New Funding Opportunity: “The British Academy and the Council for At-Risk Academics announce new Fellowships for Researchers at Risk”
Published on The British Academy on March 27, 2022
“The British Academy, the other UK National Academies and the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara), a registered charity, have today announced a new programme of Fellowships for Researchers at Risk.
This programme will support researchers at risk to continue their research in the UK for up to two years. The first priority for the scheme will be researchers based in Ukraine. The programme is receiving £3 million of government funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The Nuffield Foundation, an independent charitable trust, is contributing £0.5 million towards the scheme.
The Fellowships will provide financial support to cover salary, research expenses and living costs as well as visas. Host institutions will be asked to identify at least six months’ accommodation for the researcher and their dependents.
The lead body for this programme will be the British Academy on behalf of the UK National Academies working in partnership with Cara.
The Fellowships programme is the latest collaboration between the British Academy and Cara, which share a proud history of supporting at-risk academics. In the 1930s, Fellows of the British Academy, including William Beveridge, helped to set up the Academic Assistance Council (AAC), a rescue mission for endangered researchers and intellectuals which later became Cara.
Thanks to Cara, the UK became a place of sanctuary for many German academics who were forced out of their positions by the Nazi regime and later for at-risk academics from Stalinist Russia, communist regimes in Eastern Europe, apartheid South Africa and many other troubled regions. Cara’s work continues today, worldwide; and the skills and expertise of those who have been rescued over the last 89 years have made, and continue to make, an extraordinary contribution to British scientific, cultural and intellectual life. The programme being launched today will build further on this important work.
More information on the Fellowships will be made available soon. For enquiries, contact researchersatrisk@thebritishacademy.ac.uk.”