Mershon Center Residency Competition
Fiscal Year 2023-2024
For a general understanding of Mershon's mission and funding goals, please review the overview of Mershon funding on our website.
Scope and eligibility
This grant is intended to help Ohio State faculty bring a scholar or practitioner to campus for an extended period of time in order to interact with Mershon affiliates and other relevant faculty, student, or public and community constituencies around security-related issues. Depending on circumstances, a residency may be as short as a few days or as long as a year. (For a lecture with just an additional course visit or other minor event, please apply for a Programming Grant or a director-reviewed Small Grant, depending on expense.)
This competition replaces previous visiting scholar arrangements. The Ohio State applicant is expected to serve as the immediate host for the resident, coordinating activities for them with the help of the Mershon staff and doing their best to ensure that the resident has a satisfying experience at Ohio State.
A residency should benefit both Mershon and the resident. While there will normally be a programming component (talks, film screening, etc.), the primary purpose is intellectual exchange. For example, a practitioner in peacebuilding might take a mini-sabbatical to talk with academics and read recent scholarship. In return, they might give a seminar on their practice and a workshop for students interested in NGO careers, or advise PhD students planning fieldwork. The seminar could lead to a publication or broadcast allowing them to synthesize the learning from their career for others.
Because this competition is a new experiment, we strongly urge prior consultation, especially for longer residencies. Mershon cannot offer salary replacement, full fellowships, or office space for long-term visitors (note, however, our postdoc program, with the next round in 2024-2025), but are interested in discussing what would make a visit feasible, recognizing the different circumstances of tenured scholars in the US, international visitors, community practitioners, and so on.
Applicants must think hard about the viability of their residency plan in relation to an overcommitted constituency and overprogrammed campus. They should also think clearly about their own bandwidth for hosting the visitor. Regular and affiliated faculty are eligible to apply. Postdocs and graduates may apply in collaboration with a faculty member. Collaborative applications from more than one unit are strongly preferred; applicants should demonstrate buy-in from relevant constituencies, up to and including co-sponsorship by another unit. In the case of an extended visit, the proposed resident should submit a plan of work.
Due date
April 1, 2023
Submission Instructions
All application materials should be sent via email attachments (coversheet saved as a Word document) to mershon.faculty@osu.edu . Please identify each electronic document with your last name, the grant, and document type (i.e. smithRESIDcv.doc or smithRESIDproposal.doc).
For questions regarding the application process or budget, allowable expenses, travel, or disbursement of funds, please contact Kyle McCray, Business & Operations Manager at the Mershon Center, at mccray.44@osu.edu or at 614-292-3810.
Proposals must contain the following items:
- Standard coversheet including a 100-word abstract (available below).
- Three-page proposal describing
a. the proposed resident's background and skillset; what they can offer the Mershon the community in the understanding of international, national, and/or human security
b. the intellectual purpose of and rationale for the residency, and the intended activities
c. the constituencies for the programming (Mershon, Ohio State, field-specific, public) and its relevance to Mershon's mission.
d. any intended follow-on activities or products.
- Itemized budget (available below). Please explain where any additional needed funding will come from.
- CVs of the applicants and the proposed resident.
Applications will be reviewed by a multidisciplinary faculty committee. Applicants may be invited to discuss the project and budget with the committee and, in some cases, to revise and resubmit. Applicants will receive an initial response by May 5, and revise-resubmits will be due by May 31. Funds will be available for a full academic year with any extension to be approved on an as-needed basis. (Unused funds will be swept unless there are special circumstances for an exception.) Any event dates must be approved by the Mershon Center in coordination with the rest of the annual schedule.
Criteria for evaluation include
- the qualifications of the resident for bringing new knowledge and perspective on security issues to Mershon
- The value of the proposed activities to the immediate participants and to broader academic, policy, or public constituencies
- The viability of the proposed plan, including the evidence of interest, the suitability of the budget, and the feasibility of the plan of activities
Recipients of Mershon grants are expected to participate in the life of the Mershon Center, both informally and formally. Collegiality and curiosity, objectified by a reasonable level of showing up, are essential to cross-disciplinary learning. In proportion to the support given, affiliates are also called upon for specific forms of service, taking their schedules into account. We hope, of course, that grantees will remain engaged with Mershon after the granting period and will continue to collaborate with us.
Residents will commit to the plan of activities specified in the proposal, and it is hoped that they will engage with Mershon more broadly, to a level that is reasonable in relation to their commitments and the length of their stay.
Specific granting requirements include
- Work with the Mershon Center communications specialist on appropriate promotion for the residency and related activities
- Submit a brief public-oriented follow-up post to capture significant aspects of the residency and insights generated from it for the Mershon newsletter and website.
- Credit the Mershon Center for International Security Studies as research funder in any associated publications and professional activities and list it as an associated org on the ePA-005 form if you apply for any follow-up external funding.
Grantees who do not fulfill the grant requirements will not be eligible for future funding.