National Research Foundation (NRF) Postgraduate Scholarships 2021 for South Africans (Funded)

DEADLINE: Friday, 18 December, 2020

National Research Foundation (NRF) Postgraduate Scholarships 2021 for South Africans (Funded)

The DSI and NRF are pleased to announce a call of new applications for NRF Postgraduate Student Funding for the 2021 Academic year. All continuing students who are eligible for a second or third year of funding must submit a Progress Report and not a new application.

The NRF minimum academic requirement for postgraduate funding is 65%. Applicants for honours, masters and doctoral funding must be 28, 30 and 32 years of age or younger respectively in the year of application. Successful applicants will be funded either at Full Cost Study (FCS) or Partial Cost of Study (PCS). The FCS funding will be awarded to South African citizens and permanent residents only, who are either financially needy (i.e., those whose combined household family income is less or equal to R350 000 per annum), living with a disability or exceptional academic achievers. However, the PCS funding will be awarded to 5% of international students including South African citizens and permanent residents who could not be funded under FCS but meet other minimum requirements for the NRF scholarship funding criteria.

The NRF has phased out the block grant nomination process as well as the grant-holder linked modalities of funding postgraduate students in 2020. As from 2021 funding year, all the postgraduate students will be expected to apply on the NRF Online Submission System by accessing the link: http://nrfsubmission.nrf.ac.za/, no manual applications will be accepted. Universities will set their own internal cut-off dates for applications and the applicants must abide by those dates.

AREAS OF SUPPORT NRF Postgraduate Scholarships 2021

Postgraduate funding is intended to support honours, masters and doctoral candidates to pursue full-time studies at South African public universities, in all areas of Science, Engineering, Technology, Social Sciences and Humanities including Indigenous Knowledge Systems, focusing on research aligned with one of the National Priority Research Areas.

The broad disciplines supported by the NRF for Postgraduate studies are: Accounting,
Actuarial Science, Agricultural Sciences, Astronomy, Auditing, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology,Cellular and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Climate Change, Computer science, Demography,Drug Discovery and Development, Earth Sciences, Earth Observation, Ecology, Economic Sciences, Education, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Financial Management, Functional Genomics, Geology, Global Change, Society and Sustainability, Health Sciences, Information Science, Information Systems, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Law, Mathematical Sciences,Marine Sciences, Medicinal Plant, Medical sciences, Nanotechnology, Nuclear Technologies in Medicine and Biosciences, Palaeosciences, Polar Science, Physics, Renewable Energy, Social Science and Humanities, Space Science, Statistics, Transportation Studies and Tourism.

The overall percentage of supported students by the NRF will be 80% from the Science,
Engineering and Technology (SET) disciplines and 20% from the Social Sciences and
Humanities (SSH).

NRF Postgraduate Scholarships 2021 – Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility for first time applicants for honours, masters and doctoral funding
The NRF minimum academic requirements for postgraduate funding are as follows:
 A minimum average of 65% for major subjects in the final undergraduate year of study for honours funding;
 A minimum average of 65% of all subjects at the honours level OR a minimum average
of 65% of all subjects at the Postgraduate diploma OR a minimum average of 65% of the
final year subjects of a four-year degree for masters funding;
 A minimum of 65% at the masters’ level for doctoral funding.

Where universities classify masters’ students’ results in the categories of “Pass” or “Pass with distinction”, the university must disclose to the NRF the numerical mark for making such classification. A student with a classification of “Pass” or “Pass with distinction” will be allowed to apply for the current call, however this student will be allocated a default score of 1. For the call that will be open in April 2021, student without a numerical pass mark will not be eligible for NRF funding.

Please refer to the application and funding documents when completing the online application form at every step of the process.

The Cal documents are available on this page: http://www.nrf.ac.za/bursaries/framework-documents/bursaries-framework-documents.

For enquiries, applicants’ are encouraged to contact the Research or Postgraduate offices at their universities. Should there still be a need to contact the NRF, below are the contact persons and details:

For General First-time Masters and Doctoral including DAAD related enquiries, please contact:
Ms Kgaugelo Molepo
Professional Officer – HICD
Telephone: 012 481 4148.
Email Address: [email protected]

For Masters and Doctoral Extension Support related enquiries, please contact:
Ms Busisiwe Sibiya
Professional Officer – HICD
Telephone: 012 481 4166
Email Address: [email protected]

For General Honours related enquiries, please contact:
Mr Lehlogonolo Phaahla
Professional Officer – HICD
Telephone: 012 481 4315.
Email Address: [email protected]

For SASAC related enquiries, please contact:
Mr Nelson Komane
Professional Officer – HICD
Telephone: 012 481 4219.
Email Address: [email protected]

For First-time SARChI Honours, Masters and Doctoral related enquiries, please contact:
Ms Andisiwe Jukuda
Professional Officer – RCCE
Telephone: 012 481 4113.
Email Address: [email protected]

For First-time CoEs Honours, Masters and Doctoral related enquiries, please contact:
Ms Malekgotla Finger
Professional Officer – RCCE
Telephone: 012 481 4003.
Email Address: [email protected]

For NRF-SARAO Postgraduate scholarships related enquiries, please contact:
Annah Mashemola
Professional Officer – HCD – SARAO
Telephone: 011 442 2434.
Email Address: [email protected]

For more Information: Visit the webpage for NRF Postgraduate Scholarships 2021