Latest DPIR Research Support Fund winners announced

The Department is delighted to announce that Dr Eli Gateva, Dr Lucie Qian Xia, Dr Marnie Howlett, Dr Mihail Chiru, Sascha Riaz, Dr Will Allen and one anonymous student are recipients of the latest tranche of funding from DPIR’s Research Support Fund, launched last year. 

Work supported by the DPIR Research Support fund in the latest rounds of awards include: 

• Dr Eli Gateva’s research on specific features of the responses to EU democracy promotion and safeguarding in seven European countries - Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, North Macedonia and Ukraine. The findings will contribute to her book manuscript ‘Promoting and Safeguarding Democracy: Does the European Union Matter?’
• Dr Lucie Qian Xia’s book launch and supporting talks at universities in the UK and beyond for her book project ‘The Diplomatic Making of EU-China relations: Structure, Substance and Style.’ The funding will also be used finalise research on China’s trade diplomatic negotiations, due to be published in a peer-reviewed leading academic journal in early 2024.
• Dr Marnie Howlett’s research into the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine - ‘(Un)Motivated to Serve: Understanding Ukrainians’ Responses to Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion’. Her research explores how Ukrainian’s understandings of and feelings towards their state’s sovereignty changed following Russia’s invasion. The funding will help with hiring a statistician to analyse data as well as transcribing interviews from Ukrainian and Russian to English.
• Dr Mihail Chiru’s research project on the polarization of parliamentary debates in the context of the COVID-19 crisis and the climate emergency, ‘Crisis mitigation measures and the polarisation of parliamentary debates’.
• Sascha Riaz’s research project ‘Revisiting History, Reshaping Politics: The Effects of Confronting In-Group Atrocities’ which examines the political effects of exposure to in-group atrocities. His research casts a spotlight on the controversial “Wehrmacht Exhibition” (1995–1999), which for the first time exposed the German public to gruesome details about crimes committed by the German army during WWII.
• Dr Will Allen’s planned academic exchange with the University of Amsterdam in Spring 2024, during which he will gives lectures and seminars to departments in the Netherlands, including at VU Amsterdam, Erasmus University, and Groningen University.

The Research Support Fund was launched in Michaelmas term 2022, providing small grants (up to £3,000 per award) for non-permanent academic or research staff to develop their research – or to provide pump-priming and completion of research initiatives, emergency research funding, or support dissemination of research impact or engagement activity. 

This initiative, run by DPIR’s Research Facilitation Team, will repeat towards the end of each term. 

Calls for applications to the DPIR Research Support Fund will be sent to the DPIR sub-faculty mailing list and be included in the Research weekly newsletter email. For further information on eligibility and the application process, please email the DPIR Research Facilitation Team.