OSA / Grants

OSA Grant Policy

Mission-Description

Since its foundation in 1995 the Open Society Archives (OSA) at Central European University has been dedicated to promoting the development and maintenance of open societies, democratic values and institutions in the region and throughout the world by means of its special nature, being both an archive of documents relating to recent history, the cold war, communism and human rights and, at the same time, part of a graduate research and educational institution with a multicultural student body and faculty.

Chartered in the United States but located in Central Europe, the OSA occupies a unique niche in the archival community and has been working towards the creation of an informational gateway between the archives of the former socialist countries and those of developed countries with a long history of democracy.

OSA firmly believes that the first requirement of an open and democratic society is a well-informed scholarly community. This is why it has set an example and has been funding efforts to open up research resources, archival collections which have not been public in the past, and which are vital for the understanding of the history of the recent past.

Also, since its foundation OSA has been aware of the perils: autocratic institutions, violations of human rights, ethnic and religious hostilities, regional conflicts and controlled media which endanger countries that have only taken the initial steps along the road to democracy. OSA actively collects materials related to human rights, human rights violations and ethnic intolerance, assists in training programs designed to enhance awareness and education in freedom of expression and rights to information, and develops partnerships with other human rights institutions and archives.

In its capacity as official archive of the Soros Foundations Network, OSA is part of the array of activities dealing with educational, social, legal, and health care reform, thus supporting and facilitating the philanthropic goals of the network of Soros foundations.

Funding Priorities

Consistent with its mission, the OSA offers a considerable proportion of its yearly unexpended funding and a part of its yearly budget in the form of grants which are made to researchers, scholars, artists, journalists, institutions and individuals in order to promote and maintain the free flow of information, to open up research resources for the study of Communism, the Cold War, issues related to Human Rights and Human Rights Violations, and to develop programs that empirically and analytically address the central issues of societies in transition.

Geographical focus

Any application relating to a project of outstanding professional value in the relevant areas will be considered, but priority is normally given to applicants from the region of Eastern and Central Europe, the former socialist countries and the poorer countries of the world with limited research facilities (e.g. Burma, Haiti, Mozambique, Niger, Afghanistan etc.).

Beneficiaries

The support is primarily intended for non-government-funded institutions involved in specialized professional and/or academic programs and projects, but any teams and individuals who wish to carry out high quality, innovative research projects in the fields of Communism, the Cold War, Human Rights, Freedom of Information and Information Rights are also considered.

Grants Areas

OSA offers funding in four grant categories:

1) Research Grants: to support scholars, academics, journalists and artists who wish to conduct research in the OSA holdings and whose research project is relevant to the holdings and research priorities of OSA.

2) Thematic Grants: to support institutions, teams and individuals in projects that promote the understanding of the history of recent past, the conservation and public accessibility of national archival heritages, freedom of expression, access to official information and the strengthening of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

3) Support for Research on Recent History: to promote research into the history of communism (in Central Europe this refers to the post World War II period) and into the representation of the inter-war period in the historiography of the communist regimes. Proposals related to the history of art, history of science, legal history and historical anthropology within the period are welcome. Research projects dealing more directly with issues of the inter-war years or even with the World War I as a prologue of the 20th century are also considered.

4) OSA Internship Grant for Hungarian Archivists: to promote collaborative archival projects and information exchange among archival institutions. Grantees will gain an insight into the work of the different departments of OSA and will become acquainted with both long term and current projects.

Applications

Application procedures and deadlines vary by grant categories. In most cases a preliminary letter is the first step.

The four different categories of grants are awarded by appropriate grant selection boards, which consist of internationally renowned experts and distinguished members of the Central European University academic community. OSA is strongly represented on each board.

OSA seeks proposals that feature novel, alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues in the priority fields of interest of the Archives. The principal criteria for selection are the professional value of the project, its feasibility, the novelty of approach, the complex nature of the issue addressed by the project, and the extent to which it corresponds to the philosophy of and contributes to the accomplishment of the goals of OSA.

OSA notifies all applicants of the final decision in writing within three months of the date of application.

Information on grant allocation and project tracking procedures is public and available on the Web and/or from OSA administration.

Central European University does not discriminate on the basis of--including, but not limited to--race, color, national and ethnic origin, religion, gender or sexual orientation in administering its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

April 2002