[Civsoc-mw] FW: [CODESRIA News] MRI, Senior Research Grants 2018

Wed Feb 14 13:53:56 CAT 2018

From: Codesria-News [mailto:codesria-news-bounces at gn.apc.org] On Behalf Of
editor.news at codesria.org
Sent: 14 February 2018 11:23
To: codesria-news at gn.apc.org
Subject: [CODESRIA News] MRI, Senior Research Grants 2018

MRI, Senior Research Grants 2018

Application deadline: April 15, 2018

  <http://codesria.org/local/cache-vignettes/L245xH138/arton2831-b2ebe.png> 

Established in 1973, the Council for the Development of Social Science
Research in Africa (CODESRIA) promotes 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. This is motivated
by the belief that sound knowledge of the continent is invaluable to efforts
to make Africa a better place for its peoples and societies.

In 2017 CODESRIA introduced the Meaning-making Research Initiative (MRI) as
its principal tool for supporting research. Like previous tools, MRI focuses
on supporting research that contributes to agendas for imagining, planning
and creating African futures. MRI replaced five tools that CODESRIA had
deployed in previous years to support research. These were National Working
Groups (NWG), Multinational Working Groups (MWG), Comparative Research
Networks (CRN), Transnational Working Groups (TWG) and postdoctoral grants.
One goal of this move is to increase the legibility and visibility of the
research supported by the Council by collapsing previous tools for
supporting research into a single initiative.

The adoption of MRI marks a recommitment to the tasks of interpretation and
explanation that saw CODESRIA produce ground-breaking work on thematic
issues such as democratization and economic reform in Africa. MRI
aggressively pushes scholars to build on the close observation of African
social realities to grapple with the tasks of explanation and
interpretation. The initiative will reinforce support for researchers. It
will also better integrate these scholars into the Council's work. Further,
it will offer scholars more varied ways to present their work, including
through books, journal articles and policy interventions.

Key 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;

. Be grounded in the thorough exploration of the continent's social
realities and history while at the same time reflecting an interest in
questions of diversity including the gendered one;

. 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.

Senior Research Grants: The senior research grants of the Meaning-making
Research Initiatives will facilitate the work of senior scholars who can
make ground-breaking contributions to their field. It is also the hope of
CODESRIA that these senior scholars will dialogue with young and middle
level researchers who participate in Council's other activities. Senior
research grants will award amounts of up to USD 30,000 to scholars who are
20 years beyond their PhDs to produce a book that will help reshape work in
their area of expertise. It is expected that researchers applying for this
grant will be at an advanced stage of data analysis so the grant can go
directly into writing the manuscript. All grants are individual and will
last for 16-months.

Thematic priorities: All applications must engage with CODESRIA's 2017-2021
thematic priorities and cross-cutting issues:

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

How to apply

Interested applicants should submit application packages containing the
following required materials as Word documents. Please note that
applications that lack any of these elements will be discarded.

. A proposal with the following clearly titled sections: an introduction;
statement and contextualization of question(s) around which the project is
centered; brief review of literature and/or competing hypotheses; study
design and research methodology; theoretical and practical significance of
the study and research plan. Proposals must be submitted as Word documents
and should not exceed 10 pages long (font type: Times New Roman; font size:
12; line spacing: double).

. Budget: The budget should employ the template attached to this call and
should take into consideration the fact that these grants have strict
16-month lifespans. CODESRIA will directly fund launch and completion
workshops.

. Annotated plan of deliverables: One-page annotated plan for the book to be
written.

. A cover letter listing full details- names, email and physical addresses
and telephone number

. CV of the scholar, including full contact details

. Identification sheet: A completed version of the identification sheet
attached to this call.

Please leave the document as an Excel file.

NOTE: A successful applicant for this grant will be expected to submit,
within three months of signing of the grant contract, a revised draft paper
that elaborates the research issue(s), the underlying conceptual framework,
a detailed review of the relevant literature, and an outline of the
methodological basis of the study. We expect that this will be framed in the
form of draft book chapters.

The deadline for submission of applications for both individual and group
grants is April 15, 2018. Notification of the result of the selection
process will be done by June 30, 2018 and applicants who will not hear from
us by then should consider their applications unsuccessful. 
All applications should be sent by email to "2018 Meaning-making Research
Initiatives (SRG)," CODESRIA at  <mailto:mri at codesria.sn> mri at codesria.sn.
When sending your email kindly use the subject line 'MRI-SRG 2018' to
facilitate the processing of your application.

To learn more about CODESRIA's Meaning-making Research Initiatives please
contact:

Research Program
CODESRIA
BP 3304, CP 18524
Dakar, Senegal
Tel: +221 - 33 825 9822/23
Fax: +221- 33 824 1289
E-mail:  <mailto:mri at codesria.sn> mri at codesria.sn
Website:  <http://www.codesria.org/> http://www.codesria.org

<http://codesria.org/IMG/xlsx/mri_budget_breakdowneng.xlsx?9173/59fec8944d5d
e01748e409928555a3c6465604d0> 

<http://codesria.org/IMG/xlsx/mri_budget_breakdowneng.xlsx?9173/59fec8944d5d
e01748e409928555a3c6465604d0> MRI Budget Template

Excel

31.4 kb

<http://codesria.org/IMG/xlsx/identification_form-4.xlsx?9174/aed1b0d1502e0a
2c5e53cae399538283fe7b843c> 

<http://codesria.org/IMG/xlsx/identification_form-4.xlsx?9174/aed1b0d1502e0a
2c5e53cae399538283fe7b843c> Identification form

Excel

11.9 kb

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