This Network Plus brings together interdisciplinary, comparative and policy-facing approaches, structured around the four following organising themes.
Orders: Understanding order in a broad sense, including both institutionalised organisations and implicit constellations of patterned practices and norms. Where are we seeing existing forms of order eroded or replaced? What new orderings—informal or formal—are we seeing emerge? To what extent are we witnessing a resurgence of spheres of influence? What norms—liberal, illiberal, or otherwise—do emerging orderings embody? What issues are they tackling, and which problems are being left unaddressed? How are relations in the region being organised, and what does this means for future trends?
Interactions: Interactions can take many forms—diplomatic, economic, legal, social, digital etc. Some are intentional and structured, others organic and inadvertent. What impact, for example, are interactions within the region having on the domestic politics of the states involved? How are movements of people or goods shaping regional relations and dependencies? How are transborder environmental effects shaping relations?
Anxieties: What are regional actors concerned about? What risks and dangers are considered most pressing? What fears/concerns are shaping domestic political environments or international political behaviours? Looking at a range of domains—security, environmental, economic, demographic etc—what issues represent salient concerns for regional actors?
Implications: What are the implications of the above for the UK? And, for the wider region and its inhabitants?
Polarities and Regions Network Plus: Fellowships
This Fellowship scheme is funded by the UKRI Network Plus ‘Shifting Global Polarities: Russia, China, and Eurasia in Transition’. This funding initiative brings together a network of leading expertise and centres of excellence from across the UK and overseas to address gaps and needs in research during a period of major societal, geopolitical, and environmental transformation spanning Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central, East & Pacific Asia.
Fellowships at a glance:
- Number: Maximum of 8 fellowships per year
- Amount: Up to £16,000 per Fellow
- Duration: Activities should take place over a period of up to 12 months max. (shorter periods are permissible) – fellowships should begin no earlier than 1 April 2025 and no later than 1 May 2025
- Eligibility: Fellows will be from diverse backgrounds including academia, policy, curatorial, NGOs. The scheme will prioritise the funding of early career applicants
- Focus: Activities should fit with the Network’s regional focus, priority theme for that round, and main organising themes
Polarities and Regions Network Plus: Research Projects
The research projects are intended to further the reach of the Network and will engage with one (or more) of the Network’s main organising themes (see above) and help to advance the priority theme for that round. The priority theme for the Network this year (2024-25) is Culture, Media and Resistance in a Polarising World.
Research projects at a glance:
- Number: Up to 10 funded projects per year
- Amount: Up to £14,000 per project – to enable original research, policy analysis, synthesis of knowledge
- Duration: Activities should take place over a period of up to 12 months max. (shorter periods are permissible) – to begin no earlier than 1 April 2025 and no later than 1 May 2025
- Eligibility: Applicants will be from diverse backgrounds including academia, policy, NGOs
- Focus: Activities should fit with the Network’s regional focus, priority theme for that round and main organising themes