Applications

At the time of writing, 1 Feb 2024, all subgrant awards have been made. There is still a final essay competition that is open to applications up to 1 May 2024

Thanks to a generous grant of approximately $3.6M from the John Templeton Foundation, the Ian Ramsey Centre at the University of Oxford invites applications for the following grants from individuals or research groups in Central and Eastern Europe:

Currently active: the final essay competition

Previous subgrant opportunities: no longer active

The New Generation Research Exchange (III): covering three fully-funded workshops at the Universities of Warsaw, Zagreb, and Oxford plus possible additional supervised research at Oxford.	Call for Applications - NGRE Program	Applications are due by: 28 July 2023. Background information for applicants regarding personal data use
Fellowships: visiting fellowships for researchers in science and religion	Call for Applications – Fellowships	Applications are due by: 31 March 2023. Fellowship proposal form
Paper prize: CEE perspectives on science, philosophy, and theology	Call for Applications – Paper Prize	Applications are due by: 28 February 2023.
Subgrant projects (second round): grants of up to $65,000	Call for Applications – Subgrants 2022	Applications due by:  30 November 2022  Subgrant proposal form Subgrant institutional support form Subgrant budget form
CFP for 2022 Study Week: workshop 1-3 September and conference 5-6 September in Trogir, Croatia on the theme of ‘Naturalism and the Religious Worldview’	cfp_naturalism_and_the_religious_worldview_2022.pdf cfp_naturalism_and_the_religious_worldview_2022.pdf	Applications are due by: 31 July 2022.
The New Generation Research Exchange (I): covering three fully-funded workshops at the Universities of Warsaw, Zagreb, and Oxford plus possible additional supervised research at Oxford.	Call for Applications – NGRE Program	Applications are due by: 29 July 2022. Background information for applicants regarding personal data use
The New Generation Research Exchange (II): fellowships for the Roger Scruton philosophy symposium, 22 July - 31 July 2022.	Call for Applications – NGRE Scruton Fellowships	Applications are due by: 27 May 2022. Background information for applicants regarding personal data use
Oxford-Templeton visiting fellowships (first round): ten fellowships of up to $15,000 for researchers in science and religion	Call for Applications – Fellowships	First round applications due by:  DEADLINE UPDATED (AGAIN) to 30 June 2021 to allow post-COVID-19 normalisation. Fellowship grant proposal form
Exchange program fellowships: covering three fully-funded workshops at the Universities of Warsaw, Zagreb, and Oxford plus possible additional supervised research at Oxford.	Call for Applications – NGRE program	Applications are due by: 25 June 2021. Background information for applicants regarding personal data use
Conference fellowships: full board coverage of all participation costs (excluding travel), worth c. $,4500, at the 10-day "Roger Scruton Philosophy Symposium," 28 July - 6 Aug 2021.	Call for Applications – Scruton Conference Fellowships	Applications are due by: 7 May 2021. Background information for applicants regarding personal data use
Subgrants (first round): up to five grants of up to $65,000, five grants of up to $30,000, ten grants of up to $15,000 and fifteen grants of up to $5000	Call for Applications - Subgrants	Subgrant application form Subgrant budget template Institutional support form First round applications due by 30 April 2020; UPDATED to 29 May 2020 due to COVID-19 issues.
Translation grants: up to ten grants of $7,500 (or, possibly, $15,000) for new translations into CEE languages.	Call for Applications – Translations	Applications are due by: 30 September 2020. Translation grant proposal form
Essay prizes (first round): A first prize of $2000 and three second place prizes of $500 will be awarded to the best submissions.	Call for Applications – Essay Prize	First round essays must be received by: 31 October 2020.

Special notes for preparing subgrant applications

Please take note of the following guidance in preparing applications for subgrants. For special notes on grants for translations, the essay competition, or fellowships, please open the relevant calls for applications in the table above.

Things we require in all successful applications

• Subgrant projects will fall within the Project Themes. For more information on these, please see https://cee.ianramseycentre.info/research.
• All subgrant projects will meet exceptional standards of academic rigour and ambition. Applications will be assessed above all for evidence the proposed projects meet these standards. Applicants should consider including details of: what research programmes they will be responding and contributing to; their proposed approach and methodology; and the potential significance of their project for the field.
• The IRC aims to reach a broad audience, crossing disciplinary and national boundaries as well as engaging groups beyond academia. We will look for evidence that applicants write in a clear, forthright, engaging way, that they can interest a wide range of people in what they are doing, and that they can build a narrative around their work that explains why it really matters. Applicants should avoid obscure, dense, technicality-laden writing.
• Subgrant projects should keep records on how many people and how much research they affect through their activities, especially the number of participants at events and details of all publications supported by the subgrant (e.g. conference papers that go on to be published). Applicants should commit to keeping records on these areas.

Things we like, but do not require in all applications

• The IRC is keen to foster public interest in Big Questions research, and we will look favourably on applications that contain a public engagement component.
• We have a specific interest in building up a library of filmed talks online. We will look favourably on applications that make provision for having talks at conferences etc. filmed and uploaded.  It is absolutely acceptable for talks to be in languages other than English, and indeed publishing filmed talks in CEE languages may complement the public engagement component of projects.
• Plans to promote coverage of projects in print or electronic media are welcome as parts of public engagement components.
• The IRC seeks to foster links between countries within CEE. We will look favourably on applications that draw on and build intra-CEE networks, although we recognise that this will not be appropriate in every case.
• We will look favourably on applications that directly involve research scientists in their proposed activities.

Things we are open about

• Some applications may be focussed on Central and Eastern European traditions or thinkers (e.g. Lublin Thomism, Byzantine Christianity or Jan Patočka). We are are keen to support this kind of research, but we absolutely do not want to discourage applications that do not focus specifically on CEE traditions.  We are just as interested in work in international traditions that have no special connection to CEE.
• We are open to applications that work from within a given religious tradition, as well as to applications that work within no religious tradition. Provided it is relevant to our Big Questions, work in e.g. secular analytic philosophy and in Eastern Orthodox theology is of equal interest to us.
• We are open to work from different academic methodological traditions, e.g. analytic and Continental philosophy, physical science, and varying theological traditions. The important thing is that the work be of the highest standards, whatever tradition it represents.