Open Society Scholar Awards

The Civil Society Scholar Awards (CSSA) support international academic mobility to enable doctoral students and university faculty to access resources that enrich socially engaged research and critical scholarship in their home country or region.

*Any approved institution/location

Any subject areas within the social sciences and humanities are eligible, but particularly those related to: law, justice, and governance; sustainable development and natural resource management; economic rights and empowerment of the poor; public health, social work and community development; new media law and policy; inclusive education; post-conflict studies; and human rights.

Ineligible fields include: business administration, management training, computer science, finance/banking, marketing, engineering, hard sciences (physics, biology, chemistry, etc.), mathematics, medical sciences, or teaching English as a foreign language/language instruction.

Not specified

Candidates must be citizens of the following countries: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Kosovo, Laos, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Myanmar/Burma, Nepal, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, or Yemen.

Applicants with permanent resident status, dual citizenship, and/or asylum seekers in Australia, Canada, European Union, New Zealand, Nordic Countries, or the United States are not eligible to apply.

The maximum funding requests is $10,000 for doctoral students and $15,000 for faculty members. The project duration should be between two to nine months.

The awards are open to the following academic populations from eligible countries (see above):

• doctoral students of eligible fields studying at accredited universities inside or outside of their home country

• full-time faculty members teaching at universities in their home country

The awards support short-term, international academic projects, such as: fieldwork (data collection); research visits to libraries, archives, or universities; course/curriculum development; and international research collaborations leading to peer-reviewed publication.

Requests for support for first-year tuition fees will only be considered on the basis of a clearly demonstrated need from new doctoral students who have gained admission to universities outside of their home country and will use the award towards their first year of academic study.

Applicants are strongly advised to submit their application online. Alternatively, applicants may submit an application in hard copy and submit it to one of the offices noted in the guidelines. Deadline is 15 February 2016.

It is important to read the Civil Society Scholar Award Guidelines and visit the official website (link found below) to access the application form and for detailed information on how to apply for this scholarship.