Guidelines

International Policy Fellowships: Guidelines

Note: Please check back in summer 2007 for details on the next call for applications.

The International Policy Fellowships (IPF) program offers fellowships supporting analytical policy research in pursuance of open society goals such as the rule of law, democratic elections, diverse and vigorous civil societies, and respect for minorities. Each year IPF invites research proposals that address critical issues in the development of open societies. Successful applicants will demonstrate originality, sound project design, and the strong likelihood that their project will lead to significant impact on policy.

IPF seeks to enhance the quality of policy research in the countries where the Soros foundations operate. It emphasizes independent research that is both rigorous and appreciative of practical implications. Analysis and evaluation of existing policy contexts should be based on explicit criteria, and fellows should be able to communicate their ideas and findings in a variety of professional and public settings.

IPF projects are expected to complement and enhance existing OSI activities. OSI programs will have already shown interest in some fellowship topic areas, such as Roma Exclusion, while OSI interest in other topics may be more recent and under development, for instance Combating the Resource Curse. IPF projects should not duplicate existing work, and through effective coordination and communication, IPF projects can strengthen existing OSI fields and contribute to the development of new ones.

Fellows carry out individual research projects within small research teams of 3 to 5 fellows. Under the guidance of a senior policy analyst, fellows will collaborate and share findings and, where possible, create individual web sites, and organize joint meetings to promote and disseminate their work. Each fellow will be expected to produce a substantive policy study and at least two policy briefing papers during the course of their fellowship. All papers will be published electronically with the Policy Documentation Center, while outstanding papers will be published in hardcopy and translated into other languages.

Fellowships will begin April 1, 2006, and finish March 31, 2007.

General Framework: New Frontiers for Open Society

The increasingly global nature of international politics and society raises several fundamental questions with respect to democratic reform. What is the reach of democratic ideas, and what is the possibility of meaningful policy change across borders? How might the process of European enlargement promote a more expansive open society? Which are the principal actors and forces spearheading changes? Reconceptualizing international integration and governance issues as they confront social, cultural, and political barriers represents a key challenge to establishing new frontiers of democratic politics. These �new frontiers� are not only geographical; the expansion of democracy is also sought where it is as yet only formal or nominal. Through the investigations carried out in the following topic areas, IPF hopes to generate new policy ideas that will offer innovative ways forward.

The Challenge of Wider Europe

With the last enlargement of the European Union, the borders have been redrawn toward the East and South. A host of new neighboring countries stand to gain from the institution�s expansion of democratic norms and practices. Bulgaria and Romania are already on track for EU membership in 2007, negotiations on Turkey�s long-term prospects for EU accession are due to begin soon, and the future integration of states in the Western Balkans is the object of intense debates. The �orange revolution� in Ukraine posed the problem of a long-term European perspective for that country and also raised questions about transition in neighboring states. Research and policy studies are sought that would examine questions such as the following:

What could be, given the new circumstances, a broader multilateral EU policy with respect to its new neighbors?
What kinds of conditions and incentives can be placed on new neighbors to encourage reform in areas of governance, human rights, information policy, etc.?
To what extent should cultural factors (e.g., Islam) be considered in the design of a new neighborhood policy?
How active and engaged can and should new member states be in the Wider Europe process?
What kinds of challenges are faced by new member states within the larger Union?
Is the idea of a European political project diluted by means of a Wider Europe policy?
What impact can the atmosphere in some countries of the Union of fear of globalization and further EU enlargement have on future enlargement policy and the Wider Europe process?

Open Society Promotion in Predominantly Muslim Societies

The cultural, intellectual and religious struggle around the promotion of open societies is one of the major challenges facing predominantly Muslim societies. These societies are undergoing fundamental challenges in seeking to balance the often-conflicting objectives of modernization, such as open societies, economic development, and cultural identities. This struggle should not be confused with the notion of a �clash of civilizations� between the West and the Islamic world. In seeking to contribute to these debates within predominantly Muslim societies�both Arab and non-Arab�we seek to support policy-relevant research proposals. Examples of some of the questions that can be addressed by the proposals are as follows:

What are the key public policy challenges and in what ways do they exacerbate or challenge non-democratic trends?
In what ways are religious and open society values influencing each other? How could the contradictions between religion and democratic values be mitigated?
How can elites societies be mobilized and how might they contribute to the modernization process?
How can marginalized actors struggling for change be supported?
How could women�s rights issues be best addressed at national and international policy levels?
How are issues such as governance (accountability, transparency) or poverty being addressed in effective ways with local or international support?
Should large-scale western programming be organized that could contribute to the above-mentioned objectives, and/or should centers of excellence integrated in the local cultural context be created (with input from outside)?

Combating Open Society Threats

The recent wave of democratization in countries of the former Soviet Union has reopened an examination about the effective role of civil society in such transitions. With increasing authoritarian trends in some environments (Russia, Kazakhstan) and reinforced despotism in others (Belarus, Uzbekistan), policy level consideration on the contributing factors influencing open society is of great importance. Creatively framing a policy research agenda that focuses on a specific variant of social change will be key. Research and policy studies are sought that would examine questions such as the following:

What factors were of primary importance in influencing the dramatic events in Ukraine and Georgia ? What was the role of media, nongovernmental, and business (and other) sectors in these larger changes?
What opportunities exist for positive change in neighboring highly authoritarian polities such as Belarus and Uzbekistan, as well as in non-democratic environments such as Russia and Kazakhstan?
What are the key challenges and obstacles to consolidating open societies in these countries? What is the connection between liberal vs. illiberal economics and liberal vs. illiberal regimes?

Combating the Resource Curse

Good governance includes the capability of citizens to hold the government accountable for its actions and inaction. Revenues generated from natural resource extraction, collection of customs duties and other taxes, and public procurement awards are all areas particularly susceptible to exploitation by government officials seeking personal enrichment or seeking to line political party coffers, transforming the blessing of natural resources into a curse. Transparency, access to information, and civic involvement applying domestic and international public pressure represent part of the available international tool-kit for promoting government accountability. The hope is that existing and future natural resource revenues will be invested and expended in programs for the benefit of the public such as poverty reduction, education and public health. Research and policy studies are sought that would examine questions such as the following:

What new mechanisms can be piloted that aim to improve transparency and accountability?
How effective are existing accountability mechanisms?
Are existing country-specific mechanisms applicable to other countries?
How can the capacities of civil society actors seeking to promote greater transparency and accountability be improved?
What are the linkages between state corruption and organized crime activities such as money laundering, smuggling, human trafficking, and other unlawful activities that erode public trust and human security?
Could certain monitoring and transparency mechanisms that have met with some success in curtailing state corruption also be useful in combating organized crime?

Roma Exclusion

The Decade of Roma Inclusion represents one of the touchstone recent documents in Europe aimed at ending discrimination against the continent�s largest minority. Nine countries have signed the agreement from 2005�2015 to guarantee demonstrable progress in four principal areas: education, health, housing, and employment. While different institutions, including OSI, are engaged in developing and monitoring policies in these principal areas, there is nonetheless a need for systematic analysis and oversight as to how these goals are (or are not) being achieved, and how the Decade could tackle policy challenges beyond purely sectoral issues. Research and policy studies are sought that would critically examine the Decade�s efforts in the following areas:

How innovative is the Decade�s agenda in connecting policy issues of ethnicity (race), class and gender in the life of Roma communities?
What concepts of inclusive policy making does the Decade rely on and how efficiently is it translating those to practice?
How are Roma communities involved in planning and implementing various mechanisms of inclusion that the Roma Decade seeks to achieve?
How does the Decade consider the impediments to building credible leadership for Roma communities? How might such future elites have an effective voice in the domestic and international political and policy making arenas?
What innovative methods could be designed and used to measure medium and long-term social integration effects of the Decade?
Is the Decade generating new avenues in public communication that can create positive images of Roma communities and which can reduce the social distance between Roma and non-Roma communities?
How has desegregation in education at the legislative level and on the ground moved forward? What is foreseen in the coming years? How has the involvement of Roma communities and parents with schools improved?

Open Information Policy

Advanced by the Internet, alternatives to long-standing intellectual property regimes have created an environment to re-assess the relationship between democracy, open society and new information technologies. The promise of open source technology with respect to civil society and the incalculable leaps in information production by means of open content and web logs present a new platform for civic participation. Whether and in what form such promises can be realized lies at the basis of the research questions below.

Weblogs & Civic Discourse. How does the rapid expansion of web logs alter news production and civic discourse? Can it counter ever-increasing concentration of ownership in the traditional mass media? How do traditional notions of editorial standards and journalistic professionalism apply to this new medium? Is the �blogosphere� an enhancement of the public sphere, or does it threaten its disintegration?
Open Content & Sustainability. Open Access publishing is revolutionizing scientific publishing. New alternative licensing systems like Creative Commons support decentralized information production, by making it easier for creators to share and permit re-use and modification of their work, while retaining certain rights. What are the business models that are developing around these commons-based models of sharing freely online? These cases are by and large un-documented and seem to contrast starkly with well-established economic and legal norms that rest on notions of scarcity, exclusivity and controlled access.
Open Content & Standards. Wikipedia, a freely available encyclopedia, is a visible and widely cited example of collaborative, distributed knowledge production enabled by the Internet. Such models seem to have great promise for more equitable access to knowledge; yet they also run the risk of dispensing with editorial standards. How can quality standards emerge in a distributed environment? Are they robust enough to be relied upon?
Open Source: Ownership and Control of Communications Technology. Communications technology (both hardware and software, and the standards on which most communications networks are based) is a key part of today�s infrastructure for civil society engagement. How do the different models of ownership and control of the knowledge underlying this infrastructure (expressed in technology standards and software, either open or proprietary) affect access and participation by civil society, in particular, civil society in developing countries?
Intellectual Property & Access to Knowledge: The case of Free Trade Agreements. Intellectual property laws are a powerful instrument for controlling access to knowledge, and in some cases to restrict free speech. New standards shaped by rich-country interests are now being globalized and imposed on poorer countries. In recent years, bilateral Free Trade Agreements have become an important part of this process. How do those free trade agreements undermine the rule of law and basic principles of democratic lawmaking in countries around the world that are signing these agreements?

Eligibility

Applicants should be permanent residents of a country in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Africa, or Asia. View a list of eligible countries (pop-up window).
Applicants must be affiliated with a recognized policymaking body, nongovernmental organization, university, or research institution.
The program does NOT fund student scholarships, although, in exceptional cases, proposals connected to the final stages of a PhD dissertation may be considered.
Former holders of IPF awards are not eligible to apply.

Selection Criteria

Applicants must be able to demonstrate excellent written and spoken English-language skills.
Applicants should be able to demonstrate that they can devote the majority of their working time to the project and that other commitments are both complementary to their project and occupy a minority of their time.
An independent panel of internationally recognized experts will evaluate proposals on the basis of their aims and objectives, research questions, project conceptualization, proposed methodology, contribution to OSI goals, clarity of expression, and qualifications of the applicant.
Proposals may be country specific or comparative but all should be feasible and justified. Evaluators are looking for innovative proposals that have potential significant impact.
Candidates who are short-listed will be asked to submit further detailed information including a work schedule, detailed budget proposal, and certified translations of relevant education qualifications.
The final selection of fellows will be carried out following telephone interviews, which will be held at the expense of IPF, and successful finalists will be notified by January 30, 2006.

Main Terms of the Award

Fellows receive:

supervision and support from a senior policy analyst;
invitation to Budapest in April 2006 for initial orientation to the program;
optional, specialized policy research and advocacy training courses in Budapest;
monthly stipends commensurate with local salaries;
udget for reasonable research, communications, travel, publication, and advocacy costs;
discretionary funding for conference participation.

How to Apply

Applicants should carefully complete the online application form, which includes a project summary, research proposal (maximum four pages), and a resume/CV including a list of publications. Applicants may also include a letter of reference from an affiliated organization and a writing sample on the chosen topic.

Once the initial information has been entered, applicants receive an ID number, which will allow them to make any additions and revisions to the form. This number should be quoted in any correspondence. Applications sent by mail, fax, or email will not be considered unless given prior approval from IPF staff.

Those with no access to the Internet should call the IPF offices at +36-1-327-3863 to discuss the best alternate application solution.

Deadline

Please check back in summer 2007 for details on the next call for applications.

Special Awards

The Leslie Carol Eliason Memorial Fellowship Award

In memory of IPF veteran professor, mentor, and trainer Leslie Eliason, the program will select one project to receive the Leslie Carol Eliason Memorial Fellowship Award. This will be a project that is deemed by the selection committee to have the potential to make an especially significant contribution. The chosen recipient will be entitled to write up their project at one of the institutions Eliason was affiliated with in the United States or at the Center for Policy Studies at the Central European University.

International Junior Public Policy Scholar Fellowship with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Each fellowship year, the East European Studies program of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. hosts 1 to 2 outstanding IP Fellows from Eastern Europe. The Woodrow Wilson Center provides access to research facilities such as the Library of Congress, university libraries, the National Archives and relevant faculty. The center can help arrange introductory visits to relevant actors and organizations in Washington, D.C., including the U.S. Congress and Senate.

The Center provides an excellent setting for writing up IPF research. Incoming scholars receive a $9,000 stipend, administrative assistance regarding affordable housing, health care, and processing of required documentation. Housing and visa arrangements are the ultimate responsibility of the selected scholars.

Fellows are selected by the Center�s East European Studies Program. Topics of particular interest include international governance (regionalization, decentralization); the rule of law; public administration; civil society and institution-building and the role of nongovernmental organizations; media; minority rights; economic reform and management; Southeast Europe Stability Pact projects; organized crime; and North-South tier development issues including strategies for closing the gap.

The fellowship is limited to scholars from countries in the former communist bloc, including the Baltic states and former Yugoslavia but not the NIS states, Ukraine, or Germany. Those wishing to be considered for this award should include with their IPF application a one-page description of why their proposed topic should be considered for such an award. For more details see the Wilson Center website.