The #BritishAcademy: Funding call. Global Innovation Fellowships (#Carnegie)

The programme is supported under the UK government’s International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). The £337m fund is designed to enable potential and foster prosperity. It puts research and innovation at the heart of our international relationships, supporting UK researchers and innovators to work with peers around the world on the major themes of our time: planet, health, tech, and talent. The fund is managed by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and delivered by a consortium of the UK’s leading research and innovation bodies.

The objective of the Global Innovation Fellowships is to provide opportunities to UK-based early- and mid-career researchers from across the humanities and social sciences to develop their skills, networks and careers in the creative and cultural, public, private and policy sectors to address challenges that require innovative approaches and solutions. Through the Global Innovation Fellowships, researchers in the SHAPE community will be supported to create new and deeper links beyond academia in order to enable knowledge mobilisation and translation, as well as individual skills development.

Aims 

This is the second call for this programme, offering opportunities for Global Innovation Fellowship award-holders to embed themselves and be based in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (specifically in the USA, with possibilities to engage in other regions as appropriate). Awards from the first round can be seen in our awards announcement.

In a complex, changing, and increasingly contested world, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace generates strategic ideas and independent analysis, supports diplomacy, and trains the next generation of international scholar-practitioners to help countries and institutions take on the most difficult global problems and safeguard peace. Carnegie’s experts are thinkers and doers from diverse disciplines and perspectives working together across borders to advance international peace. Their scholars focus on cross-cutting topical analysis on democracy, technology, climate and more, while understanding the regional context in Asia, Africa, Europe, India, the Middle East, and Russia and Eurasia.

The Academy and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace invite applications for Fellowships in any of the following areas:

• Sustainability, Climate and Geopolitics. A Fellowship in this area would focus on the interlocking and existential climate, sustainability and nature-based challenges of our time. Ensuring just transitions whilst tackling climate change and biodiversity loss is key to supporting inclusive economies and societies in the future. This will have major global and regional implications, where analysis and insightful ideas that bridge research and policy action are critical to tackling the interlocking climate and ecological crises and pathways to adaptation and mitigation. In addition to identifying key issues for climate/ecological diplomacy, scholars who focus on the geopolitical consequences of climate change and ecological disruption are particularly encouraged to apply.

• Technology and International Affairs. A Fellowship in this area would explore the interaction of technological innovation and international affairs. This could include: the growing interdependence of technology and foreign, security and trade policy; the governance, ethics, regulation and/or societal engagement related to technological advancement and emerging technologies; or the impact of technology on global supply chains of supply and production. Understanding the international opportunities and risks of advancing technology and different international approaches to technological developments is important to modern geo-strategy. Analysis of how states, commercial actors and other stakeholders account for, and act to substantiate their, interests, values and ethics developing and implementing technological advancements is key, as are assessments of possible geopolitical and economic ramifications of such approaches.

• Democracy, Conflict and Governance. A Fellowship in this area could explore a range of global democracy, conflict and governance issues, and the interrelations among them. This could include: the global trend of closing space for civil society; the changing nature of civic activism; support for democracy and human rights internationally; a comparative lens on the challenges facing democracies; methods of reducing violence in democracies; efforts to stabilise conflicts in fragile and conflict-affected states; socio-political polarisation in democracies; and diversity and representation in politics and civil society in democracies.

• Global Order and Institutions. A Fellowship in this area could explore a wide range of challenges and perspectives on global order and disorder, as well as international institutions. There is no single solution to the challenges of global (dis)order. This complexity includes the changing nature of the times, and the values and self-understandings that have often motivated the search for status, for recognition and a different kind of international order emanating in different parts of the world. Analysing this shifting landscape is key to advancing a more peaceful, prosperous, and just world.

• Nuclear Policy. Nuclear dangers are increasing, yet remain largely underappreciated. Carnegie’s Nuclear Policy Program works to strengthen international security by diagnosing acute nuclear risks, informing debates on solutions, and engaging international actors to effect change. A Fellowship in this area could explore deterrence, disarmament, non-proliferation, nuclear security, and nuclear energy – working alongside Carnegie scholars on research, capacity building, dialogue, and direct engagement with policymakers and industry.

• Political Economy and Trade. A Fellowship in this area could focus on trade relations in and with Africa, examining the changing landscape of African countries’ trade relations and the implications of regional integration for export diversification and the potential for new trade agreements for access to global markets. Global trade and the political economy of trade are shifting significantly with reshoring of supply chains and heightened linkages between trade, security and foreign policy. This is happening at a time of considerable global economic and political shifts with increased economic competition and the need to bring about a green transition with a vital role for understanding African state and non-state perspectives, opportunities and challenges in this changing context.

Eligibility requirements

Applicants may have relevant disciplinary, conceptual and/or methodological expertise, including from analytical, policy and practical perspectives.

Eligible applicants must ordinarily be resident in the UK with a current long-term appointment that will continue for at least as long as the period of the award. You must be an early-career or mid-career researcher from disciplines within the humanities and social sciences, and based at an institution in the UK (eg a Higher Education Institution [HEI] or Independent Research Organisation [IRO]) that is listed as an approving-organisation in the British Academy’s Grant Management System (GMS), Flexi-Grant®. This institution will be issued the Terms and Conditions of the award, if successful.

This is an opportunity for award-holders to form new collaborations and draw on the insights they bring to inform, influence and develop their future development. We seek open-mindedness, a willingness to explore new perspectives and to experiment with innovative approaches. You will have an appetite for working across academia, policy and practice, and will demonstrate a commitment to being genuinely challenge driven and dedicated to integrating the perspectives, needs and priorities of the partner organisation.

All applicants should strongly consider the potential for engagement between academic and non-academic environments and the value this would bring to their career and the value they can bring to the work and purpose of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Applicants must also meet the requirements set out in the ‘Working at and with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’ section of the application form.

Applicants may not hold more than one British Academy award of a comparable nature at any one time.

Value and duration

Global Innovation Fellowships will have a maximum award value of £150,000 on an 80 per cent Full Economic Costing (FEC) basis. The award is intended to be made on a full-time basis.

The cost of relocation, visas and any associated costs for the applicant and their dependants are eligible under this programme.

Application process

Expressions of Interest must be submitted online using the British Academy’s Grant Management System, Flexi-Grant®

Expressions of Interest must be submitted by Wednesday 27 November 2024, 17:00 (GMT).

Contact details

Email: international@thebritishacademy.ac.uk