The African Peacebuilding Network (APN) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) invites research fellowship applications from African scholars, researchers, policy analysts, and practitioners working on conflict and peacebuilding issues at universities and research institutions; or regional, governmental, and nongovernmental agencies or organizations based in Africa.
About the Individual Research Fellowships Program
A core component of the APN, the Individual Research Fellowship (IRF) 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, practitioners, and research centers of excellence in Africa and around the world. Fellowship recipients produce research-based knowledge that is relevant to, and has a significant impact on peacebuilding scholarship, policy, and practice on the continent. For its part, the APN works toward inserting the evidence-based knowledge that fellowship award recipients produce into regional and global debates, practices, and policies focusing on peacebuilding. The program also strives to build a highly visible and active network of African scholars and practitioners capable of projecting African perspectives and voices onto global peacebuilding discourses, knowledge, and practices.
Support is available for research and analysis on the following issues:
Causes, drivers, actors, and trajectories of violent conflict;
Natural resource conflict: community, national and regional dimensions
Geopolitics and histories of conflict, conflict mediation and peace;
Minorities, under-represented groups, and the social dynamics of conflict and peace;
Climate Change, Energy Transitions, Conflict and Peace
Climate change adaptation and mitigation practices and peace
Religion and peace
Resilience, conflict prevention and transformation;
State and non-state armed actors, transnational crime, extremism, displacement, and migration;
Post-conflict elections, democratization, governance, and development;
Statebuilding, nation-building, identities, and the citizenship question;
Transitional justice, reconciliation, and peace;
The economic and financial dimensions of peace support operations and post-conflict reconstruction;
Regional Economic Communities (RECs), regionalism and peace;
UN-AU-REC Partnerships and Peacebuilding Architectures ;
Media, digital technology, AI, war, and peacebuilding;
Cultures, media, and art(s) of peace;
Women, youth, and peacebuilding;
Water politics, conflict, and peace;
Theater, Music, and Peace
Human mobilities, insecurities and peace
Peace Education and African Literatures
Prevention of mass atrocities; and
Diseases, Politics and Peace
Fellowships are awarded on a competitive, peer-reviewed basis and are intended to support six months of field-based research, from June 2024 to December 2024. Up to seventeen (17) individual fellowships of a maximum of $15,000 each will be awarded. Women are strongly encouraged to apply.
During the fellowship period, recipients are required to participate in two mandatory workshops organized by the APN. These workshops will provide opportunities to refine recipients’ research designs, focus and methods; present findings; explore ways to make their work more accessible through publications and other means to multiple peacebuilding constituencies; networking, and developing constructive working relationships with other fellows, senior academic, and practitioner facilitators.
Fellows are also strongly encouraged to contribute to the APN’s Working Paper and Policy Briefing Note series, as well as to the program’s digital forums and social media platforms (Kujenga Amani, Facebook, and Twitter).
Eligibility
All applicants must be African citizens currently residing in an African country. This competition is open to African academics, as well as policy analysts and practitioners.
Applicants who are academics must hold a faculty or research position at an African university or research organization, and have a PhD obtained no earlier than January 2013. Applicants who have not been awarded their PhDs by February 11, 2024 will not have their cases prioritized to be eligible as academics.
Applicants who are policy analysts or practitioners must be based in Africa at a regional or sub-regional institution; a government agency; or a nongovernmental, media, or civil society organization, and have at least a master’s degree obtained before January 2019, with at least five years of proven research and work experience in peacebuilding-related activities on the continent.
Requirements
Completed Application Form
Research Proposal & Bibliography
Expected publication(s)
Current CV
Proposed Research Timeline
Proposed Research Budget
Two Reference Letters
Language Evaluation(s) (if required)
If you encounter any difficulties accessing the online portal, please contact APN staff at [email protected].
