Win Up to USD 67,700 to Launch Your Lab in Africa: TWAS Seed Grant for New African Principal Investigators SG-NAPI 2026

This page is a historical reference for the 2026 Seed Grant for New African Principal Investigators (SG-NAPI) call. The official TWAS opportunity page currently marks the call as closed. Its linked 2026 application guidelines give the closing deadline as 31 March 2026 at 11:59 Central European Summer Time, and TWAS has not announced a new cycle on that page. Do not treat this entry as an open application route or substitute a future date for the closed deadline.

Programme overview

SG-NAPI was a UNESCO-TWAS programme funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). It was designed for early-career scientists in Sub-Saharan Africa who had completed a PhD abroad and were establishing research work in their home countries. The central idea was practical capacity building: help a new principal investigator obtain the equipment, consumables, training, and related support needed to begin an independent research project at a university or research institution.

The call focused on African countries identified by TWAS as lagging in science and technology, with particular emphasis on Least Developed Countries. It was not a general scholarship, a salary award, or an unrestricted personal grant. The project needed an institutional home, a credible research plan, and a direct connection between the requested support and the work the PI intended to carry out.

2026 facts at a glance

What the funding covered

The official programme page stated that the total amount awarded could be up to USD 67,700. The guidelines divided support into components, and applicants could request several or all of them when each request was necessary for the project. The caps were not a promise that every applicant would receive the maximum; the budget had to fit the proposed work and each component required justification.

The equipment start-up grant could provide up to USD 20,000 for laboratory equipment. The consumables grant could provide up to USD 15,000 for consumables tied to a specific research project. The MSc training grant could provide up to USD 10,000 to train or teach MSc students within the research group; an additional MSc form had to be completed and uploaded for that component.

The 2026 guidelines also listed up to USD 3,000 for an international conference grant, up to USD 4,000 for an industrial link grant with a partner based in Germany, up to USD 10,000 for a South-North collaborative mobility grant involving a laboratory in Germany, and up to USD 2,000 for an open-access international publication grant. A skills-building workshop was organized by TWAS and covered topics such as proposal writing, presentation, communication, sustainable development, and plagiarism.

The programme included a female scientist-after-child component for women returning to academia after maternity leave. The guidelines described support for a research assistant for up to 12 months for a scientist with a child up to 12 months of age or a scientist who was pregnant at the time of application. This was a specific programme component, not a general permission to charge project labour to the grant.

The grant generally ran for 30 months. The guidelines said that a final report was required a year after the last item of equipment or consumables had been received. Equipment, consumables, and literature purchased through the programme remained the property of the home institution after the project ended.

There were important spending limits. For any single equipment item valued at USD 5,000 or more, the applicant had to upload a valid supplier proforma invoice or quotation. The grant did not cover fuel, fees or salaries for experts, consultants, or labourers, laptops, tablets, drones, or laboratory animals. Principal Investigator salaries were not covered, and travel was excluded unless it was clearly connected to one of the stated conference or mobility components.

Eligibility for the 2026 call

Applicants had to be nationals of an eligible African country identified by TWAS as lagging in science and technology. The 2026 guideline list included countries in West, East, Central, and Southern Africa. It included, among others, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The full country list in the official guidelines controlled eligibility; being located somewhere on the continent was not by itself enough.

The applicant had to hold a PhD and have good research experience. The PhD had to have been obtained within the last five years. The guidelines also required the applicant to be 40 years old or younger; anyone turning 41 in the application year was excluded. The project had to operate through a university or research institution in an eligible country, and the PI had to hold, have been offered, or be in the process of accepting an academic or research position there. International research centres located in the home country could qualify as the institutional setting.

The programme was aimed at researchers moving scientific work back home. TWAS described the target group as scientists who had returned within the last 36 months and were establishing their research, as well as researchers working abroad who were actively seeking to return or securing a position in their home country. The official opportunity page additionally described a route for researchers who would return before the end of 2026. For any future call, applicants would need to follow that call’s own wording and dates rather than assume the 2026 rules repeat unchanged.

At application time, the PI could not hold an active TWAS research grant or an OWSD Early Career Women Scientists Fellowship. The programme page also warned that applicants could apply for only one programme in the TWAS and OWSD portfolio in a calendar year. Applicants could not use another TWAS postdoctoral or visiting researcher programme in the same year when that would conflict with the requirement to be present in the home country for the grant.

Women scientists and scientists working in Least Developed Countries were especially encouraged to apply. That encouragement did not replace the nationality, degree, age, return, institutional, and active-award requirements.

Research areas and proposal fit

The eligible subject areas were Agriculture, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Information Computer Technology, Mathematics, Medical Sciences, and Physics. Projects connected to Germany’s High-Tech Agenda were also encouraged, including Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Technologies, Microelectronics, Biotechnology, Fusion, climate-neutral energy generation, and technologies for climate-neutral mobility.

A strong proposal needed to explain a specific research question, why it mattered in the applicant’s home setting, how the methods would answer it, and what the requested items would make possible. A project requesting equipment should identify where the equipment would be installed, who would maintain it, who would use it, and how it would support the work after the award. A consumables request should connect quantities and costs to experiments, samples, field activities, or analysis rather than present a generic shopping list.

The institutional context mattered just as much as the scientific idea. Since the home institution was responsible for administering the grant and providing laboratory space, salaries, and other facilities needed for the project, applicants needed a realistic account of access to rooms, shared instruments, procurement, ethics review, field sites, and technical support. A proposal that depended on unavailable infrastructure needed documented access through a collaborator or host facility.

How the 2026 application worked

The official process had several clear requirements. First, applicants had to read and understand the SG-NAPI guidelines. Second, they had to prepare a strong research proposal and decide which programme components were necessary. For every selected component, the applicant had to provide a clear and explicit explanation of how it supported the overall research project.

Third, the application had to be submitted online through the link on the relevant TWAS opportunity page. Only online applications were considered. The separate MSc form was required when the applicant requested the MSc training component. Supplier proforma invoices were required for individual equipment items at or above USD 5,000. Incomplete applications were not considered.

Finally, the complete application had to reach TWAS by 31 March 2026 at 11:59 Central European Summer Time. The guidelines advised applicants to submit early and did not accept applications after the deadline. The official page instructed applicants with questions to contact the SG-NAPI Grants office at [email protected]. Because the official page now says the call is closed and the application link is not active after closure, there is no live 2026 submission route to follow from this archive entry.

What to check if a new call appears

No next SG-NAPI cycle is announced on the official TWAS page checked for this entry. If TWAS publishes another call, prospective applicants should start with the new guidelines rather than copy the 2026 deadline, country list, age wording, budget caps, or return rules. Confirm the eligible-country list, the date used for the PhD and age calculations, the accepted institutional arrangements, the components offered, and the exact submission time zone.

The best preparation would be to assemble a concise research concept, an up-to-date CV, evidence of the PhD country and date, nationality documentation, proof of the home-country position or offer, and a component-level budget. Equipment requests should be supported by realistic quotations where the guidelines require them. The proposal should also state how the project will train people, produce useful outputs, and continue after the 30-month award period without implying that unsupported costs are eligible.

For the verified 2026 record, use the official TWAS programme page and its linked guidelines:

TWAS Seed Grant for New African Principal Investigators (SG-NAPI)