Building on the HIDDEN Network: The Next Steps for Funding Opportunities, 6 September 2024, University of East London’s Royal Docks School of Business and Law, United Kingdom
Prof. Michael J. Geary, co-leader HIDDEN WG 3 – Accessing Citizenship
On Friday, 6 September 2024, Working Group 3 leaders, Prof. Michael J. Geary and Associate Prof. Susan Rottmann, organised an event at the University of East London’s Royal Docks School of Business and Law. The aim of the event was to kickstart a discussion on funding opportunities and how to exploit the networking capacity built by HIDDEN thus far within the context of EU funding calls in the next year or two. The one-day event was filled with detailed and insightful presentations on several EU funding calls with a specific focus on best practice in building a consortium, developed the application, pitfalls to avoid and the importance of diversity, gender balance and creating opportunities for early career scholars.
After words of welcome from Action Chair, Assoc. Prof. Jennifer Redmond, and Barry Collins, head of UEL’s Department of Law & Criminology, Assoc. Prof. Sergiu Gherghina kick-started a series of detailed presentations and questions and answers sessions. He outlined the keys elements of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Doctoral Network. The goal for many of us in the HIDDEN network is create a doctoral network that includes several international universities to provide training to 12-15 PhD students for a period of three years. Moreover, he provided detailed insights into the evaluation process and strategic advice on building a network for this call.
Michael J. Geary, who holds a Jean Monnet Chair in History of European Integration at NTNU, outlined funding opportunities within the context of Erasmus+, where he deep dived into a number of funding areas, including the Jean Monnet Actions (Modules, Chairs and Centres of Excellence). Moreover, he outlined the relevance of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters and the fertile ground to develop collaboration between partners within the HIDDEN network.
Assistant Researcher at the Institute of Demography and Sociology, Ilia State University, Dr Tatiana Sitchinava focused her presentation on contemporary challenges and pathways to universal legal identity. To this end, she examined on the need for a summer school that would address themes like the EU’s role in transnational citizenship; citizenship tests; and the impact of technology on access to ID.
Profs Ayselin Yildiz and Monika Arnez gave a detailed presentation on the MSCA Staff Exchange where they focused not only the eligibility requirements but on the importance of secondments of researchers between academic and non-academic institutions which speaks to an important aspect of HIDDEN. One particular theme they flagged which could be developed within the scope of this call is ‘Migrants as Agents of Decision-Making: Geographical Imaginations and Interdisciplinary Policy Approaches’, which would incorporate cultural dimensions and historical knowledge creation.
Working Group 3 aimed to bring together a group of scholars from within WG 3 and other WGs to brainstorm funding opportunities and to empower participants to reflect on and focus on leveraging the HIDDEN network to pursue new funding calls, not least at the EU level. Many are interested in the Doctoral Network and further meetings will take place to unpack this option further later in 2024 and early 2025.
Working Group 3 is very grateful to Dr Annalisa Meloni and her colleagues at the UEL for being such generous hosts and for their warm welcome. We will be back.
