Request for Applications: Student Joint Research Grants (Western Balkans and Switzerland)

The initiative enables students from Western Balkan and Swiss universities to address gaps in the region while fostering cross-cultural collaboration, academic partnerships, and shared knowledge exchange to tackle regional challenges.

Priority Areas

• Context-Specific Solutions for Advancing LFM in the Western Balkans
  • Emerging technologies in LFM
  • Exploring the effects of prevention practices
  • Cross-regional technology transfer
• Relation between Climate Change and Landscape Fires
  • The link between climate change and fires
  • Vulnerability of habitats to landscape fires
  • Impact of climate on fire seasons
  • Resilience of native species to LFM and climate change
  • Mitigation strategies for fire-induced carbon emissions
  • Adaptive silviculture for climate change and fire resilience
  • Vulnerability and adaptive capacities of rural women to climate change and landscape fires
• Prevention, Preparedness, and Postfire Management
  • Community-based fire prevention strategies
  • Fuel management techniques
  • Post-fire management
  • Fire-sensitive land use planning
  • Impact of silvicultural management on forest fire resilience
  • Controlled grazing for fuel reduction in pastures
  • Agricultural practices and agroforestry for fire risk reduction
  • Improving waste management to prevent landscape fires
• Bridging the Gap between LFM Practices and Policies in the Western Balkans
  • Policy and regulatory frameworks for fire management
  • Governance models
  • Integration of scientific research into policy
  • Fire policy effectiveness in cross-border cooperation

Funding Information

• The grant provides up to 2,500 CHF for Bachelor theses and 3,500 CHF for Master theses, with an individual contract for the final thesis as the deliverable.

Eligibility Criteria

• The students must be enrolled in a Western Balkan or Swiss university while using grant funding.
• Students who will collaborate need to be enrolled in faculties located in two different countries within the Western Balkans, or one in the Western Balkans and the other in Switzerland.
• The Swiss students need to jointly collaborate with a student from the Western Balkans.
• The students need to be enrolled in a field of study related to LFM, environmental science, forestry, agriculture, climate studies, social sciences, or a related discipline.
• The students need to be in the undergraduate (bachelor) or graduate (master) tuition group while using grant funding.
• The students may be enrolled either full-time or part-time.
• The students may not be on Leave of Absence while using grant funding.
• The joint research needs to be conducted under the guidance of qualified mentors from both academic institutions. Each student needs to have at least one mentor from the university of enrolment while using grant funding. A single mentor can provide mentorship to multiple students.
• The mentor needs to be available to provide consultation, training, and advice throughout the funded research timeline. The local mentor should provide support to both collaborating students.
• The students must submit their thesis no later than 31 July 2026. The thesis needs to be submitted to REA in English (translated if necessary) and/or the local language.
• Students need to demonstrate proficiency in English, as it will be the working language for collaboration and reporting.
• The collaborating students must have distinct thesis titles, allowing them to use the same research data while analyzing different aspects of the topic. However, the methodology can be the same or similar.
• Both students need to conduct the research in the same location in the Western Balkans.

Application Requirements

• The students are required to provide the following documents:
  • Confirmation of Enrollment at their respective faculties (in English or translated to English).
  • Confirmation of student collaboration (signed by both students and the mentors from the respective faculties) (in English).
  • A Thesis Concept and Methodology (outlining the research objectives and approach) (for each student separately) (in English).

For more information, visit LFMWB.