Scholarship Gianfranco Martini, European Association for Local Democracy

The European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA) grants an annual scholarship since 2013, in memory of its Honorary President, Gianfranco Martini. He was one of the founding partners of the Local Democracy Agencies’concept and he became the first President of ALDA in 1999, when the association was established. Throughout his life, he was passionate and engaged to the promotion of local democracy, the commitment of civil society and the encouragement of interethnic dialogue in Europe, with a particular focus on the Western Balkans. For this reason, ALDA decided to honour his memory awarding on yearly basisthe “Scholarship Gianfranco Martini” to a student or researcher who develops a study or work project related to the following topics: local democracy, engagement of civil society and/or interethnic dialogue. The objective is to enrourage high-quality academic research and analysis for ALDA’s fields of activity, to develop new strategies of action andfurther promote these values.

The application must include a concise presentation of 5 pages maximum, in which the candidate indicates the objective of the study or work project,and how it will contribute and foster the topics of local democracy, engagement of civil society and/or interethnic dialogue. The applicant will also indicate how the scholarship offered would be used for the research, presenting a short budget outline. The application should also include a motivation statement and two relevant references.

The successful candidate will be awarded during the General Assembly of ALDA, occurring this year in May in France. The presence of the winning candidate is necessary. Once the selection is finalised and the results are declared,the winner of the scholarshipshould address a “formal requestof payment”to the financial department of ALDA, that will authorise and proceed to the scholarship’s payment.

Proposed focuses for 2019 scholarship
1.The European Elections and the Neighbourhood Countries
2.The state of art in the accession process for the Western Balkans countries
3.Support to Participative Democracy all around enlarged Europe
4.The participatory approaches in multi-ethnic communities

• Visibility ofthe winning project
The proposal of the successful candidate will be given visibility through ALDA’s communication channels.

• Timespan of the scholarship
Since the winner is announced, the timeline of the scholarship is one year. The researchprojectwill be therefore implemented during the following 12 months after the presentation of the proposal to the General Assembly. Thedraft results of the researchimplemented need to be sent ALDA at least one month before the General Assembly of the following year, where the researcher will present them to participants.Failure to comply with the deadline without prior agreement with ALDA may result in the scholarship cancelled.

For more information please visit the following link:
Information Controls Fellowship Program, Open Technology Fund, U.S.A. (2019)