The nGAP is implemented in partnership with all 26 public universities in South Africa. The programme was introduced in 2015. The most important features of the programme are that successful applicants are appointed into academic posts firmly factored into long-term staffing plans right from the outset, and appointments are governed by contracts which clearly spell out the expectations, obligations, roles and responsibilities of the employing university and of the newly appointed academic. The programme is recurrent, and successive cohorts of nGAP appointees are taken on at intervals that are determined by fund availability. The number of posts that are made available, and the intervals between successive cohorts, are determined by the ability of DHET to source funding for successive cohorts. The nGAP covers a six year period for each cohort taken onto the programme. The nGAP is structured as follows: