African Origins Platform
Technical Skills Call
Managed by the Knowledge Fields Development (KFD) Directorate of the NRF
Contact persons:
Candice Steele
Programme Director
Knowledge Fields Development
Candice@nrf.ac.za
Ndileka Qamba
Liaison Officer
GMSA: Strategic Knowledge Fields
Ndileka@nrf.ac.za
Framework Document
Version 1.0

December
STRATEGIC CONTEXT
The African Origins Platform
South Africa recognises special contributions of studies that concentrate on the rich and ancient heritage of the country. Research in the field of palaeo- and archaeosciences has profound relevance to all people, and is central to the recent emphasis on Heritage Development by the South African Government. There is without doubt no other country that has such a complete, endless terrestrial rock record covering the Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic and Jurassic periods documenting a climatic shift from glacial polar conditions to subtropical desert. The Karoo Sequence Studies hold clues to understanding both the end-Jurassic and end-Permian extinctions.

Noting that South Africa has an obvious geographical advantage in palaeontological, palaeo-anthropological and archaeological research, this country should emerge as a globally leading centre of research excellence in these fields of study.
The African Origins Platform was established as a research programme aimed at integrating and coordinating scientific research conducted in South Africa.   Human resource development and knowledge generation are the fundamental requirements of the African Origin Platform.

Call Title and Description
In recognition of the need for funding technical skills and support in the palaeosciences, the Department of Science and Technology has made additional funding available as an adjunct to the existing African Origins Platform programme.The African Origins Platform Technical Skills call is an extraordinary competitive call in response to the human capacity constraints highlighted by the Archaeology and Palaeontology research community.
The call is expressly aimed at supporting technical personnel (excavators and casting technicians) at South African research institutions.
Conditions of the call
The available funds will be ringfenced, and may be used and expressly and solely for the purposes of supporting excavators and casting technicians. The funds are not transferable to other activities.
Applications will be considered for the support of technical personnel who are currently embedded in ongoing research projects, or those that can be justified and proposed for new research developments.
Eligibility
Institutions with existing technical personnel; and those wishing to employ technical support for projects will be eligible to apply.
Institutions which currently do not have technical capacity, but wish to develop the capacity, will be required to demonstrate the need for such personnel in the context of currently funded and or ongoing research.
Criteria for adjudication
Applicants will quantify their technical skill requirements in terms of the numbers of excavators, preparators and casting technicians required by their institutions.

Applicants will prepare a commensurate budget according to the following values set per technical position
Personnel
Per Annum
Excavators/Preparators
R80 000 per annum per excavator
Casting technicians
R 60 000 per annum per caster
Applicants will provide a detailed justification for each excavator and/or casting technician and how they are embedded in existing research or proposed research. The justification must detail what impact their contribution has on research and human capacity within the research project.
This call will provide support for  only, but future calls will address funding over successive years.

Who may apply for funding?
■      Full time employees at an NRF recognized research institution[1] in South Africa.■      Part-time employees on contract at an NRF recognized research institution in South Africa, but on condition that the appointment is for (at least) the duration of the project applied for in the submission. The length of the contract should be stated in the application form. Salaries must be paid by the research institution and the primary employment of the individual concerned must be at that institution. A contract researcher appointed at a university, university of technology or research institute/council on behalf of a third party to fulfill a very specific function for the latter does not qualify for support.
■      Retired researchers provided that:
there must be demonstration of institutional support in the form of an employment contract, office space, administrative support, access to research equipment and space.
the researcher must have a good past and current track record in the successful training of research students; and especially women and black students.
the institution ensures that a minimum of reasonable time is spent at the facility for the purpose of research and research capacity development.
Rules of Participation
■      The principal applicant must be an active researcher who is associated with an institute or department that is doing archaeological or palaeontological research and is in need of the specialised skills of excavators and/or casting technicians. He/she will take responsibility for the management and administration of resources allocated to the proposal.  He/she will sign the conditions of grant documentation and will submit all reports as required by these conditions.
What can be funded?
■      ONLY support for excavators and / or casting technicians will be considered for funding.  No associated research costs will be considered.
■      The support should align with the values set per category

Excavators – R80 000 per annum
Casters – R60 000 per annum
Where to apply?
■      Applications will be prepared on the application template provided for this call.
■      Proposals must be submitted in electronic PDF format to ndileka@nrf.ac.za.
■      The NRF closing date for endorsed applications is 10 am on 07 December 2010.   All applications must be endorsed by the research office of the principal applicant before submission to the NRF.
■      It is the responsibility of each applicant to familiarise themselves with the internal closing date set by their institution in order to meet the NRF closing date.  Incomplete or late submissions will not be accepted.

Financial Control and Reporting
These grants are to be used for the specific call purposes under the auspices of the NRF standard grant and finance policies. The money is released on acceptance of the conditions of grant both by the applicant and his/her employing institution.

Annual Progress Reports are required, and these are to be submitted before the end of March of the following year.  These grants will fall under the NRF audit requirements of beneficiary institutions.

Assessment and Decision Making Procedures

■      Proposals will be assessed by a panel constituting members of the AOP review committee.

[1] Recognized research institution, if not a publicly funded institution of higher learning or science council will normally have gone through the NRF process for recognition and  is one that meets all the following minimum requirements:
o any institution that conducts basic or applied research,
o of a pre-competitive nature,
o for the benefit of the long-term knowledge base,
o whilst being committed to human resource capacity development, including a commitment to equity and redress
for more information;

http://www.nrf.ac.za/funding_overview.php?fid=59