Applications are open for the second tranche of funding for the Knowledge Project of the Programme for the Enhancement of Research Capacity (PERC) in the Research Office.

Four grants of R150 000 each, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, are available for collaborative, cross-disciplinary research that moves away from Eurocentric to more Africa-centred perspectives. This will support UCT's Afropolitan commitment, as set out in the university's mission statement.

The criteria for selection require successful grant-holders to produce new knowledge which is transformative, in that it is "appropriate to our position in South Africa, on the continent and in the world".

In the first round of funding in 2009 four grants were awarded, to:

• Dr Lillian Artz of UCT's Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit, in the Faculty of Health Sciences, for Women's Pathways to Crime: Developing a Critical South African Criminology;

• Professor Astrid Jarre of UCT's Marine Research Institute for Fishers' Knowledge for Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management;

• Professor Leslie London of UCT's School of Public Health and Family Medicine for A Learning Network for the Right to Health: An opportunity for civil society and academic collaboration to contextualise human rights within an African perspective; and

• Dr Lucia Thesen of UCT's The Postgraduate Literacies Project of the Centre for Higher Education Development for The postgraduate condition: writing, risk and the making of new knowledge.

Overall funding for the Knowledge Project is R1.8 million spread over three years, 2009 to 2011.

The closing date for the 2010 round of applications is 15 March 2010. Interested applicants should contact the PERC co-ordinator, Professor Robert Morrell or telephone 021 650 2433.