The Central Asia Research and Training Initiative (CARTI) is a regional HESP program that promotes the development of indigenous capacities for original scholarly work and internationalization of scholarship in the region of Central Asia, including but not limited to the post-Soviet states of Central Asia and Mongolia. In working to enhance independent research of university-based academics, CARTI is committed to innovation in, and enrichment of, university teaching in the humanities and social sciences and emphasizes the role of research in the development of academics as scholars in the classroom.

CARTI provides support to innovative scholarly work and advanced training and networking opportunities to motivated young academics in crucial early stages of their careers in the home academic environment. With CARTI support, fellows engage state-of-the-art resources, theories, methodologies, and approaches to subjects of importance to the scholarly and social development in the region, and develop positions of academic leadership.

CARTI is implemented through Junior and Senior Fellowships, and a training and networking component.

Junior Fellowships

Junior Fellowships support individuals in early stages of their formal doctoral studies (such as aspirantura) and focus on development of ideas and skills for high-quality research work. Junior Fellowships serve as a medium for testing and challenging the theories, methods, and assumptions in the core of individual research projects, while at the same time guiding and assisting the fellows in their first independent, large-scale research efforts.

View further information and an application for CARTI Junior Fellowships.

Senior Fellowships

Senior Fellowships are offered to young scholars who have recently received their doctoral (e.g. candidate of science) degrees. The fellowships support the advancement or revision of their research agenda and development of international research and teaching partnerships, with special emphasis on presentation of scholarly work and translating/incorporating the outcomes and experience of research into teaching.

View further information and an application for CARTI Senior Fellowships.

The program provides fellows opportunities for the following:

• enhancing familiarity with the state of the art in their disciplines and understanding of the current thinking in their fields, improving access to seminal scholarship, relevant international expertise and contemporary debates within the international scholarly community;
• advanced training in and practice of contemporary methodologies and tools for scholarly research and approaches to teaching and curriculum development;
• conducting individual and collaborative original, innovative and high-quality research with critical discussion and peer feedback on the research process and outcomes;
• applying research experience and outcomes to development of teaching and curriculum at the region's universities and promoting research work as integral part of students' learning;
• peer collaboration and mobility on regional and international level;
• development of skills and venues for publicizing scholarly work.

International Scholars

Each fellow works in collaborative partnership with a CARTI International Scholar. International Scholars can be proposed by the fellows or appointed by CARTI. They are advanced academics, prominent in the fields of scholarship of concern to the fellows' projects, representing universities outside the program's target region. International Scholars provide guidance and collaborate in conceiving of the fellows' research agenda and program, and collaborate with fellows in the implementation of the projects, primarily by offering feedback and critique, but also through joint research activities, discussion of sources, methods, progress and findings of the research, and securing access to the relevant resources and facilities at their home institutions.