Research in Crisis-Affected Contexts 2025

The call for projects “Research in Crisis-Affected Contexts: Continuity, Participation, and Reconstruction” aims to foster impactful partnerships that bridge academic inquiry with practical and policy-oriented solutions. It seeks to catalyze meaningful, context-aware collaborations between researchers in Switzerland and partners in the MENA region, both during crises and in support of long-term recovery and stability efforts.

Open to all disciplines, the call prioritizes projects involving institutions in fragile or crisis-affected settings across the region. Relevant themes include (but are not limited to) access to essential services (health, education); multifaceted impacts of crises on populations; social, economic and political reforms; peace and reconciliation; sustainable management of natural and cultural resources; strengthening of local capacities; link between research and public policy.

For the purpose of this call, key terms are understood as follows:

- Continuity: Supporting the sustained functioning of essential services, institutional roles,

and societal structures during crises through research-informed, adaptive, and human-

centered approaches that enable systems and communities to maintain core functions and

respond effectively to disruptions.

- Participation: Ensuring local voices, knowledge, and perspectives are meaningfully

included in the research process, and that research itself contributes actively to societal

recovery, policy, and positive change.

- Reconstruction: Encompassing both physical and non-physical dimensions, including

rebuilding infrastructure as well as institutional, social, and relational components, such as

restoring trust, repairing the social fabric, and revitalizing civic life.

Find more information on the Leading House MENA website.

Submission deadline: 23.01.2026