The Academy for African Migration Research (AAMR): supporting the development of the next generation of African migration scholars

Over a three year period, the Academy for African Migration Research will undertake two key activities:

(1) Four 'institutes' to provide capacity building for doctoral students and early-career researchers who are a maximum of 3-years post-PhD, to refine their research focus and promote professional development and scholarly contributions.
(2) A series of research visits/exchanges for established academics and postdoctoral fellows to support building research capacity and strengthening the intellectual project for migration research in Africa.

The Academy currently includes seven institutions in 5 countries [TBC]. Applications for the institutes will be accepted from doctoral students and early-career researchers from any African institute.

1. University of Addis Ababa and/or OSSREA, Ethiopia
2. University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
3. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
4. Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique
5. University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
6. University of Cape Town, South Africa
7. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Institutes: A series of four 'institutes' will be held at different locations across the ARUA network, each focusing on a different thematic area: migration and urbanization; migration, health and wellbeing; belonging, difference and diaspora; and, the knowledge politics of migration research in Africa. These institutes will also incorporate professional development training, including the development of peer-support and mentorship mechanisms. A final event will be held in the final/third year. This will take the form of a conference for early career researchers and postgraduate students - including those who have participated in the institutes - working on migration and mobility in Africa.

The institutes will be designed to:

- Support African migration scholars to embrace theory building, engagement with migration/social theory, and the knowledge politics associated with migration research in Africa. Participants will benefit from rigorous theoretical and methodological foundations in inter-disciplinary migration studies in addition to disciplinary perspectives from resource persons.

- Offer practical professional advice/professional development including: academic publishing; project management; organising and managing data; consulting colleagues and others in the field; and the risks and benefits of interdisciplinary work in an academic universe still largely organised in disciplinary formations.

- Provide mentorship and peer support by facilitating engagements between doctoral students, early career researchers and established academics both virtually and in-person. These structures will provide support for the required outputs associated with the institutes, including written work; presentation skills; and the development of professional CVs and online profiles.


Research visits/exchanges: The Academy will fund various activities for established and early career researchers. Funds will be awarded on a competitive basis, and will be assessed by a review panel made up on their planned activities and outputs. Preference will be given to proposals aiming to support research capacity building and strengthening of the intellectual project for migration research in Africa. All proposals will need to demonstrate collaboration/partnership building as a central activity.
- one-week visits for established researchers to travel to another institution to undertake teaching/supervision/research exchanges;
- one-month visiting postdoctoral fellowships; and
- symposiums and/or proposal development workshops to support the establishment of new research partnerships.

This proposal is designed to support the goal of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) to enhance research and graduate training in member universities through a number of channels, including through Centres of Excellence (CoEs). The CoE on Migration and Mobility is a focal point for providing opportunities for graduate students from the region to build their research and professional development skills, and to support the development of collaborative research between institutions on the continent. Key impacts relate to building research capacity and professional development amongst the next generation of African migration scholars. These impacts will be achieved through a set of objectives, outlined below:

Building research capacity of the next generation of African migration scholars
- Foster more theoretically informed work on migration and mobility in Africa
- Incubate a network of emerging African scholars deeply connected to peers and colleagues across the continent, and with other global contexts
- Increase the visibility of African scholars in the scholarly/theoretically informed literature on migration in Africa

Supporting professional development of the next generation of African migration scholars
- Build professional development skills, including in teaching, supervision, writing research proposals, project management, peer reviewing, building professional CVs and online profiles
- Creating peer support and mentorship opportunities, including the pairing of doctoral students with ECRs and established academics
- Develop online resources and a networking platform

The proposed activities will enhance the impact of the project and deliver benefit directly to participating researchers and to the involved institutions. The needs of partner institutions will be reflected in the finalisation of the project workplan and in the development of the content of each Institute. The project will have a long-lasting and transformative impact by supporting the professional development and research capacity of the next generation of African migration scholars. These scholars will benefit from improved skills training and networking with other institutions across the continent. This will, as a result, support the development of research partnerships, including in the joint writing of collaborative research proposals that will be submitted for funding to relevant authorities.