Alliance For African Partnership (AAP) Grants: ($100,000 Funding)

The Alliance For African Partnership (AAP) Grants Scheme is giving up to $100,000 in funding through the Partnerships for Innovative Research in Africa (PIRA) Grant Program

AAP is an association of  ten leading African universities. An association of research network for African research institute. among them, is  Michigan State University which is inviting applicants for its Partnerships for Innovative Research in Africa (PIRA) strategic funding program. 

PIRA is a tiered funding opportunity designed to cultivate and support multidirectional, collaborative research partnerships at any stage of their development, whether they are initiatives to explore and create new relationships or scale existing ones. 

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One of the unique aspects to these grants is the expectation that organisations will establish and develop fair and equitable partnerships from conception to closeout of the project, involving local stakeholders throughout the project, respecting their knowledge and expertise, and taking an adaptive approach that is responsive to the local context. 

Proposals should outline processes to establish such partnerships. Fair and equitable partnerships must also be established among members of the consortium if multiple organizations are working on the implementation of the project. 

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Proposals are encouraged from diverse disciplinary perspectives. Submitted proposals must include principal investigators from both MSU and at least one African AAP member university. The project implementation timeframe will be 18 months.

FUNDING TIERS

The tiered funding structure is designed to support partnerships at different stages of maturity to create and strengthen relationships among institutions and act as a catalyst for research teams in securing external funding that will allow for long-term engagement. Applicants should submit proposals for the funding tier that best fits the level of engagement established among the PIs on the research team. However, AAP management reserves the right to relegate proposals to a different tier if deemed more appropriate during review. To ensure broad impact, more awards will be given at the planning grant level than the scaling grant level. Proposed activities for each tier may include, but are not limited to:

1. Planning Grants (up to $50,000), inception and early-stage partnership research activities, travel support for co-developing joint proposals (in accordance with all MSU travel guidelines), short-term capacity building training, network development, research symposia, or other activities that align with AAP’s priority themes and strategic objectives.
2. Scaling Grants (up to $100,000), continuation of ongoing partnerships that have the potential to significantly scale their research, capacity building, or outreach activities, broader institutional linkages, or other activities that align with AAP’s priority themes and strategic objectives. 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:

1. The lead investigators for proposals must come from MSU and AAP African member universities. Proposals may also include partners from other institutions globally. Teams are encouraged to include partners from the private sector, governments, civil society organizations, and pan-African/global institutions.
2. Individuals who were PIs or co-PIs on grants from the previous round of PIRA grants or AAP’s strategic partnership grants are not eligible to lead proposals under this call but may participate as team members.
3. MSU ISP staff are not eligible to lead proposals.

Alliance For African Partnership (AAP) Grants Requirements

All submissions must have a cover sheet and proposal narrative that includes the information listed below, a budget and budget narrative using the provided template, and letters of support.

• Application with the project’s title as well as names, institutional affiliations, titles of all principal investigators, and a brief (about 100 words) project summary
• A proposal narrative, not to exceed 5,000 words with one appendix for references cited, that includes:
  • A description of the partnership, containing:
    • Capacity statements from each partner institution that outlines their respective strengths in relation to their proposed roles and responsibilities in the partnership
    • A brief description of the past or ongoing partnership, if applicable
    • The rationale for partnership and evidence that it will create or cultivate equitable, sustainable, and mutually beneficial partnerships
  • A problem statement that identifies the shared challenges to be addressed by the program activities, the theory of change, their relevance to AAP’s themes and pillars
  • Clearly defined objectives of the proposed partnership
  • A description of program activities as well as a logical framework that connects the proposed activities with their intended outputs, outcomes, and programmatic objectives
  • A timeline of activities
  • A monitoring, evaluating, and learning plan that outlines proposed indicators and collection methods
  • Identification of potential sources of additional funding that the partnership will pursue during the program’s period of performance
• A line-item budget and budget narrative using the template provided. Templates and more information on budgetary considerations are below in BUDGET. A letter of support from each partner’s department, institution, or organization; and A CV or resume of each principal investigator (1-page max).
• A letter of support for each PI from their dean or head of department that signifies buy-in from each partner at the institutional level. Please use the provided template

How to apply For the Alliance For African Partnership (AAP) Grants Scheme

to apply for the ongoing Alliance For African Partnership (AAP) Grants Scheme, visit Application Portal  to submit your application

Proposals will initially be reviewed by the AAP management team according to the guidelines and criteria above. Short-listed applications will be assessed by external peer reviewers for quality of technical content. Final selections will be made by the AAP management team in consultation with its internal partners and consortium members.