What J-PAL Africa Research Fellowship (Poverty Action Lab) actually covers.
J-PAL (Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab) Africa at the University of Cape Town offers research fellowships for African researchers to work on randomized evaluations addressing poverty, health, education, and social protection challenges in sub-Saharan Africa.
Who can apply.
Open to postdoctoral applicants seeking to study in South Africa. 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 December 31, 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. J-PAL Africa Research Fellowship (Poverty Action Lab) currently scores 1.5/10.
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.