A Call for Expressions of Interest: The Oxford Martin School: Innovating for a Sustainable Future

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Overall goals of the Oxford Martin School (OMS): to support research into the great challenges of the 21st century with an explicit focus on solutions.

Value: up to £1 million per project.

Duration and Start Date: 2–5 years starting from MT 2019. Each successful PI will be a member of OMS with minimum 20% time commitment

Two-Stage Application Process:

Expressions of Interest, EOI (stage 1) - deadline: 5pm Monday 5th November 2018

Invited full application (stage 2) – deadline: early February (c. 8 full proposals anticipated, 3-4 likely to be funded). OMS will work closely with those applicants invited to proceed to stage 2.

Theme for this call: Innovating for a Sustainable Future – interdisciplinary research projects asking insightful questions about interconnections between any of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): ending poverty and hunger, fostering peaceful, just and inclusive societies, etc. Proposed projects should address a key research question(s) that will provide novel and significant insights into the relationship between two or more SDGs.

Anticipated Characteristics of a Successful Bid: OMS are looking for applications strong in collaboration, interdisciplinarity, innovation, and impact that investigate connections between SDGs, suggesting real-world solutions accelerating the achievement of these goals. Projects should go beyond merely elucidating a problem, though the work conducted during the grant might only constitute reaching a proof of concept stage. It is anticipated that solutions will not come from work within a single discipline but will be intrinsically interdisciplinary.

The Relevance of Humanities Research: Above all, it is expected that Humanities researchers will be able to provide context and insights into the way in which problems are conceptualised. Areas of interest such as gender, cultural change, ethics, medical humanities, digital humanities, etc. may have application to many different SDGs.

EOI Application (4 pages max.). No set format, but typically includes: a non-technical summary; context and statement of the problem; description of proposed research and anticipated outputs (~2 pages); outline of how the work would affect intervention, such as policy; detail of matching funds (if available) and plans for funding continuing work; statement of future anticipated interactions with OMS.

Applications should address: project’s scale and significance, academic excellence, pathways to impact beyond academia, and additionality (i.e. what is novel about the proposed research and what makes OMS the appropriate funder). PI(s) need also to include a short CV and demonstrate their eligibility, i.e. that they have academic expertise and leadership in the relevant area.

If you have any questions, please contactpeter.barber@humanities.ox.ac.uk. If you are considering applying, please make contact with your Research Facilitator as soon as possible.

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