Biomedical Sciences Blog

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP), and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) announce the annual Abe Fellowship Program competition. Funding for the Abe Fellowship Program is provided by CGP.

The Purpose of the Fellowship

The Abe Fellowship is designed to encourage international multidisciplinary research on topics of pressing global concern. The program seeks to foster the development of a new generation of researchers who are interested in policy-relevant topics of long-range importance and who are willing to become key members of a bilateral and global research network built around such topics. It strives especially to promote a new level of intellectual cooperation between the Japanese and American academic and professional communities committed to and trained for advancing global understanding and problem solving.

Research support to individuals is at the core of the Abe Fellowship Program. Applications are welcome from scholars and non-academic research professionals.The objectives of the program are to foster high quality research in the social sciences and related disciplines, to build new collaborative networks of researchers around the three thematic foci of the program, to bring new data and new data resources to the attention of those researchers, and to obtain from them a commitment to a comparative or transnational line of inquiry.

Successful applicants will be those individuals whose work and interests match these program goals. Abe Fellows are expected to demonstrate a long-term commitment to these goals by participating in program activities over the course of their careers.

The Abe Fellowship Research Agenda

Applicants are invited to submit proposals for research in the social sciences and related disciplines relevant to any one or any combination of the three themes below. Research proposals bearing on these themes may address issues related to human security, multilateralism, bilateralism, U.S.-Japan relations, transnational economic relations, the empowerment of peoples and communities, and sustainable development, among others. The themes are:

1. Traditional and non-traditional approaches to security and diplomacy: Appropriate research topics include transnational terrorism, internal ethnic and religious strife, infectious diseases, food safety, climate change, and non-proliferation, as well as the role of cultural initiatives in peace building.
2. Global and regional economic issues: Suitable topics include regional and bilateral trade arrangements, globalization and the mitigation of its adverse consequences, sustainable urbanization, and environmental degradation.
3. The role of civil society: Appropriate issues include demographic change, immigration, the role of NPOs and NGOs as champions of the public interest, social enterprise, and corporate social responsibility.

Across the Program's three dominant themes, priority is given to projects that demonstrate important contributions to intellectual and/or policy debates and break new theoretical or empirical ground. Applicants are expected to show how the proposed project goes beyond previous work on the topic and builds on prior skills to move into new intellectual terrain.

Please note that the purpose of this Fellowship is to support research activities. Therefore, projects whose sole aim is travel, cultural exchange, and/or language training will not be considered. However, funds for language tutoring or refresher courses in the service of research goals will be included in the award if the proposal includes explicit justification for such activities.

Policy-Relevant, Contemporary, and Comparative or Transnational Research

Rather than seeking to promote greater understanding of a single country - Japan or the United States - the Abe Fellowship Program encourages research a comparative or global perspective. The program promotes deeply contextualized cross-cultural research.

The Abe Fellowship Program Committee seeks applications for research explicitly focused on policy-relevant and contemporary issues with a comparative or transnational perspective that draw the study of the United States and Japan into wider disciplinary or theoretical debates.

Policy Relevance

The Program defines policy-relevant research as the study of existing public policies for the purpose of: a) deepening understanding of those policies and their consequences; and b) formulating more effective policies. Policy-relevance can also be found in research questions that are pertinent to understanding public dialogue on contemporary issues of concern to various sectors of society. All proposals are expected to directly address policy-relevance in theme, project description and project structure.

Contemporary Focus

The Program is concerned with present day issues and debates. Thus, proposals in history or with a historical component must demonstrate how the research is specifically intended to inform contemporary concerns.

Comparative or Transnational Perspectives

The Abe Fellowship Program does not support research on a single country. Priority is accorded to comparisons of processes, problems and issues across time and space. Successful proposals will explicitly address how the project will be comparative or transnational in construction and goals.

Typically projects involve data collection in more than one country or across several time periods. Data from a single country may be collected under the auspices of the fellowship only if the purpose of collecting that data is explicitly comparative or transnational. Single country proposals that merely imply that the data have broader comparative relevance will be eliminated from the fellowship competition. Further, it is not sufficient for a proposal to implicitly suggest a comparative perspective because of the pervasive or global distribution of the phenomenon being studied.

Eligibility

• This competition is open to citizens of the United States and Japan as well as to nationals of other countries who can demonstrate strong and serious long-term affiliations with research communities in Japan or the United States.
• Applicants must hold a Ph.D. or the terminal degree in their field, or have attained an equivalent level of professional experience.
• Previous language training is not a prerequisite for this Fellowship. However, if the research project requires language ability, the applicant should provide evidence of adequate proficiency to complete the project.
• Applications from researchers in professions other than academia are encouraged with the expectation that the product of the fellowship will contribute to the wider body of knowledge on the topic specified.
• Projects proposing to address key policy issues or seeking to develop a concrete policy proposal must reflect non-partisan positions.

Please Note: You may hold only one fellowship sponsored by the Japan Foundation, which includes the Abe Fellowship, during any one Japanese fiscal year, which runs from April 1 through March 31. Current recipients of a Japan Foundation Fellowship and those who will commence that fellowship by March 31, 2011 are ineligible to apply for an Abe fellowship in 2010. Fellowship awards are contingent upon receipt of funding from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.

Fellowship Terms

Terms of the Fellowship are flexible and are designed to meet the needs of researchers at different stages in their careers. The program provides Abe Fellows with a minimum of 3 and maximum of 12 months of full-time support over a 24 month period. Fellowship tenure must begin between April 1 and December 31 of a given year. Fellowship tenure need not be continuous, but must be concluded within 24 months of initial activation of the Fellowship.

• The Fellowship is intended to support an individual researcher, regardless of whether that individual is working alone or in collaboration with others.
• Candidates should propose to spend at least one third of the Fellowship tenure in residence abroad in Japan or the United States. In addition, the Abe Fellowship Committee reserves the right to recommend additional networking opportunities overseas.
• Abe Fellows will be expected to affiliate with an American of Japanese institution appropriate to their research. Fellowship funds may also be spent on additional residence and field work in third countries as appropriate to individual projects.
• Fellows will be required to attend specific Abe Fellowship Program events.

Applications

The application deadline is September 1 annually. Applications must be submitted on-line at http://soap.ssrc.org. For further information, please contact the program directly at abe@ssrc.org.

In the US

Abe Fellowship Program
Social Science Research Council
One Pierrepont Plaza, 15th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA
Email: abe@ssrc.org
Tel: 212-377-2700 / Fax: 212 377-2727

In Japan

Abe Fellowship Program
SSRC Tokyo Office
c/o Japan Foundation
Center for Global Partnership
4-4-1 Yotsuya
Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo 160-0004, Japan
Email: ssrcABE@gol.com
Tel: 3-5369-6072 / Fax: 3-5369-6042

Program Director

Mary B McDonnell

Contact

• Ian Rinehart