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CISSM Launches New Summer Graduate RA Awards & 2022 Seed Grant Competition

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CISSM group photo outside Van Munching Hall

CISSM recently announced its 2022 Summer Graduate Research Assistant Awards for School of Public Policy graduate students. With fewer internship opportunities available because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this new initiative will help to fill that gap by giving current MPP students a paid opportunity to contribute to advancing research projects of CISSM faculty members.

Eligible projects focus on a range of research topics include transitional justice, cybersecurity, nuclear proliferation, the U.S. foreign policy-making process, and civil-military characteristics of insurgent groups.

“First-year MPP students take courses from CISSM-affiliated faculty and learn about the international policy challenges that drive our research agenda,” said CISSM Director Nancy Gallagher. “Every year, faculty are approached by students who want more opportunities to get involved in our research, so this is a win-win way to meet that demand.”

A call for applications is now open until 5:00 pm on Thursday, April 14th. Each award will provide a $3,000 stipend for approximately 150 hours of work to be undertaken from May–August 2022.

CISSM has also released a request for proposals for its 2022 CISSM Seed Grant competition. Now in its 6th year, the Seed Grant competition helps foster Ph.D. student and faculty research collaboration in line with CISSM’s broad research agenda.

For example, 2021 Seed Grant competition winners, Naoko Aoki and Amy J. Nelson, are examining ways to maximize innovation and cooperation while minimizing negative competition among the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue countries in the development of dual-use technologies.

Both the Seed grant competition and the summer research awards are made possible by the generous support of the Yamamoto-Scheffelin Endowment for Policy Research. The endowment seeks to advance innovative global policy research.

"The endowment was created to try to help further the goals of CISSM in international security,” said Clifford and Marianna Yamamoto. “We are glad that students and professors will be able to work together in areas that they think need study and advancement."

For best consideration, submit a Seed Grant proposal by Friday, April 22nd. For more information on the CISSM Seed Grant competition, click here.

Additionally, you can find more information about the Summer Graduate RA Awards including application details, project descriptions, and RA responsibilities here.


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