Deadline: 6-Jul-22
The British Academy is inviting applications for funding for a policy-led Innovation Fellowship (Route B), working with their partner, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
The FCDO has specialised research requirements, operating in a context where timely access to high-quality evidence-based analysis can mean the difference between success and failure. Exerting influence, negotiating and leveraging others’ power at precisely the right moment is at a premium. This can make it difficult for researchers operating outside the FCDO to have a significant impact. These Fellowships will provide an opportunity to change that by enabling close interaction with FCDO policymakers directly in the heart of this government department’s work.
Scope
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This fellowship will take place in the context of the FCDO’s response to the war in Ukraine, its impact on the post-Cold War international order and effects not just in Ukraine, but across the wider region. The Academy and the FCDO invite applications in any of the following three areas:
- Russian Economy and Sanctions. A Fellowship in this area would focus on the profound economic consequences of the war for Russia, including but not limited to issues such as: economic developments inside Russia, including the impact of sanctions; the knock-on effects of sanctions overseas, including the geopolitical consequences of Russia’s search for non-Western markets; Russia’s use of economic levers abroad; illicit finance; arms sales; and potential war reparations.
- Belarus. A Fellowship on Belarus would look at the full range of issues facing the country, including but not limited to: regime security, internal security and human rights; economic issues including the impact of sanctions on Belarus, and the knock-on impact of Russia sanctions; relations with Russia, its neighbours and the wider world, including migration issues.
- Russian Foreign Policy. While the world remains focused on the war in Ukraine, Russia continues to exert influence beyond the Euro-Atlantic space. Its efforts to bolster its position internationally, promoting itself as a great power with global reach in a multipolar world, often put it in competition with Western countries. A Fellowship could explore Russia’s role in Africa, Asia and / or the Middle East. It would look at the range of tools and levers Russia has at its disposal (including in the political, economic and information space) and their effects – for Russia and the relevant regions, as well as in multilateral fora and specifically for the UK.
- The Academy and FCDO do not have preconceived ideas about the disciplinary background of the Fellow, but the applicant will need to demonstrate a solid understanding of the relevant issues, including the key Russian policy-making bodies and the systemic challenges they face. Russian language skills are desirable but not essential.
- The Fellow would be attached to the Research Analysts Cadre, working closely alongside the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Directorate.
Aims
- The British Academy has been funded by the UK government, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to support a new scheme, the Innovation Fellowships. The Academy is also working on this scheme in partnership with other partners, including the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), as per this call.
- The Innovation Fellowships scheme will provide funding and support for established early-career and mid-career researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences to partner with organisations and business in the creative and cultural, public, private and policy sectors, to address challenges that require innovative approaches and solutions. Through the Innovation Fellowships, their researchers in the SHAPE community will be supported to create new and deeper links beyond academia, so enabling knowledge mobilisation and translation, as well as individual skills development.
Funding Information
- The award will have a maximum award value of £120,000 on an 80% Full Economic Costing (FEC) basis.
- The award is for a period of 12 months.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants must be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom with a current long-term appointment that will continue for at least as long as the period of the award at a UK-based institution (e.g. a Higher Education Institution [HEI] or Independent Research Organisation [IRO]).
- They must also meet the requirements set out above in the ‘Working at and with the FCDO’ section.
- Applications are welcome from early-career researchers and mid-career researchers. Applicants must self-define their career stage in the application, providing further details about career breaks or other circumstances if relevant. Please note that applications from independent researchers cannot be accepted in this round of the scheme.
- Applicants may not hold more than one British Academy award of a comparable nature at any one time.
- Applicants for the Innovation Fellowships Scheme should be intending to pursue challenges that can benefit from the contribution of Humanities or Social Sciences expertise.
- Postgraduate students are not eligible to apply for grant support from the Academy, and Applicants are asked to confirm in the personal details section(s) that they are not currently working towards a PhD, nor awaiting the outcome of a viva voce examination, nor awaiting the acceptance of any corrections required by the examiners.
- Applicants must be based in an institution which must be listed as an approving- organisation in the British Academy’s grant management system, Flexi-Grant. This institution (e.g. a Higher Education Institution [HEI] or Independent Research Organisation [IRO]) must be based in the United Kingdom and will be issued the Terms and Conditions of the award, if successful.
For more information, visit The British Academy.
For more information, visit https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/innovation-fellowships-scheme-route-b-expertise/
