The British Academy Global Innovation Fellowships: The German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) 2024 in Germany

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 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, so enabling knowledge mobilisation and translation, as well as individual skills development.

This is the second call for this programme, offering opportunities for Global Innovation Fellowship award holders to embed themselves and be based in the office of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin. Awards from the first round can be seen here.

The German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) is committed to fostering impactful foreign and security policy on a German and European level that promotes democracy, peace, and the rule of law. DGAP’s experts provide decision-makers in politics, business, and civil society with strategic advice based on their foreign policy research and train young professionals in international leadership programmes. DGAP conducts action-oriented, practical research, developing concrete solutions for pressing foreign policy concerns and contributing expertise to strategically address the challenges of an increasingly unstable world.

The aim is to have a mutually beneficial partnership between the fellowship award holder and DGAP with each able to take advantage of fresh perspectives and expand their networks and reach. It will enable the award holder to strengthen and create new links across policy and academia, enabling knowledge mobilisation and translation, and the opportunity to develop new approaches and solutions to policy challenges through providing a different perspective.

Applications are invited in any of the following areas:

Technology and International Affairs.
Global Order and Disorder
Eastern and South-eastern Europe.
Sustainability, Nature & Climate.

Successful applicants would be expected to produce policy-relevant analysis for German decision-makers. They do not need an understanding of German politics, but they should be able to offer new approaches to typical foreign policy dilemmas in their chosen field and be ready to engage with policymakers and further stakeholders in Germany.

Aim and Benefits

The Academy is offering up to two one-year fellowships hosted in DGAP's offices in Berlin.

These are offered as awards for up to £150,000 for 12 months in duration (with Full Economic Costing at 80%).

Requirements

The British Academy is inviting applications from early-career and mid-career researchers who are working on the themes outlined below who could contribute fresh perspectives to the specified challenges. Please note that applications from independent researchers cannot be accepted in this round of the scheme.
Applicants might have expertise from a range of disciplinary, conceptual and methodological perspectives, including analytical, policy and practical perspectives.
Eligible applicants must be ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom 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 based at an institution in the UK (e.g., a Higher Education Institution [HEI] or Independent Research Organisation [IRO]), from disciplines within the Humanities and Social Sciences that is listed as an approving-organisation in the British Academy’s grant management system, 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 this brings 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 DGAP.
Applicants must also meet the requirements set out below in the ‘Working at and with the DGAP’ section.
Applicants may not hold more than one British Academy award of a comparable nature at any one time.
Postgraduate students are not eligible to apply for grant support from the Academy, and Applicants are asked to confirm in the personal details section(s) that they are not currently working towards a PhD, nor awaiting the outcome of a viva voce examination, nor awaiting the acceptance of any corrections required by the examiners.