Cultural research grant deadline looms for DAC project
The South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) announced its latest round of scholarships and bursaries for researchers for the 2017 season late last year, with a set of honours, masters and doctoral grants on offer. A suite of available grants totals in excess of R500 000.
“We want to ensure we are supporting scholars interested in the field of cultural economics, statistics and in the arts, heritage and culture sectors. This is a great opportunity for talented young researchers,” said chief executive Professor Richard Haines. “In this round, we are hoping to award a minimum of six and a maximum of 11 scholarships and bursaries by mid-February, in time for the start of the academic year,” he said. “The programme is meant to support existing studies and complement funding sourced from other awards.”
The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) established the Cultural Observatory.
“As DAC’s informative ‘nerve centre’ – which provides the strategic vision and the organising principle for the development of cultural indicators and information systems for the South African context as well as statistics based on the sector needs – our scholarship programme supports the sector needs by generating both qualitative, quantitative and mixed research,” said Haines.
The scholarship and bursary programme targets only South African citizens and students who: • Obtained an average of 65% in the preceding degree; • Are registered at a South African university for 2017; • Are registered for full-time or part-time studies; and • Are interested in studies relat- ing to the field of Arts, Culture and Heritage.
Applications must be submitted on the SACO website by Tuesday 31 January 2016 at 4pm: www.southafricanculturalobservatory.co.za/scholarship-application. For enquiries: contact ntombizodwa.mashologu@nmmu.ac.za or SACO office on 041 504 4930.