Deadline: 30 September 2014
Researchers in Egypt, Kazakhstan, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia and UK are invited to apply for the travel grants of Researcher Links under two opportunity categories – (i) Researcher Links – Newton Fund and (ii) Researcher Links. The aim of the Travel Grants is to enhance and strengthen links for future collaboration, build research capacity in developing economies and enhance the researchers’ career opportunities.
The purposes of research visits are as follows
- Support development-relevant research
- Establish a new research link or significantly develop an existing link, with the potential for longer term sustainability
- Contribute to capacity building of individual researchers and research groups
The grants cover travel, visa, insurance, subsistence, and consumables. These grants can be either for researchers in the UK to travel to one of the partner countries, or vice versa. The duration of the research visit can be a minimum of one month and a maximum of six months, depending on country of origin and destination. Research visits should be completed by 31st of March 2016.
Partner Countries
- For Researcher Links – Newton Fund Egypt, Kazakhstan, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam
- For Researcher Links Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea
Research Challenge Areas
- Agriculture (e.g. irrigation, crop yields)
- Climate and environment (e.g. climate change, green technology, sustainable development, ecosystem services, resource scarcity)
- Sustainable energy for all
- Education research for development
- Economic growth (e.g. equitable growth, financial sector development, private sector development)
- Health (e.g. HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases, child mortality, maternal health)
- Water and sanitation
- Food and nutrition (including food security)
- Demographic change and migration
- Rural and urban development
- Infrastructure (including civil engineering, information and communication technologies, big data for social and economic development)
- Humanitarian disasters and emergencies, disaster risk reduction
- Resilient and connected communities
- Governance, society and conflict (e.g. transparency, accountability, effective institutions, land and natural resource rights, poverty alleviation, social development, structural inequalities, violence and security, peace building, civil society)
- Development-relevant data collection, quality and access (including administrative data and macroeconomic statistics)
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be based in the United Kingdom or one of the partner countries.
- Only one application can be made per person to/from either Researcher Links – Newton Fund, or Researcher Links partner countries.
- Proposals will be accepted in any discipline/multidisciplinary area (including from the natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities).
- Proposals must articulate clear relevance to development and a plausible pathway of how the research may lead to positive impact within a short- to medium-term timeframe (i.e. within 3-15 years) on people living in poverty in the partner countries. Development relevance does not have to be demonstrated in proposals involving Russia or South Korea.
- Grants involving countries other than Russia and South Korea must have demonstrable relevance to the economic development and social welfare of partner countries, benefitting poor and vulnerable populations in these countries.
- Application must be accompanied with a supporting letter that confirms that the applicant will return to his/her home institution in a research capacity for at least six months after the end of the visit.
- Applicants must be able to secure a visa for the country which they plan to visit. Travel may only be between the UK and partner country, but can be in either direction, with the exception of South Korea where only UK-based researchers can apply to visit Korea and not vice versa.
For more information, please visit Travel Grants Open Calls.
