CFP: Call for Research Project Proposals

The Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion (IRC) at the University of Oxford is pleased to offer five grants of up to $65,000, five grants of up to $30,000, ten grants of up to $15,000 and fifteen grants of up to $5000 to individuals or research groups based at recognised Central and Eastern European (CEE) institutions to conduct interdisciplinary research on questions at the intersection of science and religion. Grants will be awarded by competitive evaluation on the basis of project proposals. 

Eligibility

Applicants will normally be individual scholars or research teams based at CEE research institutions, including universities, research academies and seminaries. Proposed projects must fall under the project themes, which are outlined below. It is expected that most applications will come from natural scientists, theologians and philosophers, but there are no disciplinary restrictions and applicants with academic backgrounds in other areas are also welcome. The IRC is happy to accept applications led by either senior or by early-career scholars. Applications are welcome from researchers working in any religious tradition, and from researchers working in no religious tradition. Prospective applicants unsure of their eligibility are encouraged to get in touch with the IRC at the project email address, [email protected].

For the purposes of the project, CEE is defined as: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, the former East Germany, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Themes

Research proposals should focus on Big Questions at the interface of science, theology, and/or

philosophy. The Project encourages applications that fall within three broad themes: science and

religion in the CEE context; reason and faith; and persons, mind and cosmos. Suitable topics include:

•  The significance of theological traditions for scientific practice today;
•  The relations of brains, minds and human persons;
•  Whether physical cosmology can explain the origin of the cosmos;
•  The role of religion in the historical development of science;
•  The place of values in the natural world;
•  How the history of CEE has influenced views on science and religion;
•  Free will and scientific determinism and/or divine foreknowledge;
•  Empirical psychology and the second person perspective;
•  Phenomenological approaches to religion;
•  Understanding notions of God, good and evil in a scientific age.

For further example areas, applicants are strongly encouraged to visit the Ian Ramsey Centre’s . Proposals with an interdisciplinary component are especially encouraged. Favourable consideration will be given to clear, focused research topics and questions, with the potential for broader implications.