PAST offers funding for research, bursaries and technical capacity to postgraduate students and senior researchers working on African excavation, at African museums or studying at African universities within the origin sciences.
PAST collaborates with businesses, government and individual donors to raise and distribute funds that we use to empower education and science on the African continent. We invite applicants with diverse needs within palaeoanthropology, palaeontology, Stone Age archaeology and cognate disciplines to enable their education. We look for applicants who have demonstrated passion and the willingness to help develop and grow their field and the communities they work in through skills and research development.
Please note that PAST has two grant application deadlines per year:
- 1 February (with outcome by May)
- 1 August (with outcome by November)
Available Grants
- Postgraduate Degree support.
- Funding support for Honours, Masters and PhD students based at African institutions.
- Research project support.
- Funding support for Postdoctoral fellows, early career and established researchers who are conducting origins research on the African continent.
- Technical training and capacity support.
- Publications.
- Conferences and workshop attendance.
For unique proposals please contact hq@pastafrica.co.za
Please note:
AfO pre-application submission for deadline is 23 October 2026.
The Andrea Leenen Memorial All From One (AfO) Research Grant Programme
This special grant will support African-based field, laboratory or museum collections research in all fields of African palaeontology that are innovative and show exceptional promise in providing new information directly relevant to one or more of the three core themes of PAST’s All from One campaign:
- The shared African origins of humankind, extending from our Late Miocene ape antecedents to the emergence of modern human behaviour, and their relevance to an improved understanding of human unity.
- Palaeo-climatic and palaeo-ecological change and its relevance to an improved understanding of the modern climatic and environmental crises.
- Prehistoric extinctions and their relevance to an improved understanding of the modern biodiversity crisis.
For more information and details on how to apply download the PDF document below.
We have different grant programmes
You can apply for one of these programmes or
contact us to discuss a unique proposal
Interested in applying for a PAST grant?
Start right here
Below are the application forms and guidelines.
Please download these documents and read them carefully.
Send a single email (with completed application form and any additional required attachments) to hq@pastafrica.co.za on or before deadline date of 1 Feb/1 August with email subject: Applicant name_Grant type_Date.
If no response is received within two weeks of submission to hq@pastafrica.co.za, please contact Ms. Agnes Manamela at agnes@pastafrica.co.za.
Successful applicants, please note that a progress report is required within one year of the funding award date.
We want to continue to be a part of your journey, send us your publications, research news and any other relevant updates resulting from your PAST-funded work.
Download the progress report guidelines and form here: