IIE’s USAID-funded Democracy Fellows and Grants (DFG) Program is seeking input from experts on the design of an upcoming research grant opportunity to support USAID’s Center of Excellence for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG Center) in developing Theories of Change (TOC) in democratization. Understanding key transition points in the process of democratization is crucial to USAID’s strategic planning and program development process, and the TOC Research Grant Project will identify and develop TOCs that can increase the return on USAID’s DRG investments.

Prior to issuing the solicitation for research grants, IIE is seeking feedback on the design and content of the TOC Research Grant Project from researchers and academic experts in the field of democratization. Responses are due Thursday, August 8, 2013, at 5pm EST. Responses to individual questions can be submitted via this form; longer responses to the overall project design should be emailed to dem.grants@iie.org.

In soliciting input on four key questions and feedback on the overall design of the research project, USAID’s DRG Center is looking to develop TOCs that will allow it to design effective DRG programs. USAID wants to be better able to determine, for example: 

• What sparks the downfall of a relatively rich Arab authoritarian regime.
• What elements contribute to the rapid breakdown of a relatively stable African democracy.
• What accounts for the marked differences in authoritarian military regime change from one country to the next, from Asia to Africa to Latin America.
• Within all of this, where USAID’s DRG programming can have the greatest positive impact.

After the expert feedback is incorporated, IIE will announce a solicitation for applications for research grants. The dates and deadlines for applications will be available on the USAID Democracy Fellows and Grants Program website. Interested applicants are encouraged to contact dem.grants@iie.org to receive email alerts when new grant opportunities are published.

IIE’s DFG Research and Innovation Grants program is intended to strengthen the quality of USAID-funded democracy promotion work globally by integrating the knowledge and skills of the academic community in the design and evaluation of that work. IIE will publish several research grant opportunities in the DRG fields during the five years of the DFG program (September 2012 – September 2017). 

For over 50 years, books and reports published by the Institute of International Education have been a standard reference resources for students and advisors alike. Annual publications such as Open Doors, Funding for United States Study, and the IIEPassport Study Abroad Directory are key resources that offer comprehensive information on student mobility and study abroad programs, grants, and fellowships. IIE's research reports and policy papers serve as a rapid response to the changing landscape of international education. 

We encourage you to learn more about our publications online at www.iie.org/publications. On this site, you can download briefing papers and presentations on myriad topics related to international education, and browse through an archive of IIE's reports. 

Take advantage of the current sale on IIE’s www.iiebooks.org store; 20% discount on all Global Education Research Reports, including: 

• Latin America’s New Knowledge Economy: Higher Education, Government and International Collaboration
• Women in the Global Economy: Leading Social Change
• Developing Strategic International Partnerships: Best Practices & Innovative Approaches 
• Who Goes Where and Why? An Overview and Analysis of Global Educational Mobility
• Innovation through Education: Building the Knowledge Economy in the Middle East 
• International India: A Turning Point in Educational Exchange with the U.S.
• Higher Education on the Move: New Developments in Global Mobility
• U.S.-China Educational Exchange: Perspectives on a Growing Partnership

The Institute of International Education is pleased to announce support to 59 organizations at 58 institutions across the United States as part of the second round of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Public Education for Peacebuilding Support initiative.  Since January 2013, USIP has provided up to $2,000 to approximately 143 organizations, totaling nearly $300,000 in support of events that advance and promote the understanding of peacebuilding and international conflict resolution.

"The idea of promoting peace has long been a part of IIE’s vision since its founding in 1919," says IIE President and CEO Allan E. Goodman. "The Institute believes peace and prosperity around the world depend on increasing the capacity of people to think and work on a global and intercultural basis. These USIP-funded events do just that."

Upcoming USIP-supported events include:

• Public seminar and podcast series for the Puget Sound community on peace-building and post-conflict humanitarian efforts, hosted by Antioch University Seattle.
• Peace leadership and skills building workshop on international conflict resolution at Greenfield Community College (Massachusetts).
• Public lecture at Iowa State University by Professor Ramesh Thakur, Director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament at Australian National University, on the UN responsibility to protect (R2P) doctrine.
• Speaker and film series fostering dialogue on "Is Climate Change a Threat to World Peace?" at University of Hawaii at Hilo.
• Conference at the University of South Florida examining how The Silk Road Initiative and ethnic reconciliation could contribute to political stability in Afghanistan.

In keeping with its mandate to serve the American people through education and training, USIP’s Public Education for Peacebuilding Support initiative has assisted colleges, universities and public libraries in 39 states as well as Washington, DC this year. Events that receive USIP Public Education for Peacebuilding Support will address a wide range of themes, such as gender, media, science and technology, sustainable economics, nonviolent conflict resolution, international and regional organizations, post-conflict transitions, and negotiation and mediation. They will also cover country- and region-specific topics. For a complete list of the colleges, universities and libraries that received support from this initiative, please visit the USIP Support website.  

United States Institute of Peace is an independent, nonpartisan institution established and funded by Congress to increase the nation’s capacity to manage international conflict without violence. By supporting events across the country that cover a wide range of peace and conflict mitigation topics, USIP aims to contribute in a significant way to the national conversation on addressing and preventing international conflict. USIP Public Education for Peacebuilding Support is open to all accredited U.S. colleges and universities, as well as U.S. public libraries. 

For more information about USIP’s Public Education for Peacebuilding Support program, please visit www.iie.org/usipsupport or email usipsupport@iie.org.

IIE President and CEO Allan E. Goodman, while enroute to Ebril, tells a story about an interesting flight he shared with an Iranian boxer. 

"Tomorrow the boxer and friend will be back in Teheran. They will be going there with some new impressions of Americans and how they respond to people they don't even know. I think they also got the idea that we are an open society and a nation that is really made up of many immigrants. And our brief encounter made me wish we had many other ways than an airplane oven to get to know each other better," Goodman writes in IIE’s Opening Minds blog. 

Read the full blog post: www.iie.org/Blog/2013/July/AEG-Erbil. 

An article in the India-China Chronicle discusses how China and India’s "economic activism has not translated into higher education partnerships". 

"What explains this gap? In addition to the obvious factors like language and cultural barriers, perceptual barriers about quality contribute to the lack of higher education partnerships between China and India. These barriers are confounded by the different structures of higher education systems and allocation of family resources on a child’s higher education."

Read the full article: www.icec-council.org/india-china/index.php?param=news/379099/77. 

A new study from the European Commission has revealed that cross-border higher education affects a small but growing number of students. Countries receiving high levels of cross-border provision also have high levels of outgoing student mobility – suggesting that opportunities are created "where the kind or quantity of support of higher education domestically does not meet demand".

Read the full article online at: www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130719151248758. 

An article in Times Higher Education notes that India aims to "create 14 universities specifically for research and innovation". To read the full story, click here. 

The Global Health & Innovation Conference is the world's largest global health conference and social entrepreneurship conference. This must-attend, thought-leading conference annually convenes 2,200 leaders, changemakers, students, and professionals from all fields of global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship.

Register during July to secure the lowest registration rate: www.uniteforsight.org/conference/. Interested in presenting at the conference? Submit an abstract for consideration by August 31: www.uniteforsight.org/conference/abstracts. 

The Observatory’s next event is a 1½-day conference that takes as its starting point current developments in online learning and explores how they may impact on three aspects of international higher education: student mobility, how qualifications are gained, and international networks. 

 

For more information, please visit: www.obhe.ac.uk/conferences/confflyer_dec13. The registration form can be accessed online: www.activate-events.co.uk/i-graduate2013/. 

Each year, the core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program sponsors the research and teaching activities of approximately 800 American scholars and professionals in more than 125 countries abroad. The Fulbright Program, the flagship educational exchange program of the United States Department of State, lists among its alumni the largest number of Nobel Prize laureates of any educational program in the world. 

Recent innovations to the U.S. Scholar Program that may be of particular interest to faculty and professionals in the STEM fields include: 

• Increased stipend levels in many countries
• Opportunities in 88 countries for Flex awards that allow the grant to be spread out over two to three years
• Postdoctoral/early career grants in over 80 countries

STEM Awards: Fulbright Scholar Program Opportunities in Science and Technology
While the program is open to academics and practitioners in all fields of academic endeavor, one persistent bit of Fulbright "mythology" is that the program is not interested in applicants in the sciences.  Whether referred to as STEM fields, the hard and the applied sciences, biology, physics, or earth sciences, specializations across the spectrum have been and continue to be welcome. In fact, among the opportunities included in the 2014-2015 competition there are numerous awards available in STEM fields, including: Agriculture, Biological Sciences, Mathematics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Global/Public Health, Medical Sciences, Engineering, Geology, Physics and Astronomy, and Environmental Sciences.

More than 50 countries in every region of the globe are offering STEM awards. They range from large programs in Brazil, Canada, India, and others, to many smaller ones, such as in Mauritius, Kosovo, and Panama.  Distinguished Chair awards in Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Czech Republic, India, Italy, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom seek scholars to pursue activities in STEM areas.  

The deadline to apply for the core Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is August 1, 2013.

For more information on Fulbright Scholar opportunities in the STEM fields, including scholar stories and sample projects, visit the website: www.cies.org/Fulbright/STEM/. For complete information on the range of Fulbright Scholar awards for faculty and professionals in all disciplines, visit www.iie.org/cies.  

Twenty-one state school and college students from the UK will study at prestigious US universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Dartmouth, as a result of the Sutton Trust’s first US Summer School at Yale last year, run in partnership with US-UK Fulbright Commission.

For more information, click here.