Small Grants Program for Arab Researchers and Activists

The Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) launched in 2016 the Small Grants Program (SGP) on the themes of “Youth” and “Urban Spatial Inequalities.” The ACSS Small Grants Program is a funding opportunity that aims to support scholars and professionals in the Arab region in undertaking five kinds of activities: conference presentations, internships, pilot studies, dissemination events, and organizing workshops.

The first topic, “Youth”, encompasses topics related to youth (defined roughly as those between the ages of 14 and 25) in the Arab world, and issues related to this age group (health, education, family, employment, civic engagement, etc.). The second topic, “Urban Spatial Inequalities”, focuses on systems, processes, and policies that increase or mitigate unequal access to housing, land, property and services in urban settings.

The dual themes of the program are intended to be broad enough to encourage applications from a wide range of applicants who are working on these issues. The SGP targets professionals, activists and researchers whose work builds on social science perspectives and methods to achieve change.  The proposed activity or research could focus on one or more Arab countries. Applications or plans to do work that adopts or allows the applicant to learn about qualitative or quantitative approaches to the social sciences are encouraged. The Small Grants Program is a competitive grant, and thus we are particularly interested in innovative, cutting-edge proposals that examine existing paradigms, and those that work to establish and advance new paradigms and move them forward. We are also interested in proposals that work at the intersection of both themes of the program.

Funding:

The aim of the program is to provide small amounts of funding ($4,000 on average) in a timely manner. 

The program funds five kinds of activities:

[1] Travel grants (conferences/workshops)

[2] Internship support

[3] Organizing workshops

[4] Pilot studies

[5] Dissemination events

Eligibility Guidelines

[1] Applicants must be citizens of an Arab League member state or nationals of an Arab country (defined as long-term residents, even if they do not hold citizenship as in the case of refugees or stateless residents).

[2] Applicants must reside in the Arab region.  This program does not fund applicants who reside, work, or study outside the region.

[3] Priority will be given to scholars and professionals who are marginalized, at risk, or dispossessed.

[4] Applicants must hold at least a Master’s degree in a core social science or a field allied to the themes of the Program. The core social science fields are anthropology, demography, economics, education, political science, psychology and sociology. Allied disciplines include architecture, cultural studies, development studies, gender studies, geography, law, and urban planning/studies.

[5] Preference will be given to applicants under the age of 40.

[6] ACSS grantees (principal and co-investigators) who have benefited previously from another ACSS grant are only eligible if their grants were closed one year prior to submitting their application for the Small Grants Program.

About ACSS:

The Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) is a regional, independent, non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening social science research and knowledge production in the Arab world. By supporting researchers and academic/research institutions, the ACSS aims to contribute to the creation, dissemination, validation and utilization of social science research and to enrich public debate about the challenges facing Arab societies. The ACSS also aims to enhance the role of social science in Arab public life and inform public policy in the region.