2025 ALC Funding Programs
Knowledge Exchange Programme (KEP)
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.
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Scholarships for Postgraduate Studies in Lasers and Laser Applications 2025
The CSIR invites applications from researchers locally and across Africa with active collaborations with researchers at South African universities for bursary support to further their postgraduate studies in laser and laser application-related disciplines in 2025.
The programme 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.
2025 MASTER’S LEVEL FUNDING: R 90 000 per annum: Two-year funding only.
2025 DOCTORAL STUDIES R 120 000 per annum. Three-year funding only.
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African Laser Centre – Research Collaboration Programme 2025
The ALC invites proposals from South African researchers planning to collaborate with partners on the African continent via the ALC Research Collaboration programme.
The African Laser Centre is a NEPAD flagship initiative and is funded by the Department of Science and Innovation. The CSIR Photonics Centre, a key node of the African Laser Centre (ALC), and the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) would like to take this opportunity to introduce the ALC Research Collaboration programme and to invite proposals from South African researchers planning to collaborate with partners on the African continent to apply for support from the ALC Research Collaboration programme.
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