What International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Research Awards for Africa actually covers.
The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Research Awards are prestigious opportunities for Canadian university researchers and their partners in the developing world, including Africa, to conduct collaborative research on development challenges. The IDRC also offers competitive awards for scholars from developing countries to conduct research through its various grant programmes. African doctoral students and researchers at IDRC partner institutions can access funding for research in areas including agriculture, health systems, environment, climate change, information technology, governance, and economic development. IDRC is a Canadian Crown corporation that funds research in developing countries, supporting partnerships between Canadian and African research institutions. Awards provide funding for research activities, data collection, analysis, and knowledge dissemination. Recipients are expected to produce high-quality research outputs that contribute to evidence-based policy-making and sustainable development in Africa. The IDRC also offers its prestigious Doctoral Research Awards for African candidates registered at eligible African universities.
Who can apply.
Open to phd, postdoctoral applicants. Eligible nationalities are listed below.
46 more eligible countries — full list available on the official application page.
Every academic discipline is accepted.
This programme does not restrict by field. Research proposals across humanities, sciences, engineering, agriculture, and medicine are all accepted.
Four steps to a complete application.
Scholar Africa is a discovery and tracking platform — the application itself is submitted directly through the official provider site. The steps below mirror our HowTo schema.
Check eligibility
Confirm your nationality, academic level, and field of study match the criteria above.
Eligibility checklist
Prepare documents
Transcripts, recommendation letters, personal statement, and a valid passport.
Document checklist
Submit the application
Submit before June 30, 2026 via the official portal.
Submission checklist
Track your application
Use your Scholar Africa dashboard to monitor status and deadline reminders.
Post-submission checklist
What we checked, when we checked it.
Scholar Africa runs a link-liveness check on every listing before it goes live. Five additional checks (contact, organisation, winners, third-party, manual review) are on the roadmap. International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Research Awards for Africa currently scores 4.0/10.
Verification details Click to expand
Report an issue
Other scholarships worth a parallel application.
Same eligibility window or destination. Many strong applicants apply to three or four programmes per cycle.