Other Fellowship Programmes

Cara's Fellowship Programme

Our Fellowship Programme is open to direct applications from individual academics at risk in their home country or who have been recently displaced, regardless of nationality, and aims to secure temporary postdoctoral or PhD placements. Applications are considered on a rolling basis.

The Phillipp Schwartz Initiative

The Philipp Schwartz Initiative supports academics at risk through placements at German universities and research institutes. The scheme is only open to academics who have completed a PhD or equivalent degree. Individual academics cannot apply to directly to the scheme, but rather must be nominated by a German host institution. Academics interested in the scheme should contact potential host institutions in Germany who will then apply on the academic’s behalf. Our role is limited to providing risk assessments (the US-based Scholars at Risk can also be asked for such assessments), which must be requested by the host institution. Currently, candidates from Afghanistan, Sudan and Ukraine can self-certify their risk, without needing to involve Cara or SAR. The 15th application round has recently closed, and the results will be announced by the end of May 2025.

The 'Researchers at Risk' Scheme

The British Academy-led ‘Researchers at Risk’ scheme was launched in April 2022, to provide support to Ukraine-based academics who had been forced to flee by Russia's invasion and were nominated by a UK University. Most of the funding came from UK Government departments. We provided risk assessments at the request of each intending host University and took part in the selection panel meetings, and we are now paying out the awards to all the individual researchers, on behalf of the British Academy.

Seven application rounds were held, resulting in 180 awards. Most awards were initially for two years, and a third year was later offered and taken up by almost all the Fellows, many of whom will now work in the programme until late 2025 or into 2026.