Deadline: 30 September 2019
The Vidanta Foundation and Wilson Center’s Latin American Program have announced a call for applications to conduct research about and propose concrete solutions to the range of environmental threats faced by countries of the hemisphere.
The impacts of environmental degradation and climate change are increasingly visible across the globe, affecting the resilience of communities and threatening biodiversity. From extreme weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires, to slow onset disasters like droughts and sea-level rise, the impacts of climate change are undermining human health and security.
Citizens of Latin America and the Caribbean who reside in the region are encouraged to focus their applications on innovative projects and public policies that will address one or more of the region’s urgent environmental challenges. The goal of the fellowship is to explore and highlight evidence-based initiatives that have shown promising results and have the potential to be adopted on a wider scale in the region.
The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas.
The Latin American Program works to:
- Improve the quality of U.S.-Latin American relations
- Encourage innovation
- Foster sustainable, inclusive growth and development
- Enhance governance and security
Benefits & Access
- The residential fellowship will take place at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. Each fellow is assigned a furnished office available to him or her every day around the clock.
- The center is located in the heart of Washington, D.C., and includes conference rooms, a reference library, and a dining room. The building is a smoke-free environment.
- The Wilson Center Library provides loan privileges with the Library of Congress and access to digital resources, its book and journal collections, and to university and special libraries in the area, and other research facilities.
- Windows-based personal computers are provided, and each fellow is offered a part-time research assistant.
- Although fellows are responsible for locating their own housing in the Washington, D.C. area, the Center provides written materials to help facilitate the search process, if desired.
- Fellows are provided with a monthly stipend and are required to purchase health insurance unless they have a medical plan that covers them while in the United States. The fellowship includes round-trip airfare in economy class.
Length of Appointment
- The fellowship is for a minimum of four months and a maximum of six months.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be citizens of any Latin American or Caribbean country and currently reside in the region.
- Applicants must hold a valid passport and be eligible to obtain a J-1 visa.
- Wilson Center’s welcome applications from outstanding women and men from a wide variety of backgrounds, including business, civil society, academia, journalism, and other professions.
- Former government officials are eligible but current officials are not.
- A command of spoken English is necessary since the center encourages the exchange of ideas among its fellows and with the broader Washington policy community.
- Applicants must have an undergraduate or graduate degree and a minimum of five years of relevant work experience. The fellowship is not open to current students or to those working on a Master’s-level or doctoral dissertation.
Selection Criteria
- Significance of the proposed research, including the importance and originality of the project.
- The quality of the proposal in organization, clarity, and scope.
- The capabilities and achievements of the applicant and the likelihood that he or she will accomplish the proposed project.
- Projects should involve fresh research, in terms of both the overall issue and the applicant’s previous work. It is essential that projects have relevance to public and private decision makers, and fellows should want, and be prepared, to interact with policymakers throughout the Washington policy community and with others at the Wilson Center working on similar issues.
How to Apply
Applicants can apply online via given website.
For more information, please visit https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/addressing-environmental-challenges-the-americas-call-for-applications