SASUF Virtual Exchange Grants
SASUF (South Africa – Sweden University Forum) aims to build capacity for collaboration between Sweden and South Africa by funding virtual exchange grants. The virtual exchange grants are focused on the creation of activities that enable meaningful, virtual intercultural interaction between students, teachers, researchers and other actors in Sweden and South Africa.
For further information about virtual exchange as a subject, please have a look at this video. A number of good examples can also be provided in Designing and implementing virtual exchange – a collection of case studies, edited by Francesca Helm and Ana Beaven.
Examples of what type of activities that can be funded:
Update an already existing course, project, summer school, living lab etc. with virtual elements. This could for instance be by incorporating an exchange of virtual guest lecturers or by virtual projects/assignments for students etc.
Plan and implement new joint courses, projects, summer schools, living labs etc. with teachers and students from both countries.
o The activity could be part of the ordinary curricula/programme, and formal credits may be awarded to participants.
o It is also possible that the activities fall outside of the ordinary curricula/programme. These activities would not necessarily give credits, but some recognition is necessary (such as microcredits, certificates etc.).
Applicants are encouraged to be creative. Any proposal focusing on activities that encourage cross-cultural teamwork, understanding and problem solving are welcome.
Funding
The funds can be used for the planning and implementation of any activity linked to virtual exchange (including salary costs). Each selected proposal will be funded with a maximum amount of 200 000 SEK / 320 000 ZAR.
You will be expected and requested to provide a budget overview in the application form on how/for what you are planning to use the funds. As stated above, you are allowed to use them for any activity that is linked to the planning process or the implementation process of your project, however, you will need to explain if you are planning to cover salary costs, equipment costs, or any other costs that you believe can be argued to be beneficial for your project. Cost efficiency will be part of the evaluation of all submissions.
You will be requested to provide a final report on how the costs have been used in the end of your project.
Call deadline: November 29, 2022.
Submission: The official application form is available via the red button on this page.
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible for funding the proposal needs to fulfil the following criteria:
All applicants must be employees at one of the partner universities of South Africa – Sweden University Forum. See https://www.sasuf.org/partner-universities for a full list.
Actors outside the partner university can take part in the proposal, but cannot receive funding.
The project must include participants from at least two (2) South African and two (2) Swedish universities.
In line with South African transformation objectives, the inclusion of at least on of the historically disadvantaged universities (HDIs[1]) is highly encouraged to be found in each project
The project needs to be connected to the Sustainable Development Goals
The project must include plan for the inclusion of students in the activities.
You are free to focus on any level of students (undergrad, postgrad, masters, PhD)
Selection criteria
The project will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
Potential - Potential of the project to initiate or further develop meaningful, virtual intercultural interaction between students, teachers and researchers (and possibly other actors / external stakeholders such as NGOs, research institutes, industry, etc.) in Sweden and South Africa.
Project organisation and quality - is the project plan clear, specific and realistic?
Clear -Is the intended outcomes of the project is easily understood?
Sustainability – Is there a plan for how to activities can continue in some form after the funding has ended?
Inclusion - A broad representation of universities will be kept in mind during the assessment, as we highly value
participation from all 40 partner universities. In line with South African transformation objectives, the inclusion of
historically disadvantaged universities (HDIs) are highly encouraged, and will be part of the assessment.
Proposal
The proposal should contain the following information:
Details of main applicants (one per country) and co-applicants in both countries, including short CV:s (max two pages – in PDF)
· Project description, maximum five pages (minimum font size 11, times new roman), clearly describing
How the project relates to and the selection criteria
Planned activities, including timeframe and costs
How students are included in the activities
The contribution of each partner
Available resources, including existing funding that may supplement the activities in the project
Selection process
The proposal should be submitted to sasuf@uu.se for an eligibility check. After this, a quality review will be conducted by the SASUF universities. The final selection will be made in a SASUF consortium meeting.
The results are expected to be announced in February 2023.
Project implementation and report
A selected project can start immediately after the grant contract has been signed. Projects can last up to April 2024.
A short mid-term report must be submitted to SASUF halfway in to the project. A final report should be submitted to SASUF no later than two months after the end-date of the project.
[1] HDI universities are: University of Fort Hare, Walter Sisulu University, University of Limpopo, University of Venda, University of Zululand, University of the Western Cape, Mangosuthu University of Technology and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University.