The African Laser Centre initiative at the CSIR is calling for South African and African researchers with active collaborations in lasers and laser-related applications needing financial support for knowledge exchange visits for their students in the 2025 academic year. The aim is to facilitate targeted knowledge and technology transfer needs.

The Knowledge Exchange Programme (KEP) is one of four research support programmes managed by the CSIR on behalf of the African Laser Centre initiative (ALC) – an open, non-exclusive partnership to stimulate innovation, research and technology development in lasers and the applications thereof, across Africa. Aimed at local, continental and global partnerships, the ALC is a flagship programme under the United Nations’ New Partnership for Africa’s Development and is funded by the Department of Science and Innovation. The ALC KEP supports the mobility of doctoral and master’s degree students on short-term exchange visits between South African research institutions and African counterparts to encourage the development of centres of expertise in photonics-related disciplines across the continent. Researchers and students are funded to visit a collaborator’s laboratory, access specialised equipment, share and gain knowledge and develop new capabilities and competencies in their home research groups across Africa.

The programme is strictly focused on targeted knowledge transfer or exchange – not broad research – and such general collaborations will not be supported. Research programmes of this kind are supported under a separate ALC Research Collaboration Programme.