What is the Decolonial Futures RPA?

The Decolonial Futures Research Priority Area establishes collaborations on decolonial research across the Humanities, Law, and Behavioural and Social Science Faculties. The RPA understands ‘coloniality’ as a form of power that emerged in the modern period to determine how people are categorized, how power and wealth are distributed, and how social exclusion takes place. ‘Decoloniality’ refers to the recognition and redress of the systemic injustices produced by colonial power and its legacies.

What research collaborations will the RPA support?

The RPA aims to support innovative and collaborative research endeavours through annual seed funding calls of up to 15,000 euros. The funds may be used to support original empirical research, research meetings and events, guest visits, extra research time and a variety of other endeavours which lead to more lasting and substantive research collaborations. If you are unsure of whether your planned activities may be funded, we encourage you to first consult the project controllers in your Faculty and then get in touch with us at decolonialfutures@uva.nl.

While publication and other outputs may have longer development time frames, we expect all RPA funded activities to take place between April 2024 and March 2025. Please note, however, that for this round staff may only begin utilizing extra research time from 1 September 2024. Subject to successful completion of their objectives, seed grant holders can apply for the grant to be renewed for an additional year.
The call is open in terms of Decolonial research themes but we particularly encourage submissions which substantively speak to two of the three themes of the RPA: 

1. Museums, archives & cultural practices (e.g., how to deal with demands to restitute art objects acquired through colonial exploits and with contentious monuments?)
2. Migrations, mobility & borders (e.g., how to account for the role of colonial histories and neocolonial exploits in motivating and directing migratory movements and border control policies?)
3. Ecology, sustainability & climate change (e.g., how to establish a just system of climate reparations)

What information should proposals contain?

We encourage colleagues with specific research plans in mind to submit brief (2 page) proposals including:

• aims of their research;
• an explanation of how this work fits the overarching agenda of the Decolonial Futures RPA and its research lines;
• the nature of their collaboration;
• planned activities and a timeline for when the project will deliver on key outputs;
• a fully costed budget (please note that research time should be costed at the Faculty of Humanities full cost rates and
  requests for research time should be cleared first with the staff member’s direct supervisor).

Who can submit a proposal?

Research teams may include colleagues from within the UvA and outside the UvA and may include a combination of researchers, practitioners, artists and activists. We particularly encourage collaborations that include early career scholars and scholars working in historically colonised regions and contexts. When considering applications for extra research time, we are particularly keen to support those colleagues without research time or without other forms of research funding. One member of an application team must come from one of the member Faculties of the RPA at the UvA (Humanities, Law, or Behavioural and Social Science) and collaborations which include collaboration between more than one member Faculty are particularly encouraged. Approval of a supervisor is needed before one can apply.

How to submit a proposal?

Interested applicants should submit their proposal by 15 March 2024 to decolonialfutures@uva.nl with the subject heading DF Seed Grant Application. Proposals will be assessed by an independent committee consisting of members of the three Faculties of the RPA. Applicants will be informed of the outcomes of their application by 31 March 2024.