Deadline: September 15, 2025
Applications are open for the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) Individual Residential Fellowship 2026/2027. Individual fellowships allow researchers to conduct a project of their own choice, connected to MIASA’s thematic research areas. Projects can be at conceptional stage, mid-term phase or final stage (analyzing data, writing up findings). Fellowships are residential with only short absences possible for activities such as conference participation and field work. Data collection cannot be the main purpose of a MIASA fellowship.
The Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) is dedicated to research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The overarching theme of MIASA is ‘sustainable governance’ from a genuine interdisciplinary and critical perspective, whereby ‘governance’ is understood in a wide sense, namely as the interplay of informal and formal rules for steering public affairs, embedded in social, material and cultural practices of everyday life. Their main research axes are sustainable peace, sustainable democracy and sustainability transformation, but they are also interested in a wide range of intersectional sub-topics, such as landownership and acquisition, migration and mobility, restitution of colonially acquired cultural objects, African cities, human rights, and other related themes.
Fellowship
- The successful applicants become MIASA fellows with all the corresponding rights and obligations for the requested funding period.
- For fellows affiliated with an institution, the fellows’ salary or teaching substitution costs are met by MIASA for every full fellowship month and paid directly to his/her home institution (maximum 6925 EUR/month). In cases where this is not possible, an individual grant based on the candidate’s salary at his/her home institution can be offered (but maximally €6,925/month).
- Fellows may be eligible for a post adjustment to a minimum fellowship amount on a case-by-case justification. Fellows without employment receive an individual monthly grant.
- For fellows from outside Accra, MIASA pays an accommodation allowance of up to €1,500/month and reimburses travel costs at the beginning and the end of the fellowship. MIASA fellows who come with family members to Accra can receive a family allowance. Fellowships are funded by the German Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space via the University of Freiburg.
- The Institute provides its fellows with office space on the University of Ghana – Legon campus. A full-time presence of fellows at MIASA for the entire fellowship period is required. Periods of leave need to be approved by the MIASA directors in advance and must not exceed 1/6 of the fellowship duration.
Eligibility
- Open to scholars (both on junior and senior levels) who have been awarded their doctoral degree at least three months before the start of the fellowship.
- Applications for individual fellowships should indicate how the research project contributes to the activities at MIASA and, more broadly, to the academic life on Legon campus.
Application
Applications will be accepted in English and French. The completed application form together with the information indicated below has to be uploaded on the application platform. After submission of the documents, applicants receive an acknowledgement of receipt with contact details and a copy of their submitted documents. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.
Respect formal requirements:
- Formatting: font Arial, 11 pt, line spacing 1.5, all margins 2.5 cm.
- Page limits may not be exceeded.
Applications must include the following information:
- Front page with general information on the applicant (1 page):
- Title, name (last, first), e-mail address, link to webpage.
- Date of doctorate.
- Current position/affiliation, institution and business address (name of institution/city/country). Please indicate if you are affiliated with a German research institution/university at the moment of application.
- Research field.
- Title of fellowship project.
- Abstract of the fellowship project (max. 150 words).
- Preferred dates for the fellowship at MIASA (within the time frames offered by MIASA).
- The two most important reasons why you apply for a residential fellowship at MIASA.
- Project proposal (max. 5 pages):
- Project title (max. 50 characters).
- Abstract of the fellowship project (150 words).
- Aims, theoretical framework and methodology of the project.
- Work and time plan (note: the fellowship requires being present at MIASA, University of Ghana).
- Innovative potential, originality and relevance of the project.
- Added value of conducting research at MIASA and the University of Ghana.
- Bibliographical references (max. 1 page in addition to the 5 pages of the proposal).
- CV in tabular form (max. 2 pages).
- Publication list highlighting the most important publications (max. 2 pages).
For more information, visit MIASA Individual Residential Fellowship.
