The African Peacebuilding Network (APN) of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) invites research fellowships applications from African researchers, policy analysts, and practitioners working on conflict and peacebuilding issues at universities and research institutions; or regional, governmental, and non-governmental agencies or organizations in Africa. A core component of the African Peacebuilding Network (APN), the Individual Research Fellowships (IRF) program is a vehicle for enhancing the quality and visibility of independent African peacebuilding research both regionally and globally, while making peacebuilding knowledge accessible to key policymakers and research centers of excellence in Africa and around the world.

Fellowship recipients produce research-based knowledge that is relevant to, and has a significant impact on, peacebuilding scholarship, policy, and practice on the continent. For its part, the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) works toward inserting the evidence-based knowledge that fellowship award recipients produce into regional and global debates and policies focusing on peacebuilding. The program also strives to build a highly visible and active network of African scholars and practitioners capable of projecting African perspectives and voices onto global discourses and practices of peacebuilding.

Focus Areas 

Support is available for research and analysis on the following issues:

• Root causes of, and emerging trajectories of violent conflict;
• Natural Resource Conflict;
• Geopolitics and histories of conflict and peace;
• Minorities, under-represented groups, and the social dynamics of conflict and peace;
• Theory and practice of conflict mediation;
• Resilience, conflict prevention and transformation;
• State and non-state armed actors, transnational crime, extremism, displacement and migration;
• Post-conflict elections, democratization, governance and economic reconstruction;
• Statebuilding, including state-society relations and state reconstruction;
• Transitional justice, reconciliation, and peace;
• The economic and financial dimensions of conflict, peacekeeping, and peace support operations;
• Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and peacebuilding;
• UN-AU-REC Partnerships and Peace Support Operations;
• Digital media, technology, and peace;
• Cultures, media, and art(s) of peace;
• Gender, youth and peacebuilding;
• Water conflict and peace;
• Public health, post-conflict development, peace, and security;
• Prevention of mass atrocities; and
• Covid-19, conflict, peace and development

Eligibility

• All applicants must be African citizens currently residing in an African country. This competition is open to African academics, as well as policy analysts and practitioners.
• Applicants who are academics must hold a faculty or research position at an African university or research organization, and have a PhD obtained no earlier than January 2011.
• Applicants who are policy analysts or practitioners must be based in Africa at a regional or sub-regional institution; a government agency; or a nongovernmental, media, or civil society organization, and have at least a master’s degree obtained before January 2016, with at least five years of proven research and work experience in peacebuilding-related activities on the continent.

Application Requirements

• Completed Application Form
• Research Proposal & Bibliography
• Expected Publication(s)
• Current CV
• Proposed Research Timeline
• Proposed Research Budget
• Two Reference Letters
• Language Evaluation(s) (if required)

Frequently Asked Questions