Deadline: January 6, 2019
Applications for the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Conflict Research Fellowship 2019 are open. The Conflict Research Fellowship (CRF) offers yearlong support for experienced scholars based at a university or NGO.
The CRF is part of the Conflict Research Programme (CRP), a four year, UK Department of International Development funded research program based at the London School of Economics and Political Science that investigates the drivers of violent conflict in five cases: Somalia, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Syria.
Program Details
The program focuses on ways in which the political economy of public authority helps to explain the persistence and spread of violence. Successful fellowship candidates will need to examine how different interventions affect violent conflict and/or the risk of renewed violent conflict; analyze “what works”to counter drivers of conflict; and explore the contextual factors that affect the efficacy of such interventions, including the linkages among international, national, state, and local level dynamics.
Successful candidates will contribute to the overall analysis of conflict through case studies of external interventions in four areas prioritized by the program:
- Civil society support (including multi-scalar peacemaking and peacebuilding activities, support for reconciliation, and community-level dialogue and mediation)
- Security and Justice Sector reform (including DDR/RR, stabilization, regional security networks/arenas, transitional, formal and customary justice)
- Strengthening public authority and legitimacy, including at sub-national levels (the political marketplace, the effects of patronage networks on governance, governance promoting interventions, decentralization and anti-corruption activities)
- Resource management (including settlement of land and real estate disputes, governance frameworks, and the role of natural resource competition in shaping public authority)
Research Grant Proposals
The UVC is interested in innovative field-based projects that demonstrate strong potential for high-quality research and analysis, which in turn can inform practical action on conflict and/or facilitate interregional collaboration and networking among researchers and practitioners.
Proposals should clearly describe research objectives and significance, with alignment between research design/method and research questions and goals. Proposals should also demonstrate knowledge of the research subject and relevant literature, and address the feasibility of proposed research activities, including a time frame for project completion. Please consider carefully how your research project has the potential to contribute to a sound and credible knowledge base for how different interventions affect violent conflict and/or the risk of renewed violent conflict. They strongly encourage the inclusion of a brief, but realistic budget outline (keeping within the allotted amount for the grant), to fit appropriately within a six-month project and the page limit required.
Grants
- Grants are awarded on a competitive, peer-reviewed basis and are intended to support three months of field-based research, whereas a visiting fellowship can be supported for a maximum of 6 months. Up to 7-9 individual grants of a maximum of £17,000 will be awarded.
Eligibility
- Candidates must be postdoctoral scholars, policy analysts, or practitioners based at a university or nongovernmental organization with at least three years of field-based experience since the completion of the PhD (or researchers with equivalent experience who have published one book or two peer-reviewed academic articles);
- Applications will be considered for the following purposes only: funding to support fieldwork, teaching buy-out at your home institution, or a visiting appointment at a US or European university;
- Research projects must focus on the core countries of the CRF: Somalia, South Sudan, DRC, Iraq, or Syria;
- Applicants must also be available to attend a preparatory workshop in New York within the first two months of their fellowship period, and a capstone workshop towards the end of the year-long fellowship;
- At the end of the fellowship period, recipients must produce an original research output that is suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal;
- Women and nationals of the five country cases are strongly encouraged to apply.
Application
The following documents are required for complete application:
- Completed Application Form
- Completed Proposal & Bibliography
- Two (2) Reference Letters
- Language evaluation(s) (if required)
- Updated CV
For more information, visit SSRC Conflict Research Fellowship.
