effective and sustainable reduction of poverty.

Focus Areas

All proposed activities should be related to the thematic focus of APPEAR as defined below.

• Strengthening of institutional capacities in higher education and research for development:
  • Water supply and sanitation, rural development, sustainable energy, environment and natural resources; in this field a consideration of the Nexus approach (water – energy – food security) is welcome
  • Private sector development
  • Poverty reduction, peace building and conflict prevention, governance and human rights, gender equality
  • Strengthening of skills in social sciences as an instrument to systematically analyze the reasons of poverty and to empower capacities in social science research
• The thematic focus of the partnership also has to be relevant for main societal challenges in the respective countries and in line with their regional and national development strategies. Alignment with the respective ADC country strategy is regarded as added value.

Funding Information

APPEAR provides funding for:

• Academic Partnerships between higher education and research institutions in the addressed countries and Austrian higher education institutions (universities and universities of applied sciences) will be funded to strengthen the capacities in higher education, research and management.
• Advanced Academic Partnerships based on the results of an already successfully finalized APPEAR project that develops new innovative designs for the cooperation in higher education and research for development will be funded in this call.
• Preparatory Funding with the aim of setting up new partnerships between Austrian universities and universities of applied sciences with higher education and research institutions in the eligible countries in order to elaborate realistic and effective project proposals based on the demands and needs of the institution(s) in the addressed countries.
• Scholarships will be given to applicants from the addressed countries for master’s and PhD studies in Austria.

The total budget for the programme period (2015 – 2020) is approximately twelve million Euros. Seventy-five per cent of the overall budget will be spent on the Academic Partnerships, Advanced Academic Partnerships and Preparatory Funding and twenty-five per cent on the scholarships.

Eligibility Criteria

• Institutions
  • Eligible institutions are only higher education institutions in the addressed countries (= universities) and higher education institutions in Austria (=universities and universities of applied sciences).
  • At least one higher education institution per participating country (of a project consortium) has to be involved in a partnership.
  • Primarily APPEAR is a cooperation programme for universities, if necessary and adequately presented, also research institutions can be accepted as partners.
  • The submitting institution has to be a higher education institution.
• Associate Partner Institutions
  • Higher education institutions in non-eligible countries can be conceptualized as main partner institutions. They are referred to as associate partner institutions. Their maximum share of the budget must not exceed 20 % of the total project budget.
• Subcontractors
  • Institutions of another legal status, such as NGOs, private companies, etc. are not eligible partners. If necessary and adequately presented, non-university institutions can be conceptualized as subcontractors. In this case their expenses have to be included in the budget category “other costs” and not as a main partner. Their expenses have to be budgeted to an appropriate and reasonable extent.

How to Apply

• All applications have to be submitted to the APPEAR office.
• All required documents have to be submitted via regular mail.
• PhD scholarship applications have to be submitted via e-mail (electronic version) only.
• All applications forms and documents can be found via given website.

Eligible countries: Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Bhutan, Nepal, Palestinian Territories, Georgia, Armenia, Republic of Moldova

For more information, please visit Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development.