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3rd Small Grants Call

(May 2010 – March 2011)

1. Summary

The goal of the Small Grants Initiative is to promote new foci and outlooks on security and justice, as well as to open spaces and link new actors to the debate, reflection, and research of the subject. These scholarships are directed at researchers and professionals, and applications from women are especially welcome. Also, special attention will be given to those applicants coming from developing countries - particularly Africa, South Asia and the Middle East - who want to contribute to the debate and analysis through the production of working papers, policy briefs and academic research on subjects related to the processes of transformation of the security and justice sectors. With this initiative, we aim to foment a global and interdisciplinary community that seeks to stimulate a new way of thinking security and justice. These scholarships are aimed at professionals and academic researchers from Universities, Institutes, NGOs and Think Tanks.

For the purposes of this call, the security and justice sectors, and especially SSR, are considered to span the military, defense, police, judiciary and penitential systems. In addition, informal justice and security systems are also taken into consideration.

2. Application Process and Selection

2.1. Selection Criteria

The GCST requires that the research proposals include some of the following aspects:

• The impact of public policies and/or international cooperation on poor and excluded sectors of society.
• The role of private justice and security systems.
• The perceptions and demands of poor sectors of society on security and justice.
• The impact of citizens’ participation in the security and justice sectors
• Comparative foci that address the local realities.
• Subjects linked to the processes of transformation of the security and justice sectors (private security, informal security and justice mechanisms, organized crime, public security, regional security, governance and security, security and gender, transparency and citizen participation, military, defense, police, judiciary, criminal system reform, peace processes, and intelligence, among others).
• Although it is not a requisite, the GCST will pay special attention to those proposals whose authors are from the countries or regions on which their studies are based.

2.2. Requisites for Applicants

Are invited to apply for a scholarship all researchers and professionals with advocacy experience, activists or practitioners from civil society organizations, with a degree or professional qualification in Social Sciences, Law, Economics, Humanities or other related disciplines and coming from or living in a developing country.

There is no age limit to apply for a Small Grant.

2.3. Required Information

1. Application Form (download it here)
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Research proposal (1,500 words maximum)

   The research proposal should indicate clearly: theoretical or empirical justification of the subject (importance); general and specific objectives, methodology, and a brief bibliography of related sources.

4. Budget outline
5. Recommendation letter

   This letter should speak of the qualities of the applicant in professional, intellectual, and personal terms. It should be signed, scanned and sent personally and directly by the recommender to the GCST via e-mail only. Please notice that any letter sent directly by the applicant will not be taken into consideration.

6. Letter of institutional support

   The letter of institutional support should indicate the type of link the organization shares with the applicant and the institutional motives or interests for supporting the applicant’s candidacy. It should be signed and sent personally and directly by the institutional authority or representative to the GCST via e-mail only. Please notice that any letter sent directly by the applicant will not be taken into consideration.

The application can be completed in English or Spanish.

2.4. Final Selection procedure

• The Secretariat will review all application materials.
• Best applications will be reviewed by a Small Grants Selection Committee that will make the final decision.
• The Small Grants Selection Committee will consist of representatives from two partner institutions and one representative from the Secretariat.
• Only recipients of the grants will be contacted by the Secretariat once the deadline is over.
• The list of recipients will be published in the GCTS webpage.

Please notice that, due to the important amount of e-mails, the GCST will not provide any personal feedback on the reasons for disqualifying a specific candidate, nor will it give any kind of advice on how to submit a good application. Candidates will only receive a confirmation e-mail once their application is complete. Only candidates who fulfill all the requisites will be taken into consideration.

The candidates are also required to send all the elements of their applications (form, CV, research proposal and budget) only once, in a unique e-mail. Any incomplete application will be immediately ruled out.

2.5. Conditions of the Scholarship

• The research must be completed in no more than 10 months (May 17th, 2010 – March 17th, 2011).
• Upon completing the research, the grant recipient must submit to the GCST: 1 brief report of activities undertaken and 1 final working paper with their principal findings and conclusions.
• Documents that contain information that is not authorized by another author or documents that are suspected or confirmed as unauthorized reproductions will be rejected, and the applicant will have to submit the initial amount of money received for the grant to the GCST.

2.6. Benefits

The Small Grant amounts will be divided into three categories, according to the academic level of the applicant:

• Doctoral Degree - US$ 7,000
• Master’s Degree - US$ 5,000
• Degree - US$ 3,000

The awarded amount will be transferred to the personal account of the recipient in two installments:

• US$1,000 will be transferred upon selection of the research project.
• US$6,000 (Doctoral degree); US$4,000 (Master’s Degree) and US$2,000 (Degree) will be sent upon the reception of 1 report of activities and 1 final working paper with the main findings and conclusions.

24 grants will be awarded this year, and will be administered by the Secretariat in collaboration with the GCST partners. The best working documents will be published in the GCST website.

3. Dissemination and Publication of Working Papers

• The Secretariat, in conjunction with the partner institutions, will select an Editorial Committee for the selection of the submitted works.
• The Editorial Committee will select the best works and edit them in a uniform format for subsequent diffusion on the Consortium’s webpage.
• The working papers should incorporate the main findings and results of the research undertaken. The length of these documents should be between 10,000 (minimum) and 12,000 words (maximum).
• Digital publication does not impede the author of the text from presenting a printed version of the publication in other academic publications (scientific journals, reference books, etc.)

4.  Call for Proposals and Application Timeline

The deadline for submitting applications is April 16th, 2010. Applications must be sent by e-mail to: securitytransformation@flacso.cl

SECRETARIAT:
FACULTAD LATINOAMERICANA DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES (FLACSO- CHILE)
Av. Dag Hammarskjold 3269, Vitacura, Santiago de Chile.
Phones : (56 2) 2900200 - (56 2) 2900212
Email: securitytransformation@flacso.cl