Each year the University Committee for Research & Innovation supports up to five researchers with University Research Fellowships to develop their work in the arts, humanities and social sciences for the following year. Each fellow receives funding for teaching replacement costs and research expenses and are selected based on the originality, rigour and significance of their applications.
We caught up with Daphne Halikiopoulou to find out what being a University Research Fellow was like for her:
“The University Research Fellowship allowed me to carry out a project that I had in my head for a while. It gave me significant time to carry out this research along with the freedom to travel to do fieldwork. This was an expansion of my research into the dynamics of far right populism in Europe to look at this on a global scale. Specifically, I wanted the research to identify different patterns of nationalist narratives and how they appeal to different social groups in different countries. Also context matters, are we seeing the same phenomenon in all countries or is it different?
“This is part of my ongoing research and has enabled me to gather data together which is useful in comparative studies but also in combining this data with results from surveys form another project. Though I wasn’t able to complete all the field work I have collected enough data on non-European countries (mainly the US and Canada) to give us an idea of how widely the methods I used can be applied and used for studies that will give a cross Atlantic perspective.
“Like many people COVID had an impact on my work and perhaps I didn’t realise the full benefit of being a University Research Fellow. In spite of this, I’d absolutely recommend other people to apply. It’s a great scheme and the flexibility allows you to plan and utilise it in the best way. A lesson learnt for me would be to put some of the funding aside to hire a research assistant to help with data gathering and analysis. If I applied again this is what I would have done.”
Daphne Halikiopoulou is a Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations.
The University Research Fellowship 2020/21 scheme is currently open and the deadline for submission of applications is Friday 23 April 2021. Please note that application is by form only to Sue Jones.