African Peace building Network Research Grants

Supporting independent African research and its integration into regional and global policy communities

Open for applications, next deadline is February 1^st 2014. Apply Now

Request for Proposals for African Peace building Network Research Grants

The African peace building Network (APN) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) invites research grant applications from African researchers, policy analysts, and practitioners working on conflict and peacebuilding issues at universities and research institutions or regional governmental and nongovernmental organizations in Africa.

About the African Peacebuilding Network

The APN promotes independent African research and analysis on peacebuilding in or near countries and regions affected by violent conflict on the continent. The program contributes to the emergence of a critical mass of Africa-based expertise: researchers, analysts, and practitioners who will play an important role in the shaping of an Africa-centered peacebuilding agenda.

About the APN Research Grants Program

A core component of the APN, the research grants program is a vehicle for enhancing the quality and visibility of independent African peacebuilding research both regionally and globally, while making peacebuilding knowledge accessible to key policymakers and research centers of excellence in Africa and around the world. Grant recipients will produce research-based knowledge that is relevant to, and has a significant impact on, peacebuilding policy and practice on the continent. For its part, the APN will work toward inserting the evidence-based knowledge that this group produces into regional and global debates and policies focusing on peacebuilding.

Support is available for research and analysis on issues such as the following:

• Root causes of conflict and conflict prevention, mediation, management, resolution, and transformation
• Environmental change and conflict
• Post-conflict elections, democratization, and governance
• The relationship between peacebuilding and state building, including state-society relations and state reconstruction
• Transitional justice, reconciliation, and human rights
• Economic and financial dimensions of conflict, peacekeeping, and peace support operations
• Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR)
• Security sector reform (SSR)
• Media, civil society, and peace
• Peace partnerships involving the UN, the AU, Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and civil society
• Gender and peacebuilding
• Peace education and social change

Grants are awarded on a competitive, peer-reviewed basis and are intended to support six months of field-based research, from May to November 2014. Up to ten individual grants of a maximum of $15,000 will be awarded.

During their grant period, grantees are required to participate in two workshops to be held at the African Leadership Centre (ALC) in Nairobi in May and November 2014. These workshops will provide opportunities to refine research focus and methodologies, present findings, explore ways to make work accessible through publications and other means to multiple peacebuilding constituencies, and develop constructive working relationships with other grantees, senior academics, and practitioner facilitators.

Research Grant Proposals

The APN 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 peacebuilding and/or facilitate interregional collaboration and networking among African 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. Applicants should also discuss the likely relevance of the proposed research to existing knowledge on peacebuilding practice and policy. We encourage the inclusion of a brief budget outline (not detailed), to fit appropriately within the page limit required.

Eligibility

All applicants must be African citizens currently residing in an African country.

Academic applicants must hold a faculty or research position at an African university or research organization and have a PhD.

Policy analysts and practitioner applicants must be based in Africa at a regional or subregional institution, a government agency, or a nongovernmental, media, or civil society organization and have at least an MA with no less than five years of research-related or work experience.

Application Process

The APN strongly prefers that applications be uploaded through our online portal. Alternatively, completed applications can be e-mailed to apn@ssrc.org or delivered by post or courier service to the following address:

APN Research Grants Competition
Social Science Research Council
1 Pierrepont Plaza, 15th floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
USA

Deadline for Applications

Applications are due by 9 pm EST, February 1, 2014.

If you have questions, please contact APN program staff by telephone at (+1) 212-377-2700 or by e-mail at apn@ssrc.org.

APN Research Grants

Program Director

Cyril Obi

Contact

• Dagan Rossini

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  Call for Papers: Notre Dame Student Peace Conference 2014

  November 4, 2013
  Contact:

  peacecon@nd.edu

  The 2014 Notre Dame Student Peace Conference Committee announces “Building Peace: Integrating Two Decades of Progress,” scheduled for March 28–29, 2014, at the University of Notre Dame. This event is sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

  What have we learned about building peace since the end of the Cold War, and how should we develop this knowledge into future strategies? These are the fundamental questions that this conference will explore. It will investigate the advancements and shortcomings of peacebuilding efforts during the post-Cold War period, foster a better understanding of peace work over the last two decades, and explore how to transform these reflections into more insightful and integrated approaches. Because history unexamined often becomes history forgotten, we believe that focusing on the contexts and patterns of recent history allows us to extract crucial lessons that we can refine into the ideas and principles of the future.

  The conference committee seeks submissions from undergraduate and graduate students for paper or poster presentations, workshops, panel or roundtable discussions, media displays or artwork, and other innovative presentations of research that explore this theme.

  We welcome proposals that explore, but are not limited to, topics such as: peace negotiations, international policy, nuclear disarmament, the Internet, social media, revolution, terrorism, Islamophobia, racial equality, cultural understanding, women’s human rights, crisis and disaster response, the rise of social enterprise, and other highlights of the recent period. Exploring these topics in specific historical context will allow us to facilitate discussion on themes and connections that can inform our work as the world’s future peacebuilders.

  Interested students should submit an abstract or description of their project (no more than 500 words) and a short biography summarizing their academic interests and background (no more than 250 words).

  Please submit proposals on this page or via the conference website. The deadline for submission is Monday, January 27, 2014.

  The Notre Dame Student Peace Conference is an annual student conference organized by students for students to provide space for dialogue on important issues related to peacebuilding, global issues, and social justice.

  Questions may be directed to the organizers at peacecon@nd.edu.

• Posted by Matthew Fred