Call for Application: CATS Network Grants 2023

The Centre for Applied Turkey Studies (CATS) at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, in Berlin, aims to strengthen research cooperation between European and Turkish institutions working on Turkey’s domestic politics and foreign policy, and acts as curator of the CATS Network. As part of this endeavour, CATS offers funding for policy-oriented research projects.

For the year 2023, CATS is announcing the availability of research grants on the following topics:

1. Where will economic policies and economic transformation lead Turkey in the coming years?

Possible research questions include:

  • How can Turkey's close economic relations with the EU be used to anchor Turkey in the Western camp?
  • How are economic actors in Europe and in Turkey respectively reacting to unorthodox monetary policy?
  • Does the resilience of Turkey's economy rest on its huge informal sector, and if so, what does this mean for  European policy?
  • How do Eurosceptic political actors in Turkey bridge the country’s economic dependency on the EU with their  strategic pivot to Russia and China?
  • What do recent capital inflows of non-Western origin and “hot” money from abroadmean for the trajectory of the Turkish economy and Turkey-EU economic relations?

2. How does social change in Turkey impact Turkish foreign policy and its relations with Europe?

Possible research questions include:

  • Is there an intergenerational change in the perception of Europe? How have perceptions of other geopolitical actors, such as the US, Russia and China, evolved?
  • How does Turkish civil society look to Europe and how do its members perceive the years to come? What is civil  society’s perception of other geopolitical actors, such as the US, Russia and China?
  • Rapid urbanisation triggered the rise of Muslim/Islamist, heterodox and ethnicity-based movements and parties  and broadened the Turkish middle class. What does the slowing of rural
  • out-migration and the growing middle class mean for Turkey's political future?

3. What are the drivers of Turkey's foreign policy and how can Europe deal with them?

Possible research questions include:

  • Should Europe consider investing in and cooperating with Turkey's dynamic defence industry to prevent the country's further drift towards Russia and China?
  • What does Turkey's recent arms development say about the country's threat perceptions and its foreign policy vision?
  • Can we speak of a military-industrial complex in Turkey yet, and if so, does it exert agency in foreign policy making?
  • What can NATO and the EU offer Turkey to outweigh the benefits of military and security cooperation with Russia,  rapprochement with the Shanghai Cooperation Association, confrontational policy towards Greece and Cyprus, and tendencies to utilise irregular migration?
  • Why should Europe add to its existing offers to Turkey while Turkey behaves more and more adversarial towards Europe? Should Europe instead embark on a “less for less” approach with respect to anti-European policies pursued by Turkey?
  • To what extent does Ankara’s aspiration for an autonomous foreign policy prevent rapprochement between Turkey and its Western allies? What are the limits to strategic cooperation between Turkey and the EU under their  respective aspirations for strategic autonomy, given the new geopolitical realities?

Projects should foster transnational research and debate that reflects on European policy towards Turkey.

CATS awards project grants of up to € 75,000 per institution. Joint applications by two or more institutions are encouraged; the maximal budget increases in relation to the number of institutions involved. The total sum does not have to be distributed equally among project partners.

Grants may cover costs for:

  • Personnel (portion of the salary of employees of the applying institution according to working hours spent on the project)
  • Honoraria (for experts or service providers who are not employed at the applying institution)
  • Travel (for transport, hotel costs, etc.)
  • Events (e.g., venue rental, catering, translation costs)
  • Publications (proofreading, design, open access fees, print, etc.)

Grants do not cover costs for overhead, fellowships, per diems or the procurement of goods (for fellowships see the Call for Applications for CATS Fellowships 2023).

The funding period starts on 01 June 2023 at the earliest. The project duration can be at most 15 months.

Applicant institutions have to be officially recognised as non-profit organisations/organisations that work for the public good. Funding depends on the submission of the necessary documents upon selection. The contractor has to be a legal person. SWP will act as the contract partner on behalf of CATS.

Beneficiaries need to comply with the funding guidelines. More information on the guidelines and concrete regulations (e.g., max. amount for hotel costs in specific cities) and their administrative implementation can be received from the CATS team (CATS@swp-berlin.org).

Applications must be submitted in the form of a single PDF document and must contain the following components:

  • A written proposal (max. 5 pages; 2 cm margin, 1.5 spaced, 12pt Times New Roman font, including expected results and public outreach, excluding the following points);
  • A timetable;
  • A list of persons involved, their responsibilities, and their CVs;
  • A draft budget.

Criteria for the selection of projects are: significance for policy advice, innovativeness, quality of application, expected outputs, profiles of people involved, cost effectiveness and feasibility.

Applications will be evaluated by a jury consisting of CATS team members, other experts from SWP, and experts from partner institutions, which have not applied for funding.

The deadline for application is 13 February 2023. Please send your application by email to CATS@swp-berlin.org. Applicants are responsible for submitting complete applications. Incomplete applications will not be considered. For more information, please read our FAQs.

For more information about the CATS Network, please see the website: https://www.cats-network.eu/

As part of the application process, we will store and process the data you send us and share it with members of the jury that will consist of SWP employees and other members of the CATS Network. To ensure that you are fully aware of the collection, processing and use of your personal information, please read our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the processing of your data by SWP, you can object at any time by contacting cats@swp-berlin.org.

Please also note our data protection declarations for events and stored addresses at SWP at https://www.swp-berlin.org/en/data-protection/.