Norway: NORAD Master Studies Scholarship 2010 - 2014

Norad’s Programme for Master Studies (NOMA) Scholarship 2010 - 2014, Norway

Call for applications to Norad’s Programme for Master Studies (NOMA) 2010 - 2014

The Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education (SIU) invites applications for grants to Master programmes to be conducted in English in the South. The call for applications is presented with reference to the NOMA Agreement between the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and SIU, signed on 27 April 2006, extended with an addendum to 2014 and the NOMA Programme Document.

The overall aim of the NOMA is to contribute to the education of staff in all sectors in the following eligible countries: Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Nicaragua, Bolivia and other selected countries through strengthening capacity at the Master level in higher education institutions in the South.

Based on current Norwegian development priorities and identified needs of the cooperating countries in the South, following are the eligible academic fields for the NOMA programme:
- Education
- Environment, economic development and trade
- Gender
- Good governance, democratic development, human rights and migration
- Health
- HIV/AIDS
- Oil and Energy
- Peace and Conflict resolution

A Master degree programme eligible for support under the NOMA Programme is defined as full-time workload over two academic year’s equivalent to 120 credits according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).

For the period 2010 – 2014, applications for Master programmes are limited to the following categories:

a) Bilateral Master programmes for a period of either two years (one student cohort) or four years (two student cohorts). NOMA funding is limited to maximum NOK 2,25 million for one student cohort and maximum NOK 4,5 million for two student cohorts and includes all relevant supportive activities.

Bilateral Master programmes should be based on cooperation between two partner institutions, one in the South and one in Norway. One academic staff member at each partner institution called project coordinator has the responsibility for planning, implementation and reporting. Bilateral programmes may have apart from the above mentioned, informal or formal cooperation with other institutions, without specific NOMA funding for such cooperation activities.

b) Multilateral Master programmes for a period of either two years (one student cohort) or four years (two student cohorts).

NOMA funding is limited to maximum NOK 3 million for one student cohort and maximum NOK 6 million for two student cohorts and includes all relevant supportive activities.

Multilateral Master programmes should have two main partner institutions, one in the South and one in Norway but may consist of additional partner institutions both in the South (it is a requirement for multilateral NOMA programmes to have minimum two South partners; one main partner and one additional partner). It may also have additional partner(s) in Norway. The role of additional partners should be clearly stated in the application. Each partner institution must have an academic partner contact person, and must endorse the application before submission.

NB! All programme activities must be finalised within 31.12.2014

Application procedures
A joint application should be submitted online to SIU http://espresso.siu.no , no later than 30 June 2009, GMT 1500 hrs.

Applying institutions in the South and Norway must submit a confirmation of their application(s), signed by the Head of their institution, Vice Chancellor/Rector/University Director. The signatures guarantee institutional commitment to support the additional student intake with additional core resources (basic infrastructure, academic staff, administrative services etc.) in order to secure the implementation.

When submitting the application, separate Cover pages will be available for printing by the project coordinators (at UiS and UiN). This document should be printed and duly signed by the project coordinators and heads of the respective departments and the Vice Chancellor/ Rector/University Director or similar. The signed Cover page should be submitted to the NOMA Institutional contact person/NOMA coordinating unit at the institution within 6 July 2009. The institutional contact person/NOMA coordinating unit should submit the signed cover pages to SIU together with the signed prioritised list of applications within 28 August 2009.

Please note that an application is not eligible without the Confirmation Page.

Selection procedures
The NOMA Programme Board will make the final selection of the projects to be supported in October 2009. The selection will be based on the following inputs from different actors;

• External evaluation by two evaluators – one from the South and one from the North
• Assessment and ranking made by the applying institutions

Source: official announcement