HPI-UCT Digital Health PhD and Postdoctoral Fellowship 2026/2027 — ZAR 262,200/Year for African Researchers in Cape Town (Deadline: 15 August 2026)
If you work at the intersection of technology and healthcare, or if you’re a public health researcher who wants to add a serious digital dimension to your work, this fellowship is one of the best-funded opportunities available to African researchers right now.
The Hasso-Plattner Institute (HPI) and University of Cape Town (UCT) Digital Health Partnership offer annual PhD and Postdoctoral fellowships specifically for candidates from the African continent. You don’t have to relocate to Europe or North America. The research school is based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Applications for 2026 intake are rolling but close 15 August 2026. Applications for 2027 intake also close 15 August each year.
What the Fellowship Covers
This is not a partial bursary or a fee waiver. Here is what each category receives:
PhD Fellows:
- Full tuition and registration fees covered
- Monthly bursary of ZAR 21,850 (approximately ZAR 262,200 per year)
- Once-off equipment allowance of up to ZAR 28,500
- Conference travel funding of up to ZAR 38,000 per year
- Funding runs for up to 3 years, subject to degree requirements and demonstrated progress
Postdoctoral Fellows:
- ZAR 300,000 – 380,000 per year, depending on experience
- Same equipment and conference travel allowances
- Up to 3 years of funding
At current exchange rates, ZAR 262,200 per year works out to roughly $14,000–$15,000 USD annually. For a fully funded programme based in South Africa, where the cost of living is substantially lower than in European or North American cities, this covers a comfortable standard of living while you focus on research.
What Research Areas Are Covered
The fellowship supports original research in digital health, broadly defined. The specific areas include:
- Health Information Exchanges, interoperability, and common data models
- Electronic medical and health records
- AI and digital technologies for community health workers and patients
- AI ethics and AI safety in health contexts
- Community-driven digital health interventions
- Computational science applied to health
- Digital transformation of the health sector
- Monitoring and evaluation of digital health programmes
- Economic evaluations of digital health solutions
- Population-wide analyses of real-world health data
- Novel methods for health data processing and analysis
- Data governance and research engineering
- Natural Language Processing for digital health
- Health systems processes
- Climate change and health
The range here is deliberately broad. If your background is in computer science or information systems, you would register through UCT’s School of Information Technology. If your background is in public health — epidemiology, biostatistics, health economics, health systems — you would register through the School of Public Health. Clinical researchers with a demonstrated public health research track are also eligible for the SPH route.
Who Is Eligible
PhD applicants:
- Must hold a Master’s degree supported by a strong dissertation
- IT/Computer Science route: Master’s in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field
- Public Health route: Master’s in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Health Systems, Health Economics, or a clinical discipline with clear public health research experience
Postdoctoral applicants:
- Must hold a doctoral degree in a relevant field
English language:
- If your degree was taught in English, you are exempt from the language test requirement, this applies to most Nigerian university graduates
- If required: TOEFL minimum 570 (paper) or 230 (computer-based), or IELTS overall 7.0 with no individual band below 6.0, obtained within the last 3–5 years
Location:
- Must be from the African continent
- Must be prepared to study full-time in Cape Town and obtain a South African study visa
Prior peer-reviewed publications are an advantage. Willingness to support teaching is also noted positively.
How to Apply
The application is submitted as a single PDF file containing all of the following:
- CV (2–3 pages)
- Academic transcripts
- TOEFL or IELTS results (if required — not needed if you studied in English)
- Research proposal (2–3 pages) identifying potential supervisors at UCT
Submit everything to: https://limesurvey.uct.ac.za/index.php/258499
Shortlisted candidates will be asked to arrange three reference letters and attend a video interview a few weeks after the deadline.
Questions: hpi-admin@uct.ac.za
The Research Proposal Is the Most Important Part
UCT is explicit about this: they will only consider proposals that fall within the core research areas of their current supervisors. This means your proposal cannot be generic. You need to identify specific UCT faculty members whose work aligns with yours before you write a word of the proposal.
How to do this properly:
- Go to the UCT Department of Computer Science, Department of Information Systems, and School of Public Health faculty pages
- Read the research profiles and recent publications of academics working in digital health, health informatics, or your specific area
- Email two or three of them before submitting — introduce yourself, describe your research interest in two sentences, and ask if your area aligns with their current work and whether they have the capacity to supervise
- Identify your preferred supervisor(s) clearly in your proposal
Academics who have already agreed to engage with your application are substantially more likely to advocate for you during shortlisting. Cold proposals with no prior supervisor contact are common and far less competitive.
Your proposal should clearly state your research question and your proposed methodology. Two to three focused pages is enough, do not pad it. Clarity and precision matter more than length.
Why This Fellowship Is Worth Pursuing
Africa has a growing digital health ecosystem — from mobile health platforms in Kenya and Nigeria to government health information systems across the continent — but the research infrastructure to study, evaluate, and improve these systems is still developing. The HPI-UCT research school sits at the centre of that gap.
Doing a PhD or postdoc here means working on problems that are genuinely unsolved and genuinely consequential. You’re not replicating research done in the US or Europe, you’re building the field locally.
And for Nigerian researchers specifically, the combination of a strong public health crisis burden, a growing tech ecosystem, and the early state of digital health integration means there is no shortage of real research questions. Your local context is an asset here, not a limitation.
Related opportunities currently open on the site:
- IDOS Doctoral Researcher Position 2026 — Paid PhD in Germany on Food Systems, Open to Africans (Deadline: 14 June 2026)
- Africa Fellows in Education Program (AFEP) 2026/2027 — $25,000 Research Grant for Young African Researchers
- Flinders University Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship 2026 — Fully Funded PhD for International Students ($36,061 Tax-Free Per Year)
- Global South Fellowship Program 2026 — Fully Funded Visiting Fellowship at the University of Birmingham and University of Illinois
- Top 20 Fully Funded Scholarships to Study in the USA, UK, Canada, and Other Top Countries in 2026
For more information and application:
