CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Programme Point Sud 2010
German scholars and research foundations have long been successfully working beyond the
Anglo- and Francophone research traditions established by the former colonial powers in
Africa. Not only have they been successful in themselves overcoming geographic and
linguistic boundaries, but they have also encouraged exchange and dialogue between these
different research traditions. In this capacity, German academics are in a unique position to
play important role in promoting the establishment of a truly postcolonial academic
community in Africa.
As a place of joint research, the “Point Sud Research Centre for Local Knowledge” in
Bamako/Mali is to play an instrumental role in efforts to attain this goal. The Goethe-
University of Frankfurt/Main is currently the main supporter of the centre’s operational
capability. It’s funding of the centre’s infrastructure aims at enabling Point Sud to become an
effective centre for the organization for academic activities in Bamako.
To this end, Frankfurt University and the German Research Foundation (DFG) have agreed to
support the “Programme Point Sud” with which Africa-related activities in the humanities and
social sciences at the Point Sud venue can be funded. Financial support by the DFG will cover
the costs of travel and accommodation for participants of activities that have been granted
financial support.
The programme is open to all researchers based in Germany working on Africa-related
themes. The various individual activities hosted by the centre in any given year will be
selected and coordinated by a programme committee. For the purposes of applying for DFG
support, individual funding applications for the specific activities will be bundled and
submitted by the University of Frankfurt to the DFG as a single collective application, which
will then be evaluated by the DFG. The applicant listed on the collective application is
therefore a member of Frankfurt University who is also serving as chair of the programme
committee. Individual activities must be initiated by researchers working at German academic
institutions. However, there are no national restrictions for the participants of individual
activities, although there should be a balanced proportion between participants from Germany
and other countries.
Members of the programme committee are:
• Professor Mamadou Diawara, Goethe University Frankfurt,
• Professor Andreas Eckert, Humboldt-University of Berlin,
• Professor Robert Kappel, Director of GIGA Hamburg,
• Professor Dieter Neubert, University of Bayreuth,
• Professor Brigit Obrist, University of Basel and Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel.
Requests for funding will be assessed according to the following general principals:
• Types of activity eligible for funding are: Traditional activities such as conferences,
seminars, workshops, graduate schools, summer schools and field schools of various
scales. Furthermore, innovative formats such as project development workshops, onetime
or periodic meetings and forums to promote postdoctoral research networks and
junior academic groups, kickoff meetings for new research endeavors and themes will
be given particular consideration.
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• Although the programme is primarily oriented towards the social sciences and
humanities, initiatives that aim to promote interdisciplinary cooperation with the
natural sciences and medicine are particularly welcome. There are no thematic
requirements except that the initiative be relevant to Africa.
• Not eligible for support are: internal project meetings, planning meetings, project
finding meetings and student field research as part of university course requirements.
In addition, purely international or wholly intra-African projects that are thematically
not sufficiently pertinent to German research on Africa cannot be considered for
funding either, nor can exclusively European initiatives that do not involve African
counterparts.
• The University of Frankfurt supports activities at the Centre by ensuring and
developing Point Sud’s physical infrastructure and human resources, thus
guaranteeing that activities will be professionally conducted. Furthermore, the
university will appoint an academic coordinator who will support applicants in editing
their applications and also coordinate the program. The university will also assist with
travel arrangements, accommodation and the settling of accounts in order to relieve
the applicants of most logistic and administrative tasks. Because of these services, the
applicants will not be able to gain third-party funds themselves.
The programme committee will evaluate the applications according to the following criteria:
• the innovativeness of the proposal with respect to format and/or content,
• the interdisciplinary approach,
• the extent of cooperation with researchers and institutions from Africa,
• the sustainability of the activity regarding networking between the participants and/or
publication of the results,
• the type of linkage to Point Sud and Bamako.
This linkage can be realized by different means. One can be the participation of researchers
and institutions from Mali or neighbouring countries in the region. Another form of linkage
might be the confrontation of theoretical debates at Point Sud with Malian realities.
Depending on the subject of the proposal, this confrontation can be achieved by visiting local
institutions like hospitals or radio stations as well as through discussions with representatives
of private or state bodies. If you do not have the necessary contacts to fulfil this criterion, we
will be happy to assist.
Moreover, proposals that have a south-south perspective are particularly welcome.
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The proposals should have the following outline and length:
• Title of the proposal
• Name of the applicants and their affiliation
• 1.2. The research topic and objectives (max. 2 pages).
• 1.3. Research format and organization (max. 2 pages). This point should include a
time schedule and work plan structuring the activity in Bamako. The applicants are
also asked to describe how they intend to deal with possible language barriers (anglo-,
franco- and lusophone participants), which type of linkage to Point Sud and Bamako
they conceive and if they plan a publication or common activities in the future like for
example joint summer schools.
• 1.4. Participants (max. 1 page). A list of the participants to be invited and their
affiliations are to be included in the proposal. If the applicants wish to work with a call
for papers, the prospective number of participants has to be determined. Note that to
assure a productive work atmosphere at Point Sud the number of participants should
not exceed 30 persons. Also, the provenance of the participants to be chosen (how
many from Europe, Africa and so on) and how the applicants intend to circulate the
call for papers should be made clear.
• 1.5. Profiles and selected publications of the applicants (max. half a page for each
applicant). The details and references should be chosen according to their relevance
for the content and type of activity planned at Point Sud.
There is no need to include a calculation of the costs since this is done in Frankfurt.
For 2010 the time and work schedule are as follows:
• Deadline for a 6-page proposal is December 20, 2009. Please send your proposal to
programm-pointsud@ziaf.de.
• Eligible programmes will be selected by January 20, 2010.
• The collective application must be submitted by February 1, 2010.
• The period for activities that have been granted support may last from October 2010 to
March 2011.
For further information please contact Dr Marko Scholze, programm-pointsud@ziaf.de, or
scholze@em.uni-frankfurt.de, telephone +49 (0)69 798-33230, fax +49 (0)69 798-33065