Background

Being carried out 2019 – 2024, Mobility and Access in African Cities (MAC) is a VREF-funded initiative with the purpose of increasing the knowledge and capacity base on equitable and sustainable mobility and access in cities in sub-Saharan Africa.
The MAC programme seeks to contribute to forming a new generation of highly skilled sub-Saharan university researchers and teachers, as well as to engage professionals, policy makers and actors within civil society who are committed to achieving goals of sustainable and equitable urban mobility and access. Leading international experts can also contribute to the programme through collaborative research projects with their sub-Saharan African counterparts.

The MAC programme is implemented through four activity streams:

• 1. Building academic capacity and skills
  2. Supporting next generation African scholars
  3. Research and knowledge building
  4. Building communities of learning – dissemination and dialogues

What research themes and who can apply

The current third call for research projects within the MAC programme is directed to the following groups:

• › Sub-Saharan university-based researchers who have expertise on sustainable and equitable mobility and access in sub-Saharan African cities;
  › Sub-Saharan university-based researchers who have not previously engaged in transportrelated research but who have expertise that could fruitfully be applied to these areas;
  › Sub-Saharan university-based researchers with strong interests in carrying out
  interdisciplinary research that can contribute to new knowledge and insights on issues related to sustainable and equitable mobility and access

This year the MAC programme particularly welcomes project proposals that engage young scholars and reflect gender balance in the work of the research team.
The Call focuses on small, cross-disciplinary projects within the following core themes of the MAC programme:

• - Theme 1: User Needs and Practices, Equity Issues
  - Theme 2: Governance, Politics, Institutions and Finances
  - Theme 3: Emerging Business Models and Services Options
  - Theme 4: Safety, Health and the Urban Environment
  - Theme 5: System Design and Modal Integration
  - Theme 6: Analytical Tools

In 2020 VREF published a series of position papers within these themes.

The Call is directed at exploratory, comparative research on issues that are relevant to the themes. This work can entail the exchange of e.g. empirical work (such as case studies), methodologies, analytical tools, data collection, policy experiences or research results from work on sustainable and equitable mobility and access in specific urban contexts in sub-Saharan Africa.

This type of comparative research can encompass both the exchange of in-depth knowledge that has already been accumulated over time but has not previously been placed in a comparative perspective, as well as new, exploratory work on emergent issues or approaches within the respective thematic areas.

VREF foresees that successful research proposals will approach these areas through crossdisciplinary approaches that link perspectives and approaches from multiple disciplines or areas, e.g. engineering, social sciences, behavioural sciences, and the humanities.

Project leaders of exploratory research projects that have previously been funded by the MAC programme are eligible to apply for continuations of such research projects in the form of in-depth studies based on the results of their exploratory projects.

Read the call and guidelines in details... Pdf, 1 MB. (Pdf, 1 MB)

Read also the Q&A document Pdf, 346.8 kB. (Pdf, 346.8 kB) that will be updated as soon as we get more relevant questions that may help you in your application process.