Research Grants Program: Rethinking Development in the Arab Region

The Research Grants Programme provides a funding opportunity to support research across disciplines and methodological approaches on key themes of interest to the Arab region. The programme is funded by a grant from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency ( SIDA )  to the Arab Council for the Social Sciences.

Objectives

• This program supports research projects at any stage of development. Research proposals can focus on new or ongoing projects, and may include:
  • The initial or “exploratory” phase of a project.
  • Long-term projects that combine fieldwork and analysis.
  • Proposals that build on previous projects and seek new cases and examples.
  • Comparative projects extended to other sites.

Expected Outcomes 

The proposed outcomes of the project should be consistent with the research plan and objectives.  For example, the outcomes of exploratory research may be a fully developed, detailed, and extensive research proposal, while the outcomes of projects involving data collection, analysis, and research writing may be full-length book manuscripts and/or other types of outputs such as publications (electronic and print), resources for researchers (e.g., websites, syllabi, bibliographies), and visual presentations including exhibits, films, and other media. The program also encourages workshops with research topics provided that they do not involve potential psychological, political, and/or social risks to participants.

Theme

• The concept of “development” has a complex and contested history. Development, broadly defined, is efforts to raise societal living standards through social and structural transformation. Rich and poor countries alike, as well as diverse state and non-state actors, have undertaken massive projects that have shaped and changed the lives of billions of people under the banner of “development.”
• The program aims to attract a wide range of research proposals from different countries and locations in the region. Through this program, the ACSS seeks to build evidence-based knowledge, in the long term, by encouraging multidisciplinary proposals that draw on established approaches in the fields of social sciences and humanities. The Research Grants Program welcomes proposals that adopt quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, and research that reflects current methodologies for studying development in the Arab region. We also welcome proposals that present new methodological approaches to studying development.

Topics

• Topics or research areas that proposals may address include, but are not limited to:
  • History of development thought and intellectual contributions to development from within the region by practitioners, researchers, universities or other public and private institutions.
  • Successive critical evaluation of the Arab development experience and related case studies or comparative analysis: from Arab socialism and development to neoliberal capitalism.
  • Confronting the multiplicity of crises and ecological constraints related to development
  • The political economy of the “green transition” and questions of “green colonialism”.
  • War and political instability and their effects between and within states: economic sanctions, blockades, closures or economic warfare in the context of civil wars.
  • Critical evaluation of the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals in theory and practice
  • Civilizing development
  • Development Finance, Debt and Infrastructure Challenges
  • Development management at the local, regional, national and international levels
  • The changing role of the state in development and the issue of industrial policy
  • Securitization and Development: The Growing Links between State Security or Human Security Logics and Development Policies
  • Development alternatives and new thinking in theory and practice: solidarity economy; bottom-up community development projects, cooperatives, and success stories.
  • Strengthening development links and transforming North-South and South-South relations

Specializations

• This programme is open to any field in the social sciences, humanities and/or related, interdisciplinary fields. Core sciences include anthropology, demography, economics, history, political science, psychology, sociology, philosophy, literary studies and art history. Related, interdisciplinary fields include architecture, geography, education, law, public health, gender studies, cultural studies, media studies, development studies and urban studies. Interdisciplinary proposals are encouraged, but must be framed within the social sciences and based on social science theory and methodologies.

Funding Information

• Grants are available to individual researchers (up to $20,000 per grant), research teams (up to $35,000 per grant), and active research groups and institutions based in the region (up to $50,000 per grant) whose research focuses primarily on Arab societies.
• The grant period does not exceed 18 months for individuals and research teams (starting July 20, 2025 and ending January 20, 2027) and does not exceed 24 months for active research groups and institutions (starting July 20, 2025 and ending July 20, 2027).

Geographical Focus 

• In the case of individuals: Researchers must be nationals/citizens of an Arab country (by Arab country we mean a country affiliated with the League of Arab States) currently residing in an Arab country, or long-term residents of an Arab country (employed for at least five years at an institution based in the Arab region, have produced academic work on the region, and will remain resident and engaged in the region for the foreseeable future, or refugees and stateless persons from an Arab country currently residing in the Arab region.
• In the case of research teams: At least two researchers on the team, including the team leader/principal investigator, must be nationals of an Arab country and currently residing in an Arab country, or long-term residents of an Arab country. They may also be refugees or stateless persons from an Arab country and currently residing in the Arab region. The other two members (if applicable) may be Arabs in the diaspora or non-Arabs.
• In the case of active research groups: The group must be based in the Arab region. The group must also present clear future plans for work in the region. At least two researchers in the group, including the principal investigator, must be nationals/citizens of an Arab country, long-term residents of an Arab country and based in the Arab region, or refugees or stateless persons from an Arab country and currently residing in the Arab region. The other two members (if applicable) can be Arabs in the diaspora or non-Arabs.
• In the case of institutions: The institution must be headquartered in the Arab region, regardless of its primary country of registration. Institutions that are branches of foreign international organizations are not eligible to apply for the grant. The principal investigator and all researchers participating in the project must be nationals/citizens of an Arab country, or long-term residents of an Arab country and headquartered in the Arab region, or refugees or stateless persons from an Arab country and currently residing in the Arab region.

Eligibility Criteria 

• For Individuals: Applicants must hold a PhD in a social science or humanities field and/or related interdisciplinary fields. Individual researchers in the early stages of their post-doctoral career are particularly encouraged to apply. Individuals who are expected to complete their PhD by February 2025 are also eligible to apply. Individual applicants who wish to hire advisors or research assistants and assign them significant research tasks for the entire duration of the grant are more likely to apply for applications within research teams.
• In the case of active research teams and research groups: At least two members of the team or group, including the team leader/principal investigator, must hold a PhD in the social sciences or humanities and/or related interdisciplinary fields. The other two members must hold a minimum of a Master’s degree in the social sciences or humanities. The Research Grants Program particularly encourages proposals from interdisciplinary research teams.
• For institutions: The principal investigator of the institution must hold a PhD in the social sciences or humanities and/or related interdisciplinary fields and demonstrate successful research experience. Other co-investigators must hold a minimum of a Master’s degree in the social sciences or humanities. The Research Grants Program particularly encourages proposals from interdisciplinary research teams.
• This program is open to individual researchers, research teams, active research groups, and institutions. For the purposes of this call:
  • Research teams include researchers from the same or different institutions, geographic regions, and disciplines, provided they are interested in conducting multidisciplinary research on the topic in question.
  • An activist research group is an independent, informal group of researchers who may not be registered as an institution, but who have been working collaboratively on a specific topic or area of ​​interest for many years. The group should have a mission statement and a set of practices or outputs that reflect its identity and purpose. Unlike research teams, which may include researchers from one or more institutions, in an activist research group, the research project is primarily undertaken by members of the same group.
  • Institutions are formal legal entities, which may be a university or college of a university, a think tank, a non-governmental research organization, etc.
• Research teams, active research groups, and institutions must submit their applications in teams of no more than four members, including the principal investigator and co-investigators.
• All proposals should be based on social science theories and methodologies. Research proposals not rooted in the social sciences are not eligible for this program.
• Previous recipients of grants from the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (principal investigator and co-investigators) are eligible to apply for a grant from the program only one year after the end date of their grant.

Selection Criteria

• Proposals will be reviewed and selected by a multidisciplinary committee of distinguished Arab scholars with a strong track record of research and publications as well as research and teaching experience in the region. The selection committee is committed to the highest academic and ethical standards of judging.
• The final decisions of the committee are based on the following evaluation criteria:
  • Contribution to knowledge
  • Relevance of the topic to the Arab region and to the current call for applications
  • Theoretical and conceptual coherence
  • Comprehensive literature review
  • A sound methodological approach linked to the research objectives.
  • Ethical Considerations
  • Outputs
  • Researchers’ qualifications
• Once the completed electronic application form is submitted, applicants agree, without any objection, to the evaluation and selection results determined and issued by the Selection Committee and the Arab Council for the Social Sciences.

For more information, visit Arab Council for the Social Sciences.