Grants

Social Science Research Council

Project Title

For support of the African Peacebuilding Network and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa fellowship program

Date

Sep. 11, 2025

Duration

36 months

Description

The African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (Next Gen) programs support African scholars to conduct research on peacebuilding, conflict, security, and development. This grant renewal will strengthen one of Carnegie’s signature investments in African peacebuilding. Over the next three years, SSRC plans to sharpen its focus by expanding targeted support for early-career and first-year PhD scholars, strengthening doctoral supervision and research methods training, and harnessing digital technologies for networking and knowledge sharing (blogs, podcasts, policy briefs, working papers, and webinars). The project will grow alumni-led activities and new regional hubs in Nigeria and South Africa, building on successes in Kenya. Future cohorts will be organized around three high-impact themes—critical minerals and conflict, great-power rivalry shaping African affairs, and digital peacebuilding with emerging technologies—ensuring a critical mass of policy-relevant scholarship.

Project Title

For support of the African Peacebuilding Network and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Program

Date

Sep. 14, 2023

Duration

24 months

Description

Despite the varied and complex nature of local conflict dynamics, international organizations, and global powers continue to play an inordinately large role in these processes. This has long been the case in Africa, where a new “Great Game” among external forces is complicating already daunting challenges. Understanding the crucial importance of African expertise and leadership for peacebuilding on the continent, the Social Science Research Councilcontinues to advance a pipeline of African scholars producing rigorous and relevant research on conflict-affected countries and neighboring region and disseminating these insights to policy and academic networks in the region and globally through the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and the Next Generation Social Scientists (Next Gen) projects.

Project Title

For support of the African Peacebuilding Network and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa program

Date

Sep. 02, 2021

Duration

24 months

Description

African countries’ political evolution continues its turbulent advance. Political protests in Nigeria, political revolution in Sudan, civil war in Ethiopia, and long-term ongoing conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are just a sampling of the vibrant and challenging developments affecting peace and security across the continent. Despite the varied and complex nature of local conflict dynamics, international organizations and global powers continue to play an inordinately large role in these processes. Understanding the importance of African expertise and leadership in these political and peace processes, the Social Science Research Councilcontinues to advance a pipeline of African scholars producing rigorous and relevant research on conflict-affected countries and neighboring regions through the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and the Next Generation Social Scientists (Next Gen) projects.

Project Title

For support of a conference and digital platform commemorating the 75th anniversary of the publication of Gunnar Mrydal’s "An American Dilemma"

Date

Jun. 13, 2019

Duration

12 months

Description

In 1944, Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal produced, “An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy,” a landmark project on the complexities of racism in the United States. Myrdal’s work was famously cited by the Supreme Court in decisions invalidating racial covenants and school segregation. It was also crucial to desegregation of the armed services. Seventy-five years later, the United States is still struggling with racial antagonism and socioeconomic disparities at all levels of society. With Corporation support, the Social Science Research Council will host a conference marking the 75th anniversary of Myrdal’s landmark publication, around which the council will also catalog and curate the Myrdal Research Collection. The conference will not only assess and review Myrdal’s work, but also debate the enduring legacies of the national dilemma it explored. The research collection will provide insights into the methods and methodologies used by the many social scientists who contributed to Myrdal’s project, as well as make available lines of inquiry which did not appear in the final product.

Project Title

For the African Peacebuilding Network and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa program

Date

Sep. 12, 2019

Duration

24 months

Description

Africa continues to be home to the world’s longest and deadliest conflicts. Over the past twenty years, a major critique of conflict resolution and security initiatives across the continent has been that these conflicts are externally-configured, -led, and –implemented. To increase and elevate African voices, agency, and leadership in the peacebuilding field, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) created the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) and the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (Next Gen) projects with initial funding from the Corporation. Together, the projects support the pipeline of African scholars based on the continent producing rigorous and relevant research on conflict-affected countries and neighboring regions. Research is made available to the academic community, as well as packaged in digestible and useful ways for the international and African policy communities. Renewed support will enable the continuation of the two projects.

Project Title

For a project to help develop cooperative solutions to problems involving security on the Korean peninsula and in northeast Asia

Date

Jun. 13, 2019

Duration

0 months

Description

North Korea’s nuclear program poses grave challenges to the global nonproliferation regime and the peace and security of Northeast Asia. Negotiation and engagement are essential for addressing these challenges. In support of government-to-government negotiations, the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project engages in unofficial Track II dialogues involving experts, former officials, and current officials acting in their unofficial capacities from North Korea and the United States, as well as from China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. The meetings explore ways to sustain the formal negotiation process and provide expert inputs on nuclear, missile, and other security issues arising in these discussions.

Project Title

For the Anxieties of Democracy program

Date

Jun. 01, 2017

Duration

24 months

Description

Democracies are dependent on a number of core institutions, such as elections, mass media, political parties, and legislatures. When these institutions do not operate effectively, democracy can fail. Through its Anxieties of Democracy program, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) conducts research on how democracies, and particularly the United States, can be strengthened to govern more capably and legitimately. The program’s activities include working groups, a media project, international partnerships, Democracy Fellows, a fellowship, and a communications strategy. Corporation funding will be used towards supporting the convening of the five working groups, comprised of some 70 academics, journalists, nonprofit leaders, and policymakers, focused on the following themes: institutions, participation, climate change, national security, and inequality and distribution.

Project Title

For a fellowship program to promote doctoral research and writing on peacebuilidng by African social scientists

Date

Mar. 02, 2017

Duration

30 months

Description

The Social Science Research Council’s “Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Fellowship Program” aims to increase the number of promising African university-based academics focusing on topics related to peacebuilding in Africa. The program provides competitively-awarded fellowships for dissertation proposal development, dissertation research, and dissertation writing. Fellows must be based in universities in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, or Uganda. The program also offers skill-building workshops and conference travel support, which contribute to expanding the fellows’ regional and international scholarly networks. Since the program’s inception in 2011, 150 early-career scholars have benefited from 187 fellowships, and fifty-one fellows have completed their doctoral degrees. This grant will support up to eighty-eight additional fellowships.

Project Title

For the African Peacebuilding Network

Date

Sep. 07, 2017

Duration

24 months

Description

Building on its previous Corporation-supported work, the African Peacebuilding Network (APN), based at the Social Science Research Council, will continue its support and dissemination of theoretically-informed and empirically-grounded African research on conflict-affected countries and neighboring regions on the continent. The APN responds to the critical need for policy-relevant research on peacebuilding that is generated by, and reflects the knowledge of, locally-based scholars working in Africa by: supporting new research and analytical capacities; inserting evidence-based knowledge from Africa into regional and global debates and policies on peacebuilding, especially at the United Nations, African Union, and in Washington, D.C.; and facilitating the building of new networks among researchers, and between researchers and practitioners.

Project Title

For a project to help develop cooperative solutions to problems involving security on the Korean peninsula and in northeast Asia

Date

Jun. 01, 2017

Duration

24 months

Description

North Korea’s nuclear and other weapons programs pose grave challenges to the global nonproliferation regime and the peace and security of Northeast Asia. Negotiation and engagement are essential to addressing these challenges. In the absence of government-to-government talks, the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project engages in Track II talks; unofficial contacts with non-officials, former officials, and officials acting in their unofficial capacity from North Korea and the United States, as well as from South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia. The meetings aim to explore ways to resume and sustain formal negotiations and to resolve nuclear, missile, and other security issues likely to arise in those negotiations.

Project Title

For a fellowship program to promote doctoral research and writing on peacebuilidng by African social scientists

Date

Mar. 05, 2015

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For a Digital Culture Program

Date

Mar. 05, 2015

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For the African Peacebuilding Network

Date

Sep. 17, 2015

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For a project to help develop cooperative solutions to problems involving security on the Korean peninsula and in northeast Asia

Date

Jun. 04, 2015

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For a competitive fellowship program to promote doctoral research and writing by university-based social scientists in selected African countries

Date

Mar. 07, 2013

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For support of the African Peacebuilding Network

Date

Sep. 12, 2013

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For a project to help develop cooperative solutions to problems involving security on the Korean peninsula

Date

Jun. 06, 2013

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For a project to help develop cooperative solutions to problems involving security on the Korean peninsula and to provide relevant updates to media in Northeast Asia and the United States

Date

Jun. 09, 2011

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For a competitive fellowship program to promote doctoral research and writing by university-based social scientists in selected African countries

Date

Mar. 10, 2011

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For a peacebuilding policy research network

Date

Mar. 10, 2011

Duration

30 months

Project Title

Toward communication and dissemination for a publication on a longitudinal study using data from the Collegiate Learning Assessment

Date

Sep. 16, 2010

Duration

12 months

Project Title

Toward a conference of scholars from the United States, Eurasia and the Middle East

Date

Sep. 16, 2010

Duration

12 months

Project Title

For planning a program to support early-career social scientists in selected African countries

Date

Mar. 04, 2010

Duration

16 months

Project Title

Toward a project on unofficial diplomacy focused on Northeast Asia

Date

Jun. 11, 2009

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For a planning grant for a peacebuilding policy research network

Date

Sep. 10, 2009

Duration

3 months

Project Title

For a small grants program supporting outreach by university centers on Muslim societies

Date

Sep. 10, 2009

Duration

51 months

Project Title

Toward a series of workshops on the uses of social sciences expertise in policymaking

Date

Mar. 06, 2008

Duration

24 months

Project Title

For networking and evaluation of a Corporation-supported small grants program in support of Title VI National Resource Centers outreach

Date

Sep. 11, 2008

Duration

11 months

Project Title

Toward a longitudinal study of students' cognitive skills growth during college

Date

Dec. 04, 2008

Duration

36 months

Project Title

For a small grants program in support of Title VI National Resource Centers outreach

Date

Sep. 27, 2007

Duration

24 months

Project Title

Toward the development of a research consortium for New York City schools

Date

Jun. 14, 2007

Duration

18 months

Project Title

Toward a project on unofficial diplomacy focused on Northeast Asia

Date

Jun. 14, 2007

Duration

24 months

Project Title

Toward a project on unofficial diplomacy focused on Northeast Asia

Date

Jun. 09, 2005

Duration

24 months

Project Title

One-time funding toward a project on the challenge of migration within the context of national security

Date

Feb. 05, 2004

Duration

52 months