CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR FELLOWS/ASSOCIATE FELLOWS

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1 Queen s University Belfast Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR FELLOWS/ASSOCIATE FELLOWS The George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice (GRI) Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation (PRP) Risk and Inequality (PRP) Applications are invited from academic staff from all three Faculties to become Fellows and Associate Fellows of the above GRI and PRPs. 1 Further details on the GRI and two PRPs are appended to this document. Academic staff can only be Fellows of one GRI or PRP but, in addition, can apply to be an Associate Fellow of others. Membership will be for three years in the first instance. 2 Following this initial call for membership, an open system will operate from 1 September 2016 whereby academic staff can submit applications to be a Fellow or Associate Fellow of the GRI or one of the PRPs at any time. Benefits of Membership For those whose research aligns with the GRI or a particular PRP, the benefits of becoming a Fellow or Associate Fellow include opportunities to: Benefit from mentoring, guidance and support from more senior colleagues within the GRI/PRP, depending on the stage of your career; Enhance your ability to meet academic standards, opportunities for promotion and realise the ambitions of Vision 2020; Increase the profile of your research by its association with and promotion through the GRI/PRP; Significantly enhance your ability to increase external research income generation by being a member of wider research teams applying for funding and benefiting from the expertise of members of those teams; and Benefit from enhanced opportunities to participate in collaborative funded projects and interdisciplinary networks and to deepen the breadth, reach and quality of your research. Both types of membership are open to all academic staff, including those on probation. Applications are particularly encouraged from early career researchers whose work aligns strongly with the relevant GRI/PRP. Fellows and Associate Fellows Fellows will have research interests that align strongly with the respective GRI/PRP and will be exceeding the academic standards in relation to research for their subject area and commensurate with the stage of their career. They will be expected to align their core 1 Contract research staff will continue to work on the research projects they have been appointed to. Where these research projects become aligned with a GRI/PRP then the respective research staff will become incorporated into the relevant GRI/PRP. 2 Academic staff who apply to be a Fellow or Associate Fellow of the GRI and/or one of the PRPs will be making a commitment to contributing to the work on that GRI/PRP, as set out below, for at least three years. In exceptional circumstances there will be an opportunity for an individual to withdraw from the GRI/PRP early. Page 1 of 7

2 research activity through the GRI/PRP and make a significant contribution to its wider activities and work. Associate Fellows will have at least some core research interests that align strongly with the respective GRI/PRP and will be meeting the academic standards in relation to research for their subject area and commensurate with the stage of their career. They will be expected to be actively involved in existing externally-funded projects associated with, and/or seeking external grant income through, the GRI/PRP. They will also be expected to make some contribution to the wider activities and work of the GRI/PRP. Application Procedure A letter of application (maximum two pages) and an up-to-date copy of your Academic CV should be ed to Jill Doherty at j.doherty@qub.ac.uk by 4.00pm on Friday 13 May Please use GRI/PRP Fellow Application as the subject heading. The letter of application should state clearly which GRI/PRP is being applied to and whether Fellowship or Associate Fellowship is being sought. The letter should also clearly set out the strategic fit of the applicant s research to the GRI/PRP and also the contribution they could make to the wider activities and work of the GRI/PRP. It is the applicant s responsibility to ensure that the letter of application and accompanying Academic CV provide sufficient details to demonstrate how they meet each of the criteria listed below. If applicants wish to apply to be a Fellow of one GRI/PRP and Associate Fellow of another then they should submit separate applications for each. Membership Criteria All applications will be assessed by a Faculty Panel, chaired by the Dean of Research and including the three Directors (or their nominees) of the GRI and PRPs and two Heads of School. Applicants will be notified of decisions by Friday 10 June Each application will be assessed and scored using the criteria set out overleaf. Alongside the need to meet the minimum requirements for strategic fit outlined below, applicants will need to achieve the following minimum total scores: 70 or above for Fellow 50 or above for Associate Fellow Unsuccessful applications will have the right to appeal decisions and these will be considered independently by a Faculty Appeals Panel chaired by the AHSS Faculty Pro- Vice-Chancellor. Page 2 of 7

3 Criteria Maximum Notes Score* Strategic Fit 20 A minimum score of 15 is required for Full Membership and 12 for Associate Membership. The letter of application should be used to demonstrate clearly the strategic alignment of current and/or planned research to the core programmes of work of the GRI/PRP. Outputs 10 Applicants should refer to their respective Income 10 School s Academic Standards for Supervision 10 descriptions of each of these criteria. Research Leadership 10 Impact 10 Esteem 10 Knowledge Transfer and 10 Enterprise Contribution to GRI/PRP 10 The letter of application should be used to set out clearly what contribution the applicant could make to the wider activities and work of the GRI/PRP. Total Score 100 * See below for scoring scheme Criteria Strategic Fit Contribution to GRI/PRP Scoring Scheme Strong existing track record of research aligned directly to GRI/PRP and clear plans to align future research Notable existing track record of research aligned directly to GRI/PRP and clear plans to align future research Some existing track record of research aligned directly to GRI/PRP and clear plans to align significant aspects of future research Little or no existing track record of research aligned to GRI/PRP but clear plans to align significant aspects of future research. 4 7 Little or no existing track record of research aligned to GRI/PRP and limited plans to align future research. 1 3 Little or no alignment Excellent potential contribution, with specific short and medium term plans outlined in the letter of application. 6 8 Strong potential contribution, with well-developed plans outlined in the letter of application. 4 5 Some potential contribution, with some speculative plans outlined in the letter of application. 1 3 Limited or no potential contribution All Other Criteria 7 10 Exceeds relevant academic standards for stage in career. 4 6 Meets relevant academic standards for stage in career. 1 3 Does not meet relevant academic standards for stage in career. Page 3 of 7

4 Further Details on the GRI and two PRPs The George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice (GRI) Director: Professor Hastings Donnan Overview of Indicative Research Themes The GRI engages the challenge of building a peaceful, inclusive and secure world through four priority themes which both reflect and seek to shape research council funding calls. Each theme encompasses several operational topics, which overlap and in which University staff excel internationally. Each of the four priority themes entails core questions of global concern that preoccupy funders, policy-makers, governments and civil society worldwide, as illustrated below. Moreover, they connect directly to issues of poverty, development and environmental and food justice to be engaged as the GRI develops critical mass. So too post-conflict democracy, humanitarian intervention, and infrastructural and economic recovery are all areas around which the university s existing expertise might coalesce as the GRI develops. Legacy Issues How do peace processes become embedded in everyday life following political and institutional settlement? What are the mechanisms through which those involved in conflict become reconciled to the past and to one another? Justice and rights How can we embed international norms of human rights into local cultures? What forms of global justice and ethics (economic, political, civic, gender) underpin stability? Page 4 of 7

5 Security How can we secure just and ethical responses to a variety of security risks? What role can new technologies play in building peace as well as providing security? Ideology and beliefs What insights are generated by comparing societies undergoing similar processes of conflict transformation and what factors enable or inhibit transformation from taking place? What is the effect of community intervention programmes across cultural media and creative arts initiatives? If you are unsure if your research interests fit, please contact one of the Institute s current Senior Fellows: The Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation (PRP) Director: Professor Paul Connolly (paul.connolly@qub.ac.uk) The Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation ( is a large and interdisciplinary research centre that currently includes over 25 full-time research and support staff and is anticipated to attract between academic staff as Fellows. The Centre seeks to improve the lives of children, families and communities by working in partnership to create robust evidence to find innovative solutions to key social problems. Working with key stakeholders, the Centre supports the development, delivery and evaluation of a wide and diverse range of social interventions. These interventions are organized within seven key programmes of research that are, themselves, clustered around three key strands that represent core sites of innovation: Strands Research Programmes What Works for Families Parenting Children in Care and Child Protection What Works for Schools Academic Attainment Social and Emotional Learning and Wellbeing Physical Activity and Nutrition What Works for Communities Drugs and Alcohol Misuse Sexual Health The final names and work associated with each research programme will be finalized once Fellows and Associate Fellows are confirmed. The Centre also has plans to develop additional research programmes, with one specifically on mental health to fall within the What Works for Communities strand. Each of the seven research programmes will include three types of work: Exploratory research that seeks to understand the nature of particular societal problems and help identify where social interventions need to be focused, drawing upon a wide range of innovative qualitative and quantitative methods. Evaluative research that seeks to determine whether particular social interventions are effective in tackling social problems and leading to measurable improvements in the lives of children, families and communities, typically involving the use Page 5 of 7

6 of randomised controlled trials or equivalent robust methods. Evidence synthesis that seeks to draw together and learn from the wider evidence base regarding particular social problems and the effectiveness of various approaches to tackling these, most commonly using systematic review methods that follow the rigorous standards of international organisations such as the Campbell and Cochrane Collaborations. Alongside work on specific social interventions, the Centre is also developing long-term strategic partnerships with two local communities to develop holistic and contextualized innovative approaches to tackling disadvantage and inequalities and improving social, educational and health outcomes: Greater Shankill Child and Young People Zone Colin Neighbourhood Partnership Applications to be Fellows and Associate Fellows of the Centre are welcome from academic staff across the University whose research falls within at least one of the seven research programmes listed above or in the planned new programme of mental health. Please visit the Centre s website for further details on its focus and programmes of work: If you are unsure as to whether your existing or future research plans align with the Centre then please contact the Centre Director, Professor Paul Connolly, for advice at: paul.connolly@qub.ac.uk Risk and Inequality (PRP) Director: Dr Tom Walker (tom.walker@qub.ac.uk) The PRP on Risk and Inequality will bring together researchers from across the University to investigate the two-way relationship between risk and inequality; that is risk as inequality and inequality as risk. The PRP is comprised of three strands across which the relationship between risk and inequality will be assessed: finance and the economy; environment; and public health. Risk as inequality can be broken down into a series of generalizable testable propositions: i) both known and unknown risks (in the areas of finance, environment and health) pose the greatest threat levels to low income and socially disadvantaged groups; ii) the greatest capacity to process and project risk lies with high income groups; iii) techniques and technologies for managing risk, distribute costs and burdens in ways which can exacerbate or reduce levels of inequality. Inequality as risk is the proposition that rising inequality in wealth (including related social disadvantage) and growing concentrations of wealth, simultaneously increase systemic risk. Complex social and natural systems become more unstable and are more susceptible to sudden emergencies and crises as a result, with the effect of diminishing wealth and well-being. Rising inequality can therefore be conceived of as a growing risk in its own right. This creates a need for a much better understanding of these potential risks, the challenges they pose, their inter-relationships and how we should seek to measure and respond to them. Page 6 of 7

7 With Queen s researchers in many different areas and disciplines working on elements of risk and/ or inequality this PRP aims to focus these efforts, enabling a programme of consistent collaborations and communications across disciplinary boundaries oriented towards regular interdisciplinary funding applications. The PRP adopts broad definitions and understandings of risk and inequality in an effort to be inclusive of researchers from across the university. Risk is understood as the potential relative losses arising from the hazards and insecurities induced by human behaviours and their interactions with complex social and natural systems. Inequality is understood as an increasingly uneven distribution of social, natural and economic resources, and a resulting variation in access to public goods, that often intersect and reinforce one another through functional interdependencies. A key objective of the PRP is to identify some of the inter-relationships and transmission mechanisms through which risks interact and are re-distributed, and how these affect patterns of inequality and vulnerability. A second key objective is to collect and generate quantitative and qualitative data that will help better understand the relationships between risk and inequality. For example, what kind of data can help us to understand the impact various risk management techniques have on patterns of inequality? To what extent do differing patterns of rising inequality increase calculable risks in different fields and by what magnitude? How do people adjust behaviour to perceived risks in different domains and how is this linked to wealth, income and social status? The PRP also aims to bring normative theorists together with more empirically driven social and natural scientists, with the aspiration of generating practically applicable normative principles that can inform the design of risk institutions and instruments in a way which is sensitive to the technical realities of risk calculation in each field. Risk and inequality are both at the very forefront of funded challenge-led projects in the UK and world-wide, and this is reflected in their being major themes for research funders. The ESRC and AHRC have both had recent highlight notices on the theme of risk, while the related issue of uncertainty plays a major role in all UK research councils. The Wellcome Trust is very much concerned with both risk and inequality, in particular with regard to health and human well-being. The European Union s Horizon 2020 framework has identified risk across various domains (including the environment/climate change, energy, and health) as one of the key challenges our societies face today. Inequality is going to grow as a funded theme, because it is one of the major challenges of the 21st Century. Aligning these two areas and placing them in an institutionally recognised interdisciplinary research programme is intended to give members of the PRP a strategic advantage in future funding competitions. If you have any queries regarding this PRP and/or are unsure if your research interests fit, please contact the PRP Director, Dr Tom Walker at: tom.walker@qub.ac.uk Page 7 of 7