DSI-NRF Postgraduate Student Funding for the 2026 Academic Year
The DSTI and NRF are pleased to announce a call for new applications for DSTI-NRF Master’s and Doctoral Student
Funding for the academic year 2026. All current NRF continuing students who are eligible for a second or third year of
funding must submit a Progress Report and not a new application unless students will be in their third year of Masters or
fourth year of PhD then they must apply for extension of funding.
The NRF minimum academic requirement for postgraduate funding is 65% for the previous degree. Successful
applicants will be funded either at Full Cost of Study (FCS) or Partial Cost of Study (PCS). The FCS funding will be
awarded to South African citizens and Permanent Residents only, who are either financially needy (i.e., those
whose combined household family income is less than or equal to R350000per annum), living with
a disability or exceptional academic achievers. However, the PCS funding will be awarded to 5% of international
students including South African citizens and Permanent Residents who could not be funded under FCS but meet
other minimum requirements for the NRF scholarship funding criteria.
The scholarships are intended to support master’s and doctoral candidates to pursue studies in all areas of Science,
Engineering, Technology, Social Sciences, and Humanities.
All the postgraduate students will be expected to apply on the NRF Connect System by accessing the
link: https://nrfconnect.nrf.ac.za/.
No manual applications will be accepted.
Students’ Applications Opening and Closing Dates:
Level of study Opening dates Closing dates
Honours (General) 01 July 2025 21 November 2025
NRF-SARAO Honours 01 June 2025 31 August 2025
First-time Master's 04 July 2025
First-time Doctoral 14 May 2025 04 July 2025
Master's and Doctoral
15 August 2025
Extension Support
NB: Honours General Scholarships will open in July 2025.
Honours applicants requiring ISFAP assessment should submit their applications by 02 September 2025.
Please refer to the Application and Funding Guide and Framework documents when completing the online
application form at every step of the process.
*All postgraduate call documents can be accessed via the NRF website: www.up.ac.za/funding
OR https://www.nrf.ac.za/funding/nrf-call-for-proposals-for-funding-in-2025-and-2026/
Our office will be hosting several workshops to assist students with the application process and we will communicate dates
on all the relevant platforms
All enquiries on applications must be directed to [email protected]
