CLAUDE LEON FOUNDATION MERIT AWARDS FOR LECTURERS

  
It is essential that the next generation of active scholars are nurtured and strengthened at South African Universities. The Claude Leon Foundation decided in 2009 to introduce the Merit Awards for Lecturers to increase the rate of publications in peer reviewed journals, in the award of PhD Degrees to young staff and in the promotion of excellent candidates to senior lecturer and associate professor. The Merit Awards are granted to suitable candidates in the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Health Sciences in Medical Science. The Universities of Cape Town, Rhodes, Stellenbosch, Western Cape and Witwatersrand were invited to submit applications and the first Merit Awards for Lecturers were awarded as from 2010.

The Merit Award programme also provides young lecturers with the opportunity to do presentations at prestigious international conferences abroad and thus strengthen and increase their research output. A new cohort of young African researchers, particularly but not exclusively young black men and women scholars, are thus being afforded important platforms for showcasing their own research and for identifying and establishing global links required to make African researchers globally visible and competitive.

There is no application process for the Merit Awards and the Foundation will decide on the Universities that it will support.