Funding humanities and social sciences research
Transnational mobility and funding are two key components for postdoctoral researchers. It is not common for the two to go hand in hand, thus limiting options for career development support and finding a leading position. The EU-funded CARA (Cara postdoctoral mobility fellowships in the humanities and social sciences) project aimed to fill this observed gap in Irish and international funding for transnational mobility. It helped postdoctoral researchers in the humanities and social sciences maintaining an interest in Ireland by giving them the opportunity to spend a research period abroad. In this way, they acquired international experience and advanced their careers while having the opportunity to return to Ireland. In turn, the researchers will be able to give back to Ireland and its research community. Set up for researchers based in Ireland or Irish citizens abroad, the cycle was divided into a two-year phase of outgoing mobility to host organisations across the globe. Following that phase, there was a one-year reintegration phase to an organisation in Ireland. Applicants of all nationalities could apply, with the condition that they had received their PhD no more than five years before the deadline or were researchers about to receive their PhD degree. Two funding calls were launched in 2010 and the applicants were screened for eligibility using an international peer review. A total of 25 positions were awarded, including 5 undertaken internationally in universities such as Harvard, Cambridge and the Sorbonne, for a 3-year period. Additionally, through the Irish Research Council, CARA held four annual research symposiums for the fellows. The symposiums were successful in creating a networking platform for researchers to present and communicate their results. Furthermore, project fellows were assisted in learning key marketing strategies to promote themselves and their research results. Finally, the workshops helped the researchers identify research funding and other employment opportunities. Social networking sites were also established to communicate with project researchers and share news of their activities. An initiative was started in January 2016 to further promote and highlight the achievements of Irish researchers, with the aim of increasing public awareness of the research conducted in higher education institutions.
Keywords
Humanities, social sciences, international funding, transnational mobility, postdoctoral, CARA
