Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund: Archived Call and Applicant Guide
Historical reference for the closed 2026 Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund call, which offered £1,000 to £25,000 for paired Cambridge and African researchers. The official call gives a deadline of 3 September 2026; no later call is announced on the Cambridge-Africa pages checked.
Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund: Archived Call and Applicant Guide
Current status
The 2026 Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund call is closed. Its official terms set the application window as 3 June to 3 September 2026, and the 2026 call page repeats the closing date. The Spring 2026 newsletter had previewed an early-June opening; the published terms specify 3 June. The official call, fund overview, and initiatives pages checked do not announce a later application round. The fund overview describes ALBORADA support for the period 2016–2026, but it does not state whether the programme will continue or end after that period. This page is therefore an archive of the 2026 opportunity and its requirements, not an open invitation to apply. Do not use the past deadline as a future submission date or send an application against the closed call.
The date remains in the structured deadline field because it is the real closing date of the archived call. No next-cycle date is supplied here. Researchers interested in a future round should check the official Cambridge-Africa call page and fund overview, or contact the programme for confirmation before preparing an application. A continuing fund page, a list of past awards, or a live registration link does not by itself establish that applications are currently being accepted.
What the 2026 call supported
Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA was designed to help researchers at the University of Cambridge and African institutions initiate or strengthen collaborative research and related training. The official call described the fund as a seed or catalyst mechanism: support was intended to make joint work possible and, where appropriate, help a partnership develop toward further research activity and funding. Applicants were expected to co-create the work. A project that simply purchased a service from one institution for another would not demonstrate the genuine collaboration emphasized in the terms.
The call was open across academic disciplines. The award could support a research project or a workshop or research-training course in Africa. The published competitive award range was £1,000 to £25,000. The 2026 terms set a standard limit of £15,000 for a workshop or research-training course in Africa and £25,000 for a research project. Budgets had to be justified. The general award range should not be taken to mean that every activity type could request the full upper amount; applicants needed to apply the relevant category limit and confirm eligible costs in the call documents.
Research costs could include items such as reagents, fieldwork, equipment, travel and subsistence, and other direct costs. Research training in Africa could include courses or workshops. Equipment purchased with the award had to be for use in Africa and remain with the African partner institution when the project ended. The official terms excluded overheads and administration charges, principal investigator salaries, bench fees, conference registration and attendance, and publication costs. They also stated that the fund does not support PhD stipends or student fees. The linked FAQ distinguished eligible project staff costs from principal investigator salaries and listed directly incurred items such as research associate salaries, travel and subsistence, materials, consumables, equipment, and ethics fees. Any detailed budget should be checked against the official terms and FAQ rather than inferred from the broad award description.
Who was eligible
Each proposal required a pair of principal investigators: one based at the University of Cambridge or an affiliated research institute, and one based at an African university or a research institute of equivalent standing. The official 2026 terms named the Wellcome Sanger Institute, NIAB, and the British Antarctic Survey as examples of affiliated Cambridge institutions. The fund overview also refers to the Sanger Institute, NIAB, and Babraham Institute. Because institutional affiliations and application-system access can be specific, prospective applicants were expected to verify their institution against the official call instructions.
Both applicants had to be at post-doctoral level or above. The terms said both should hold an employment contract with a research group, department, or faculty at their home institution, and were expected to remain employed beyond the end of the award. By applying, both were understood to have the support of their Head of Department or equivalent. Students were not eligible to serve as the two named principal investigators, although limited support for students participating in research or training could be considered when applicants showed how it would strengthen the relationship between the Cambridge and African investigators.
The Africa-based researcher could be based in any African country; the call was not limited to sub-Saharan Africa. Applications were welcomed from all subject areas. Eligibility depended on the institutional pairing, career level, employment and support conditions, and a genuinely joint project, rather than a particular research theme. Applicants with a returning investigator or a prior award also needed to follow the 2026 terms: further research support could be considered for a new project, and workshop support could be considered, but required reports from earlier awards had to have been submitted.
Application process recorded for the closed call
The official 2026 instructions used a joint online form that both partners could access, save, update, and submit. The Cambridge-based applicant had to register first. The online system limited self-registration to specified institutional email domains: @cam.ac.uk, @sanger.ac.uk, @babraham.ac.uk, @bas.ac.uk, and @niab.com. After logging in, that applicant invited the Africa-based colleague through the form’s second-applicant invitation function. The invited partner then registered and contributed to the shared submission. The call allowed applications to be submitted at any time before its stated deadline, which was 3 September 2026.
The terms listed the material to upload with the final submission:
- A case for support describing both the research and the collaboration plans.
- An itemised budget using the provided template.
- A support letter from the Cambridge department or faculty. For the Department of Engineering, support from the Head of Division was specified; an email from an institutional account was acceptable.
- A support letter from the African principal investigator’s department or institution.
- A CV of no more than two pages for each principal investigator.
- Details of two suggested referees without conflicts of interest, such as a connection to either applicant’s institution.
The Cambridge department also had to name a staff member responsible for grant administration and confirm that the applicants had discussed the matter with them. The 2026 terms stated that a Worktribe record was not required at application stage. They also explained that awards would be administered through the Cambridge principal investigator’s department or faculty. Successful applicants would receive further award-administration instructions after funding decisions; that post-award process was not a pre-submission requirement.
The joint structure mattered substantively as well as technically. Cambridge and African investigators were expected to develop the project together, explain each partner’s contribution, and show why the work would create or strengthen a real relationship. The terms prioritized new or expanded partnerships with potential for longer-term collaboration and said projects should ideally strengthen research capacity of the African researcher or institution. A persuasive archived-call proposal would therefore have tied its methods, budget, training, and outputs to a shared plan rather than presenting one institution as a passive recipient or service provider.
Planning and project administration information
The 2026 call terms advised applicants to allow time for the award to be activated and recommended choosing a project start date no earlier than 1 December 2026. The terms described most grants as lasting in the range of six to eighteen months, while allowing an extension request in exceptional circumstances before the original end date. These details applied to awards under that call; they are retained here as historical planning information and should not be assumed to govern any future round.
Awards were administered by the Cambridge principal investigator’s department. Depending on the award, signed award documentation and a collaboration agreement were required before funds could be activated or transferred. The terms explained that the Cambridge department was expected to advance the portion needed by the African partner under the collaboration agreement and reconcile expenditure. Equipment bought through the fund had to be acknowledged by the collaborating institution and in the final report. Research, transfers of equipment or materials, and any travel had to follow applicable national laws and institutional rules, including ethics, sensitive-data, import and export, and safety requirements.
An end-of-grant report was required within 45 days of the award end date. It was expected to describe collaboration, outputs such as publications or further funding applications, relevant publicity, and a financial statement. Workshop and training-course awards were also expected to include an impact blog and evaluation. These post-award requirements help explain the level of planning expected in a proposal, but they are not application materials for a new cycle unless the programme confirms that the terms remain in force.
How to use this archive
Researchers can use the 2026 requirements to understand the fund’s model: reciprocal institutional collaboration, early-stage research or training, justified direct costs, and a clear plan for what the partnership will achieve. The examples and historical funded-project listings on Cambridge-Africa’s site can also help illustrate the range of subjects and countries previously represented. Past awards demonstrate the programme’s scope; they do not guarantee that a similar proposal would be eligible or funded in a later round.
Before taking action, consult the official call page for any newly published application window, current eligibility rules, updated cost limits, templates, and submission instructions. The official fund overview is useful for programme background and contacts, while the call page and its linked documents govern a particular cycle. Questions about the programme can be directed to [email protected]. If a future call is published, use that cycle’s own deadline and materials, and treat the archived 2026 process here as context only.