The Urban Studies Foundation (USF) is pleased to launch a new research funding initiative to seed-fund collaborative primary research proposals that engage with the theme Urban Urgencies. Up to six innovative projects will be awarded up to GBP £35,000 each. Project activities should begin within nine months of the application deadline, and are expected to last up to eighteen months. All proposals should be clearly situated and relevant to the broader academic field of urban studies, and their contribution to scholarly debate and dialogue in this field should be compelling and timely. Proposals must also be based upon an active partnership with at least one non-academic organisation.
The theme Urban Urgencies is intended to focus on addressing the most pressing urban challenges through innovative, rapid-response research that addresses the urgency of emergent issues, while contributing to grounded, rigorous responses that proactively shape inclusive, equitable and sustainable urban futures. The contemporary urban moment is characterised by intersecting polycrises. For the world’s cities and urban regions, such crises may converge around the climate emergency, housing and food insecurity, pandemics and public health, threats to democracy, conflict or urbicide, artificial intelligence, technology, and/or many other urgent and existential uncertainties. This spectrum of ongoing and emerging crises is deepening dispossession and inequality, while reconfiguring economic and ecological systems. Within this context of rapid change, new forms of power are emerging to reshape the nature and dynamics within and between cities, with unanticipated effects. These shifts are affecting both the Global North and South, requiring responses that bridge across diverse contexts, scales, temporal frames and epistemic communities.
The call refrains from defining a fixed thematic focus, in order to acknowledge that urban urgencies are contingent on context. The USF invites proposals that link evidence to theory and practice at the convergence between continuity, discontinuity, disruption, and emergence in shaping urban dynamics and form. It welcomes projects that challenge and disrupt existing understandings of multiple and intersecting dimensions of urban urgencies, and that identify practices or methods for shifting current trajectories towards greater justice and sustainability.
As this call is an opportunity for reflexive research that seeks to generate new forms of empirical evidence to contribute to theory and practice, the relationship between what is interpreted as ‘urgent’ is as important as wherethe sites of enquiry are located. Equally critical is the how, which includes the combination of innovative methodologies and different types of knowledge that will be employed through partnerships. Eligible research projects are therefore required to include a meaningful research partnership between a minimum of two organisations, one of whom must be from a non-academic constituency. It is expected that a high-quality collaboration between partners should make contributions in the areas of knowledge production, mobilisation, capacity building, and/or be of relevance to policy and/or practice, as related to the proposed theme.
This funding scheme aligns with the USF’s broader funding strategy that prioritises initiatives that foster inter- and trans-disciplinary collaboration, support early career researchers, and enhance urban scholarship globally. By targeting emergent and contingent urgent urban issues, this scheme exemplifies our commitment to advancing impactful and inclusive urban studies. This initiative not only supports high-quality research but also promotes the mobilisation of knowledge and practices that can lead to more just, sustainable, and resilient urban futures.
Project outputs and outcomes should contribute to key learnings of global significance to urban studies. It is expected that each project should aim to produce high-quality outputs, including academic publications and feasible outputs for the public domain, such as public reports, policy briefs, or other innovative and accessible forms of knowledge mobilisation, as determined by the issues being investigated, and by the non-academic partners of the project. The USF particularly welcomes proposals whose dissemination plans include peer-reviewed publication in leading urban studies journals. Applicants with outputs suitable for the Urban Studies Journal are encouraged to review and engage with the Journal’s Call for Papers and/or Special Issues initiatives when considering how their project could contribute to emergent and ongoing scholarly conversations. Beyond generating academic outputs, successful proposals should be ambitious in their pursuit of high-impact outcomes that contribute to tangible influence upon issues of urban governance, policy, justice, equity, and/or sustainability.
The USF welcomes proposals from researchers and organisations globally, and will support modest overheads for host institutions based in countries present on the most recent OECD list of ODA recipients (see Eligibility and Terms). Prospective applicants must consult all guidance documents before preparing an application.
More information: https://www.urbanstudiesfoundation.org/funding/urban-urgencies/#:~:text=The%20deadline%20for%20applications%20to,with%20the%20theme%20Urban%20Urgencies.