The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP) announce the annual Abe Fellowship Program competition. Funding for the Abe Fellowship Program is provided by the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.

The Purpose of the Fellowship

The Abe Fellowship is designed to encourage international multidisciplinary research on topics of pressing global concern. The program seeks to foster the development of a new generation of researchers who are interested in policy-relevant topics of long-range importance and who are willing to become key members of a bilateral and global research network built around such topics. It strives especially to promote a new level of intellectual cooperation between the Japanese and American academic and professional communities committed to and trained for advancing global understanding and problem solving.

The Abe Fellowship Program Research Agenda
Applicants are invited to submit proposals for research in the social sciences and related disciplines relevant to any one or any combination of the four themes below. The themes are:

1) Threats to Personal, Societal, and International Security
2) Growth and Sustainable Development
3) Social, Scientific, and Cultural Trends and Transformations
4) Governance, Empowerment, and Participation

Transnational or Comparative, Policy-relevant
Rather than seeking to promote greater understanding of a single country—Japan or the United States—the Abe Fellowship Program encourages research with a comparative or global perspective. The program promotes deeply contextualized cross-cultural research.

The Abe Fellowship Program Committee seeks applications for research explicitly focused on policy-relevant and contemporary issues with a comparative or transnational perspective that draw the study of the United States and Japan into wider disciplinary or theoretical debates.

Fellowship Terms

Terms of the fellowship are flexible and are designed to meet the needs of Japanese and American researchers at different stages in their careers.

The program provides Abe Fellows with a minimum of 3 and maximum of 12 months of full-time support over a 24-month period.

Part-time residence abroad in the United States or Japan is required.
Eligibility

Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or Japan. (Nationals of other countries MUST demonstrate a serious, long-term affiliation with research communities in the United States or Japan.) Applicants must hold a PhD or the terminal degree in their field, or have equivalent professional experience at the time of application.

Applications from researchers in professions outside of academia are encouraged.

Deadline: September 1

Contact
Learn more about the program: http://www.ssrc.org/fellowships/view/abe-fellowship/ 
Contact program staff: abe@ssrc.org