2026 Rebecca Rhodes African Inclusive Literacy Research Grant | ADEA

2026 Rebecca Rhodes African Inclusive Literacy Research Grant | ADEA

This is a historical reference for the closed 2026 Rebecca H. Rhodes African Inclusive Literacy Research Grant. The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) opened the third round for African scholars and practitioners working on inclusive literacy. It offered one research award of up to USD 5,000, with applications due 27 February 2026 at midnight Pacific Time. That deadline has passed, and ADEA’s call index places the opportunity under “Expired Call for Applications”. ADEA and CIES announced Dr. Samira Agoro as the 2026 laureate on 31 March 2026. ADEA describes the prize as annual and says the organizations intend to continue supporting this work, but no later application call or deadline is published on the official pages checked. This archive is not an invitation to send a late application.

The grant was designed for a focused research study, not for a general education program, a large implementation project, or an organization-wide operating budget. Its subject was inclusive literacy for children and young people with disabilities and/or special educational needs. The study could address basic reading and, where relevant, writing or written communication. The proposed work had to take place in West, Central, East, or Southern Africa and could cover one or more countries in those regions.

Verified 2026 details

The ADEA call page was published on 15 December 2025. It identifies ADEA and CIES as the organizations behind the prize and describes support for rigorous, locally grounded studies. The round-three criteria document supplies the detailed eligibility and application requirements summarized below. A separate ADEA press release, published 31 March 2026, names Dr. Samira Agoro of Togo as laureate following a review of nearly 100 submissions. It describes her study on adapted literacy teaching for deaf and hard-of-hearing children in mainstream schools and says the prize will support fieldwork in Togo’s Savanes and Kara regions. The same release calls the award annual and says ADEA and CIES look forward to continuing it. The official call index still marks the 2026 opportunity expired; it does not provide a subsequent application cycle. All requirements below therefore describe the closed third round, not a future call.

What the grant supported

The award focused on the intersection of literacy and education for children or young people with disabilities and/or special educational needs. The criteria allowed an exploratory or explanatory study, and both an ongoing study and a new study could be eligible. The research needed a clear connection to helping participants learn to read and write, or to read and write in order to learn. A proposal about general school quality, broad teacher training, or disability services without a meaningful literacy question would not have matched the stated purpose.

The intended age range was 0 to 21. The criteria permitted disability and special educational needs to be understood through the definitions used in the relevant country or through the framework referenced in the guidelines. A credible application would have explained how the local context identifies the population, what literacy barrier is being examined, and why the proposed evidence could improve practice or policy. The committee placed particular value on research that responded to local social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural conditions rather than simply importing an intervention developed elsewhere.

The award was modest, so a strong project needed a manageable design. The criteria permitted funds for the lead researcher’s time, materials, transport, research design, data collection, analysis, reports, and limited presentation of results. Costs for other team members were also possible. However, funding proposed for team members who were neither African citizens nor African residents could not exceed 15 percent of the award. The award could cover up to USD 150 in conference registration and up to USD 500 in travel to present results in a public venue. Funds were to be used within 18 months after receipt.

Other funding was allowed, but the proposed research could not already be fully funded. Applicants had to identify remaining, justifiable needs at least equal to the award amount and explain the added value of this grant. The budget therefore needed to show what the USD 5,000 would make possible, rather than listing expenses that another funder had already covered or presenting a wish list unrelated to the method.

Who could lead an application

The lead applicant had to be an individual, not an organization applying as the principal applicant. The person had to be an African citizen, with preference given to applicants connected to the African regions named in the call. The criteria required the lead applicant either to reside in an African country at the time of application or to have resided in one for at least two weeks during the 24-month period counted from February 2026. In the latter case, the applicant had to demonstrate an intention to work in an African country for at least the next one to two years.

The lead applicant needed a master’s degree or equivalent and had to have started a doctoral program, in any field. The person could be unaffiliated, employed by a university or research organization, working for an NGO, advising the private sector, or serving as a government official. What mattered was that the lead applicant was responsible for the proposed study as principal researcher or co-lead. Early-career researchers and researchers with disabilities or special educational needs were particularly encouraged to apply.

Other members of the research team did not have to share the lead applicant’s nationality or residence status. Even so, the criteria strongly preferred teams made up mainly of African citizens living in Africa. Team members should have had clearly described roles rather than appearing as names added to a proposal. A useful team description would have connected each person’s expertise to the research question, local access, participant support, analysis, or dissemination.

The research itself had to be carried out in West, Central, East, or Southern Africa. One country was acceptable, and a multi-country design was possible, but a wider geographic plan did not automatically make an application stronger. With this award size, a well-justified study in one setting could be more credible than a regional design with no workable access, sample, or analysis plan.

Ethics and study approval

Ethics was a formal eligibility requirement, not an optional paragraph. At the time of application, the lead applicant had to have submitted the study proposal or protocol to an internal or institutional review board, or to an equivalent authorized body able to review research involving human participants and/or the education system being studied. Examples in the criteria included a ministry, government agency, university, or other qualified institute. The application had to include evidence that the review was underway, together with the submitted study materials in the appendix.

Final award approval depended on approval from that review body. For research involving minors or people with disabilities and/or special educational needs, the proposal needed clear safeguards. These included consent and assent procedures where appropriate, confidentiality, secure handling of research data, accessible communication, and a plan for responding to risks or distress. The design also needed to explain how participants would be supported during data collection and how findings would be shared without exposing identifiable or sensitive information.

An ethics section should have been specific to the setting. It should have named the approving authority or explained the status of the submission, described who could provide permission for school access, and addressed the needs of participants who communicate in different ways. A general statement that the study would follow ethical standards would not have supplied the evidence requested by the criteria.

Required application package for the closed round

The 2026 criteria required a short research application containing each of the following elements. Missing an element meant the application would not be considered.

1. A one-page cover letter. This introduced the lead applicant and research team, explained the motivation for applying, and described why the applicant could complete the study.
2. A research proposal of no more than five pages. It needed the project title, problem or aspiration statement, research objective and questions, methodology, ethics and review status, importance and intended application, dissemination plan, and a timeline. The methods had to cover the overall design, sampling, data collection, and analysis, with a direct link between each method and the research question.
3. A budget of no more than one page. The budget needed a detailed breakdown for researcher time, materials, data collection, travel, and dissemination. It also had to state other existing or expected funding and identify costs already covered elsewhere.
4. Curricula vitae. The lead applicant’s CV and the CV of every research-team member had to be supplied, with a maximum of seven pages per CV. The CVs needed relevant research, education, and inclusion experience, plus citizenship, current residence, and recent residence information requested by the criteria.
5. At least two references. References had to be researchers or professionals outside the proposed study team with demonstrated research experience. Each reference needed contact details, affiliation, a brief account of research experience, and a statement explaining how the person knew the lead applicant’s research capacity.
6. Evidence of IRB or equivalent review. The appendix had to contain evidence of approval or review in progress and the study proposal or protocol submitted for that review.

All materials had to be combined into one file in Word, Google Docs, or PDF format. The criteria specified single spacing, 2.5-centimetre margins, and Times New Roman at 12 points or a roughly equivalent font size. Applications could be written in English or French. The submission email subject was specified as: “African Inclusive Literacy Research Prize Application: [Primary Applicant Name].” Applicants who needed reasonable accommodation were instructed to request it in the submission email or ahead of time through the route described in the official guidance.

How the closed submission process worked

For the 2026 round, the completed file was emailed to [email protected] by the deadline shown above. The official page also listed [email protected] as the ADEA contact address. The criteria said eligible applications would be reviewed as they arrived and that award notification was planned for March 2026. ADEA and CIES announced Dr. Samira Agoro as laureate on 31 March 2026. The criteria also stated that the prize was to be awarded in April, subject to approval of the proposed study by the authorized review body; the release confirms the laureate and the planned research, but the official material reviewed here does not separately confirm the payment date.

An applicant preparing the package should have started with the eligibility checks, not with prose polishing. First, confirm individual lead-applicant status, citizenship, residence history, doctoral-study status, research geography, age group, and literacy focus. Next, verify access to the proposed setting and submit the protocol to the relevant review body. Only then should the researcher finalize the methods, budget, CVs, references, and dissemination plan. A final file check should have confirmed that the page limits, one-file rule, language, email subject, and attachment format all matched the criteria.

The application needed a concrete path from evidence to use. The proposal could have planned feedback for teachers, school leaders, education officials, disability organizations, families, or other relevant groups, but it needed to say who would receive the findings and how. A report alone was not enough: the criteria asked applicants to explain the expected application and potential effect on policy and practice. A realistic dissemination plan might have included a practitioner briefing, a meeting with education stakeholders, and an accessible summary for the participating community, provided those activities fit the approved method and budget.

Status and future monitoring

The ADEA call page remains the official reference URL. It describes the third round, which closed on 27 February 2026, and the official ADEA call index places it among expired calls. ADEA and CIES announced the 2026 laureate on 31 March 2026. Their release refers to an annual prize and expresses an intention to continue the work, but no later application call, eligibility rules, or deadline is published on the official pages checked for this update. There is no verified basis for replacing the archived deadline with a new date or describing applications as rolling.

Anyone interested in a future round should wait for a new ADEA or CIES announcement and then verify the title, amount, eligibility, application mailbox, criteria document, and deadline directly. A future call could change the research age range, degree requirements, review evidence, budget rules, or submission format. The requirements in this archive entry are useful for understanding the 2026 program, but they should not be copied into a new application without a newly published official source.

Official references

• ADEA: 2026 Rebecca Rhodes African Inclusive Literacy Research Grant
• ADEA: Call for Applications index
• Round-three application criteria and guidelines
• ADEA and CIES announcement of the 2026 laureate, 31 March 2026

The entry is intentionally retained as a historical reference: it records the real 2026 deadline and verified requirements without presenting a closed call as an active funding opportunity.