CAPREx (2012-2021)
The Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx) was a collaborative initiative between the University of Cambridge, the University of Ghana, and Makerere University, Uganda. The initiative aimed to strengthen capacity for sustainable research excellence in the African institutes, through close collaborative work with the region's most talented individuals.
The strategic objectives of the initiative were to:
- Strengthen faculty research capacity
- Strengthen research management capacity
- Enhance international research competitiveness
This was approached by offered postdoctoral fellowships whereby academics from partner institutions could develop the skills, networks and vision to become internationally competitive, successful researchers. It also offered research management fellowships for managers or administrators to develop skills and share knowledge with the Research Operations Office (ROO) at Cambridge.
Funding for the initiative was received from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, US, at a total of $2.2 million (2012 - 2019) and Isaac Newton Trust at a total of £179K (2012- 2016). Meanwhile research projects were covered through a donation by the ALBORADA Trust, with a maximum of £6,000 to fund projects in humanities and social science, or £20,000 for the sciences.
This funding allowed the fellowships to run from 2012 to 2019, split into phase 1 (2012-2015) and phase 2 (2015-2019). Additionally, the final phase of the initiative in 2021 was able to offer up to $5,000 to CAPREx fellows to enhance their research, resulting in 23 awards being made to cover a range of purposes such as equipment, laboratory consumables, and fieldwork. Although, the CAPREx post-doctoral fellowship folded in December 2021, it was already well known by this point and the partnerships formed through the initiative have lasted past the end point, in some cases, leading to further grants.
To find out more, please read the Programme Summary.
A list of CAPREx Postdoctoral fellows and their projects are available here.