Applications are now open for the second round of Early Career Academic Grants. The scheme aims to enable a further 50 emerging academics from ACU member universities to broaden their horizons and develop their international contacts by funding their attendance at a conference or academic meeting outside of their home country.

The ACU believes that any university’s strength is underwritten by the quality of its academic staff and this scheme is intended to offer practical assistance to member institutions in helping them retain and develop their early career academic staff, in accordance with the ACU’s centenary theme which is focused on designing, developing and delivering the future of international higher education.  

A total of 100 Early Career Academic Grants are being awarded over the duration of the ACU’s centenary celebrations. As a result of the first round of awards, 20 awardees hailing from the UK, South Africa, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and India went on to attend conferences in places such as Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the UK.

Chisala Ng'andwe, a lecturer at Stellenbosch University, was one of the 20 initial awardees. Having used his grant to attend a conference in Australia, he said 'the grant has made a great contribution to my development as a young academic. In the short term, sharing the findings of my PhD work has enabled me to reaffirm the relevance as well as the high quality of the study by exposing it to the critique of world-leading scientists from diverse fields.

'Perhaps more valuable than the short term benefits are the contacts that I have been able to establish during this trip. These contacts will be cardinal in my future development as a researcher as well as for the development of my home department,' he concluded.

The deadline for applications is 1700h GMT on Friday 7 February 2014. More details on the scheme and how to apply can be found on the Early Career Academic Grants page.