Nonprofit organisation the Gerda Henkel Foundation, of Germany, awarded a five-year grant of R12-million to Stellenbosch University (SU) earlier this month to support and strengthen intellectual capacity in South Africa and across the African continent.

The foundation promotes science at universities and research institutes, primarily by supporting specific projects in the field of the humanities that have a specialist scope and limited timeframe.

The Gerda Henkel Foundation’s Lisa Maskell Fellowship Programme, active in Asia and Africa, was established in recognition and commemoration of its founder, Lisa Maskell, born in 1914. The programme was launched at SU.

The current grant is aimed at strengthening and advancing doctoral training and scholarships on the African continent by making available 25 three-year full-time scholarships for African PhD students, providing them with broad-based research and support throughout their studies to rebuild and sustain the capacity to produce human capital in Africa.

SU, through its Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, will be the implementing partner of the five-year fellowship grant.

The launch was attended by German ambassador to South Africa Dr Horst Freitag, SU rector and vice-chancellor Professor Russel Botman, chair of the executive board of the foundation Dr Michael Hanssler, chairperson of the board of trustees Julia Schulz-Dornburg and project manager of the Marie Curie and Lisa Maskell fellowships Jens Christian Schneider.

“I sincerely hope that this initiative is only the beginning of a longer-term partnership with prestigious universities in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly in South Africa, Botswana, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Ethiopia,” said Hanssler.

Botman said at the launch that the success of the official Partnership for Africa’s Next Generation of Academics and the contribution of SU’s Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences to the partnership were testament to the university’s commitment to be excellent and relevant within its community, country and continent.

“This African footprint will now be expanded through our mutually beneficial cooperation. I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to the Gerda Henkel Foundation for the generous grant awarded to SU. I trust that the relationship that has been established between the two institutions will grow from strength to strength as we venture into the future and endeavor to address some of Africa’s most pressing problems in higher education,” he added.