The ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre has announced the opening of its second annual Early Career Researcher (ECR) Development Fund today (6 September).
6 September 2023
The Fund offers grants of up to £25,000 for early career researchers to lead co-produced projects that explore current and emerging challenges related to vulnerability and policing.
The 12-month projects should align to the Centre’s mission, and values and principles. The deadline for applications is Monday 15 January 2024, 4pm GMT.
This year’s open call has a particular emphasis on the following themes:
- vulnerability and neurodivergence;
- race, ethnicity and vulnerability;
- asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants.
A webinar providing more information about the Fund and the application process will take place from 2-3pm, Thursday 5 October. Register for the webinar.
The Centre funded five original projects in the first round of the Fund last year. These successful grants included work investigating social media-facilitated trafficking of children, undercover drugs policing, child-to-parent violence, domestic abuse, and reporting public sexual harassment.
Professor Charlie Lloyd, Co-Director of the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, said, “Our Early Career Researcher Development Fund is a key part of the Centre’s mission to provide opportunities for those at the beginning of their academic career to lead projects that contribute to the aims of the Centre and are rooted in co-production. We strongly encourage applications to this year’s funding round.”
Professor Adam Crawford, Co-Director of the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, said, “Last year we funded some exceptional projects, including three that aligned with our thematic steer of children and young people. This year we have expanded our thematic steers in collaboration with external partners. They include some of the most pertinent areas of contemporary policing and vulnerability work, where much work and progress needs to be made. We hope our fund can kick-start original research and build capacity for the next generation of researchers in these areas.”