New Year’s greetings from
Carnegie Corporation. As 2015 begins, I’m delighted to share with you a
new project that we hope will be of interest to postgraduate students
and postdoctoral fellows who have benefited from
Corporation-supported programs in your institutions.
The Corporation’s board of
trustees recently approved a grant for the Carnegie Fund for Conference
Attendance (CFCA), a competitive fund to support African beneficiaries
of Corporation-supported postgraduate degree and
postdoctoral programs to present papers at major international
conferences. A list of eligible Corporation-supported programs is
attached. Since 2008, the Corporation’s primary strategy in Africa has
been to assist in the development and retention of the
next generation of African academics through support for African
universities, postgraduate training networks, and fellowship programs.
Close to 1,000 fellows at masters, doctoral, and postdoctoral levels
have received support. This fund is meant to enable
a selection of those fellows who have papers accepted for presentation
at major international conferences to heighten their visibility within
their disciplines and expand their professional networks.
The fund will be managed by the
Institute of International Education (IIE). For those of you not
familiar with the organization, IIE
is among the world’s largest and most experienced international exchange organizations, whose mission it is to advance international education and access to education worldwide. IIE
currently implements
more than 200 programs, benefiting over 30,000 men and women from 185
nations. Funders include the U.S. Department of State in support of the
Fulbright Program, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID);
major philanthropic foundations; private and
public corporations; foreign governments; and individuals.
More
information about the fund and details of the application process will
be available soon from IIE, but the basic outline is as follows:
- Between 100 and 120 conference attendance awards will be made on a competitive basis by the end of 2016.
- A first call for applications will be made by IIE by February 28, 2015, with a deadline for submission on April 30, 2015. Two other calls for applications will follow.
- Applicants must hold an academic appointment
at an African university and must have completed a postgraduate degree
or postdoctoral fellowship with substantial Corporation support or be a
current Corporation-supported fellow in good
standing.
- Beneficiaries who have completed their
doctoral or master’s degrees or postdoctoral fellowships will be given
first priority for awards, followed by doctoral candidates and current
postdoctoral fellows, and, finally, master’s candidates.
Selections will be made by an IIE-constituted
committee on the basis of the following criteria:
1) significance of the
conference to the applicant’s field (in this instance, “international”
refers to the composition of the conference
attendees rather than the geographic location of the conference)
2)
distance of the conference from the applicant’s university
3) the
strength of the applicant’s plan to make the most of the opportunity,
both for his or her own professional development
and for his or her department/faculty/university.
Awards will be made provisionally and finalized only upon receipt of proof of acceptance of a paper for presentation.
IIE looks forward to developing an ongoing relationship with all CFCA stakeholders and
is prepared to respond to questions
regarding eligibility to participate in the CFCA, status of applications
submitted for review, and inquiries on the selection process overall.
Inquiries regarding the above can be sent to
cfca@iie.org. Helene
Mantell and Brenton Harper, who will oversee and manage the fund, will
be in touch with you shortly with additional information and to request
your assistance to advise them on conferences that are particularly
significant in the disciplines prioritized in your
Corporation-supported programs.
