Every year, thousands of academicians lose their jobs mostly for political reasons, and a significant portion of them are forced to leave their home countries. The oppression on academicians is not rare in the human history. Many scientists; from Socrates to Avicenna, from Galileo to Einstein; were the victims of injustice and oppression. Some lost their lives some left their countries and tried to survive in other lands. This situation is not too much different in today’s modern world. As an academician, if you feel at risk and have to leave your home country, there are institutions that could provide you job opportunities and support your research.
What are Fellowship / Bursary / Grant?
The scholarship is usually the name for educational support, which can provide funds directly for the graduate studies such as master or doctorate education. In some institutions, scholarship can also be funded by large scale research projects.
Tips for Scholarship / Research Projects:
To apply a scholarship,
• You have to make sure you are eligible for the scholarship or project support before making applications to these programs. For example, a person who has not completed his / her doctorate cannot apply to a program if a doctorate degree is a requirement for that program. Or one cannot apply a postdoc program accepting applications from people who completed the degree within past five years if she/he finished his/her degree 6 years ago.
• It is important a critical point for most fellowship/grant application to find a host institution that accept new applicant. Some of funding institutions directly ask the host institution to apply for fund on be behalf of the candidate, and they require a mentorship in the host institution.
• In order to find a position or support, it must fulfill the eligibility requirement and prove that you can make a contribution to that institution/field/country. In order to find a position at an academic institution in another country, you should be fluent in English or the language of that country. Depending on the nature of the position, in some rare cases, being fluent in third language may be enough to find a position. For example, a historian who is fluent in Russian may have the advantage of receiving a scholarship in the area of Soviet Studies.
What are the main scholarships?
In the Google search engine, a search like “international & academic & fellowship words” brings up about 152,000 results. You should be more specific in looking for funding opportunities through search engines. For example, if UK citizenship is an eligibility requirement for a scholarship or grant, obviously scholarship opportunities brought up by a search engine with UK citizenship requirements would not help you much. You should narrow down your search by adding additional words in the keywords combinations to find a scholarship or project that you are eligible to apply. This is a very important first step. Searches with better keyword combinations describing your situation would make it easier for you to find scholarships to apply.
For example, someone who completed his/her doctorate degree more than 5 years ago (in some places this is 10 years) should no longer seek post-doctoral positions. Instead, they should look for funding that can directly support their own research.
Institutions and Programs Supporting Risk Academicians:
Risk (SAR) at Scholar:
It is an organization established by the University of New York and is one of the most influential organizations in the world. Rarely, SAR can provide direct financial support to academicians at risk. Rather, it is a reference institution. For example, it collaborates with the German-based Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and directly supports the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, the foundation’s support program for at-risk academicians. This is also a very active program in making the voices of academicians oppressed in their home countries heard.
Web address: https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/about/
The Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF):
This organization, called Scholar Rescue Found (SRF) in short, provides support to academics at risk all over the world. At the application step, a host institution is not required to apply for the support, but it is possible to use the scholarship only after finding a host research institution. This institution supports academics within two years of leaving their countries. If this period is over, applications are rejected.
Web address: http://www.scholarrescuefund.org/
The Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA):
It is a partnership of 119 civil society organizations based in the UK. CARA, together with the universities they cooperate with, provides support to academics at risk within two to three years after they leave their country. It is also one of the reference centers for academics at risk.
Web address: https://www.cara.ngo/
The Volkswagen Foundation Scholarships
The Volkswagen Foundation offers research, support and educational scholarships under various titles. Some of these are well suited for applications by researchers at risk. The “Refugee Researcher Support Scholarship, which can be used especially by academicians who are in exile in Germany, is one of them. The mentor academic to apply for this scholarship must be a researcher who has benefited from Volkswagen Foundation scholarships in the last decade. Refugee researchers may also be involved in ongoing researches. They process the applications fast, which is an important advantage.
https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en
