The NRF has funding available for postgraduate students and postdoctoral research fellows at the DSI/NRF South African Research Chair: Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development. Bursary holders and fellows constitute the Chair's research team and are expected to participate actively in the Chair’s work throughout the academic year. This work includes participation in research skills and seminars on Intellectual Property Law, attending research group meetings, working research projects, editorial assignments, dissemination of research outputs and limited organisational tasks for Chair hosted events, conferences and seminars.
If a bursary applicant is not already registered for postgraduate study in the Faculty of Law, application for admission must be filed separately, in accordance with the instructions provided by the Faculty of Law for PhDs and Masters by Research candidates and for Masters by coursework and dissertation students. Please note the relevant admission application deadlines as indicated on the pages linked to above.
DSI-NRF Postgraduate Student Funding
Full information about applying, including the applicable deadlines, for this NRF support is available here from the Postgraduate Funding Office.
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.
Postdoctoral Research Fellowships
From time to time, the Chair recruits postdoctoral research fellows to pursue a clearly defined research project and to actively support the operation of the Chair. Fellows are given opportunities to develop their professional profiles through teaching and/or postgraduate supervision experience. These are full-time positions, based in Cape Town, and fellows may not hold any other full-time or part-time job or undertake any other work for remuneration for the duration of the fellowship.
The tenure of the fellowship is for one year, with the possibly of renewal for a second year subject to satisfactory progress. The value of the fellowship for 2024 is R300,000. The fellowship does not include benefits or travel/relocation costs but the Chair will assist the fellow to seek funding for conference expenses, where required.
