Deadline: 31 May 2018
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is currently seeking applications for its Meaning-making Research Initiatives to promote research by African and Diaspora scholars in the Social Sciences and Humanities that can contribute to a better understanding of Africa and its place in the world.
Thematic Priorities
All applications must engage with CODESRIA’s 2017-2021 thematic priorities and cross-cutting issues:
- Democratic processes, governance, citizenship and security in Africa: Security challenges and ways of grappling with them, transitional justice, democratization, citizenship and migration, the rule of law and human rights, governance processes and mechanisms at local, national and international levels, language, the changing boundaries and configurations of states and communities
- Ecologies, economies and societies in Africa: Land, natural resource management, climate change, demographic change, urbanization, food security and poverty in Africa and technological innovation as well as the interaction of human populations with the rest of the environment in Africa, the forms it takes, its histories and trajectories and its impact on a broad set of sectors including the continent’s burgeoning economies
- Higher education dynamics in a changing Africa: The role of higher education in economic and political transformation in Africa, the rapid transformation in the African higher education landscape, the reform of African higher education and innovations in higher education leadership
- Cross-cutting themes: Applications should indicate the ways in which some of these cross-cutting themes are integrated in their proposals: these are gender, generations, inequality, rurality and urbanity, memory and history, as well as futures and alternatives
Grant information
The Council will offer up to USD 35,000 for each winning project.
Eligibility Criteria
- The call invites applications from groups only.
- No individual awards will be granted.
- All projects should:
- be headed by female scholars; and
- have only women as members.
- Only in exceptional cases, and with proper justification, will the Council admit a group that has a majority of female applicants with a small number of male members.
- The members of a group may be from one country or multiple countries. Each group should have between 3 and 5 members and should take into account CODESRIA’s core principles of linguistic, intergenerational and interdisciplinary diversity. All members of a group should have a demonstrated ability to contribute meaningfully to the work of the group.
Selection Criteria
Projects funded under this initiative should meet most of the following criteria:
- Propose research on important aspects of African social realities that fall under CODESRIA’s priority themes as outlined in the CODESRIA Strategic Plan;
- Be guided by clear questions that explore puzzling aspects of the social realities of Africa and its position in the world while at the same time reflecting an interest in questions of diversity including the gendered one;
- Be grounded in the thorough exploration of the continent’s social realities and history;
- Engage constructively and rigorously with African futures;
- Be theoretically ambitious with a clear goal of providing new and innovative ways of understanding and making sense of African social realities;
- Explore multiple spatial, temporal and sectoral settings where this contributes to the process of meaning-making;
- Demonstrate familiarity with knowledge already produced by CODESRIA on the subject researched.
How to Apply
All applications should be sent via email at the address given on the website.
For more information, please visit Meaning-making Research Initiatives.