Sex internationella forskargrupper tilldelas medel för att studera globala utmaningar

I ett gemensamt initiativ från Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, brittiska Wellcome Trust och tyska Volkswagen Stiftung har det beslutats att sex internationella forskargrupper ska dela på drygt 5 miljoner euro.

Sedan ett antal år tillbaka har Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Wellcome Trust och Volkswagen Stiftung samarbetat kring en satsning på forskning om globala utmaningar: Europe and Global Challenges. Tanken bakom är att stora globala utmaningar bara kan lösas med gemensamma krafter, därför anmodades de sökande att upprätta samarbeten med forskare över hela världen. Utlysningen har varit mycket lyckad.

- Det här är ett utpräglat europeiskt initiativ. De tre stiftelserna finansierar tillsammans forskning om de stora utmaningarna för Europa och världen. Som finansiärer vill vi ge de sökande stor frihet att ställa de frågor som de finner mest relevanta och intressanta. Däremot har vi ställt stora krav på att forskargrupperna i den här utlysningen ska komma från hela världen. Det har visat sig vara mycket framgångsrikt. Det har ökat perspektiven och lett bort från eurocentrismen, säger Göran Blomqvist, vd för Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

De sex projekt som i år beviljats medel kommer att kunna bidra med ny kunskap om många av de globala problem som världen står inför, menar Göran Blomqvist.

I år var antalet bidrag från svenska forskare större än tidigare. Över 300 ansökningar inkom från forskargrupper runt om i världen. Dessa bedömdes sedan av en internationell panel som utsåg 14 till en tätgrupp och slutligen valde ut sex projekt som beviljades anslag.

Sedan 2009 har totalt 16 forskargrupper beviljats stöd. 2017 års forskargrupper är följande:

Erik Berglöf: The Responsible Deal: Where and How to Best Protect and Integrate Syrian Refugees
London School of Economics and Political Science, 900 000 euro (funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond)

Contact:

iga@lse.ac.uk

This inter-regional multidisciplinary project seeks to understand how humanitarian and asylum policies impact refugee decision-making and integration. Focusing on Syrian refugees in frontier host countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan) and non-frontier host countries (Germany, Sweden and the UK), this project seeks to understand where a particular refugee is most effectively and sustainably protected and integrated, and how agreements between origin and host countries, the EU and globally can be improved. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches across various disciplines, we address three main questions: (1) How do asylum seekers select initial and ultimate host countries and what is the effect of EU and member state policies on their eventual outcome? (2) How does asylum policy design impact refugee integration? (3) Given our results and current political constraints, how should responsibilities be allocated between EU, national and local levels and across origin, initial, and ultimate host countries?

Till Bärnighausen: The Ethics of Health Policy Experiments: a global framework for design and oversight
Univeritäts-klinikum Heidelberg, 900 000 euro (Wellcome Trust)

Contact: haefner@uni-heidelberg.de

Across the globe, governments implement efficacious health interventions whose success depends on health policy choices: how interventions are financed, organised, and deployed in real-life health systems. Strong causal evidence for these choices requires health policy experiments: large-scale, rigorous tests of alternative approaches to delivery (Tollefson 2015). Yet the ethics of health policy experiments remain uncharted (Bärnighausen, Wikler, and Eyal 2014). We propose to develop a global framework for ethical design and oversight of health policy experiments based on theory and normative reasoning; deliberative interviews with local stakeholders; deliberative workshops with global actors; and feedback from internet users. The final global framework will recommend principles, structures and processes for ethical design and oversight of health policy experiments, which are scientifically rigorous, ethical, and politically and socially widely acceptable. Our investigator team is drawn from Germany, Tanzania, Bangladesh and the US, and brings together expertise in study design, ethics, and qualitative inquiry.

Sarah Hawkes: Identifying and Implementing Appropriate and Effective Public Policy Responses for Improving the Sexual Health of Migrants and Refugees
University College London, 891 000 euro (Wellcome Trust)

Contact: s.hawkes@ucl.ac.uk

Global challenges are complex, interwoven ‘wicked problems’ whose solutions require systemic thinking, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and engagement with a range of stakeholder opinions and positions. In this proposal we will address the interlinked problems of inequalities, migration/refugees and global health. Using the tracer example of sexual health (sexually transmitted infections including HIV) we will explore rigorous evidence for interventions to address upstream determinants driving poor health outcomes for refugees/migrants from West Asia/Middle East North Africa (WA/MENA). Results from systematic reviews, realist reviews and mathematical modelling will be synthesised to identify effective interventions which can be translated into policy (in a range of sectors). These policy options will be assessed and refined to enhance their ‘palatability’ – i.e. their legitimacy, feasibility and acceptability with a range of key stakeholders in countries in the WA/MENA region as well as in pan-EU and national level (UK) health institutions.

Thomas Hale: Strengthening Non-state Climate Action in the Global South
University of Oxford, 757 700 euro (Volkswagen Stiftung)

Contact:thomas.hale@bsg.ox.ac.uk

In parallel to national governments, cities, companies, civil society groups, and other sub/non-state actors increasingly act to address climate change. While this shift represents an important breakthrough for a critical global challenge and for European policy, it also faces a crucial barrier. Most of the world’s future emissions will come from developing countries, which will also experience the worst effects of climate change. Yet most non-state climate action is still concentrated in the Global North and the vast majority of transnational climate governance (TCG) initiatives are led by Northern actors. This balance will have to shift for TCG to realise its potential. Furthermore, we have only a limited understanding of the impact and effectiveness of TCG initiatives, especially in the South. This project aims to map, explain, and narrow this gap. In addition to global-level analysis, the project considers in detail sub/non-state action in India and Kenya. By collecting original, micro-level data in these countries, the project aims to understand the contextual factors that shape the outcomes of TCG ‘on the ground’ in order to understand how sub/non-state actors in developing countries can best contribute to the global challenge of managing climate change.

Anders Levermann: Impact of Intensified Weather Extremes on Europe’s Economy
Potsdam-Institut fûr Klimafolgenforschung, 784 900 euro (Volkswagen Stiftung)

Contact: anders.levermann@pik-potsdam.de

Weather extremes are expected to intensify under future warming. In a globalized world, Europe’s economy will be impacted directly by recurring regional extreme weather events, such as the 2013 flooding or the 2003 heat wave, but also indirectly through its economic connectedness with the rest of the world. This project investigates the impact of intensified weather extremes on Europe's economy under different climatic and socio-economic futures and develops and assesses possible adaptation strategies at the company, the national and the EU level. To this end, the impact of heat waves, floods and tropical storms as well as possible developments of Europe's economy and trade relations through 2050 will be projected. Based on these projections, the direct and indirect effects on Europe’s economy will be assessed using a numerical model of economic loss propagation. The model will be calibrated by hindcasting recent weather extremes. Overall, the project addresses the combined impact of two major global challenges of the 21st century – climate change and economic connectedness – and provides solution strategies with strong global implications.

Jenny Phillimore: Sexual and Gender-based Violence in the Refugee Crisis: Vulnerabilities, Inequalities and Responses
University of Birmingham, 880 000 euro (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond)

Contact: j.a.phillimore@bham.ac.uk

This project uses a social constructivist framework to understand the incidence and nature of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) experienced by refugees escaping conflict in the Levant region. SGBV against refugees is a global challenge demanding urgent attention given the scale of forced displacement. It is a problem at the nexus of three global challenges: global health, migration and social inequality. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between academics and NGOs from the Levant, Europe and Australia. Retrospective interviews will be undertaken with refugees, and in-depth interviews with service providers, to examine refugees’ experiences conceptualised as a process of SGBV determined across the refugee journey. The research attends to subjective experiences, interactions, and different reception and therapeutic contexts to explore how SGBV impacts refugees’ health and resettlement. Social impacts of the project include: development of a new approach to recording SGBV incidence and policy and practice recommendations shaping more responsive services.

Läs mer om initiativet Europe and Global Challenge på respective finansiärs webbplats www.rj.se, www.volkswagenstiftung.de and wellcome.ac.uk

För mer information kontakta forskningssekreterare Fredrik Lundmark, fredrik.lundmark@rj.se