News and Events

IIE-SRF is delighted to announce a partnership with the Simons Foundation in support of threatened and displaced scholars specializing in the fields of computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics. A generous $500,000 grant to IIE-SRF from the foundation’s sister organization, Simons Foundation International, will support multiple fellowships for academics facing critical needs. In addition, the foundation is providing direct funding to Simons-affiliated institutions to host IIE-SRF scholars’ fellowship appointments.

IIE’s Office of the CEO: Dr. Allan Goodman, Jason Czyz, Sarah Ilchman, and Courtney Temple joined the 2022 G7 and Partners International Higher Education Agencies Summit hosted by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The high-level annual gathering of international education organizations representing the G7 countries, and seven other partner countries, met in Berlin for the two-day summit from May 4-5.

Discussions centered on the theme of International Academic Cooperation amidst a World in Crisis: Chances and Challenges. Through roundtable dialogues, meetings, and presentations the summit leaders discussed the challenges facing global academic mobility, as well as the critical need to support the increasing number of displaced and threatened students and scholars.

The Vartan Gregorian Research Grants in the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund honor the life and legacy of former IIE Trustee, Dr. Vartan Gregorian. A champion for global peace and academic freedom, Dr. Gregorian worked tirelessly throughout his life to expand access to education, to promote international exchange, and to preserve the lives and work of threatened scholars.

Today, on what would have been Dr. Gregorian’s 88th birthday, we are pleased to announce the three inaugural fellows of the IIE-SRF Vartan Gregorian Research Grants: Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi of Virginia Tech; Dr. Yasmine Ergas of Columbia University; and Dr. Nandini Ramanujam of McGill University. These grants, each in the amount of $25,000, will fund original research and projects that deepen our knowledge of the threats faced by academics in diverse contexts across the globe and explore innovative ideas for supporting these scholars. The below profiles provide more information about the IIE-SRF Vartan Gregorian fellows, their efforts to support threatened and displaced academics in partnership with IIE-SRF, and their projects.

As conflicts and authoritarian crackdowns contribute to the decline of scholars’ safety and academic freedom worldwide, it has become clear that creative, collaborative global interventions are required to effectively respond to the many professors and researchers in urgent need of support. The Baden‐Württemberg Fund for Persecuted Scholars (BWF) – a multilateral initiative that supports research appointments for persecuted scholars at universities and other higher education institutions within the German State of Baden‐Württemberg – is an innovative solution that combines IIE-SRF’s decades of experience in scholar rescue with critical resources and local expertise provided by multiple regional stakeholders.

IIE-SRF is honored to announce that, under a new administrative structure launched in 2022, it will implement BWF in partnership with the Baden‐Württemberg Stiftung; the Ministry of Science, Research, and Arts of the state of Baden‐Württemberg; the Klaus Tschira Stiftung gGmbH; and the MJF Gelehrtenschutz gGmbH, all of which support the initiative.

BWF has been working in partnership with IIE-SRF to support threatened and displaced scholars around the world since the initiative’s founding in 2016. Under the new structure, IIE-SRF will nominate scholars previously selected by the IIE‐SRF Selection Committee for consideration by the BWF Selection Committee for fellowship placements at institutions in Baden‐Württemberg. Working with BWF partners, IIE-SRF will then administer all aspects of the fellowship for selected scholars, who will be considered IIE-SRF/BWF fellows.

“Especially in times like these, it is very important to help persecuted scholars and to give a clear signal that Baden-Württemberg is a place where research is free and not bound to suppression or censorship,” write Christoph Dahl and Dr. Andreas Weber of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, who respectively serve as the foundation’s Managing Director and Head of Education Department. “It is in this spirit that the supervisory board of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung supports BWF. With this program, we, along with our partner universities and research institutions, aim to set an example and offer persecuted and threatened researchers from all over the world and from all disciplines the opportunity to conduct research in peace and freedom. In doing so, we wish to make an essential and lasting contribution to international understanding.”

In January 2022, the Baden-Württemberg Fund for Persecuted Scholars Selection Committee selected four scholars as inaugural IIE-SRF/BWF fellows:

• A scholar of economic geology from Afghanistan
• A scholar of economics from Afghanistan
• A scholar of archaeology from Turkey
• A scholar of biology and ornithology from Turkey

IIE-SRF is working to secure fellowship appointments for these scholars to resume their work in safety at academic institutions in Baden-Württemberg.

“As IIE-SRF and its partners have long witnessed, no single individual, organization, or government is capable of supporting every scholar facing threats or displacement,” says Dr. George Rupp, Chair of the Scholar Rescue Fund Committee of the IIE Board of Trustees and a member of the BWF Selection Committee. “Recent developments in Ukraine demonstrate that the global higher education crisis is only increasing in scope and complexity. As a result, we must find collaborative solutions and pool resources and expertise both within and across borders. BWF is a prime example of such collaboration, and I am honored to be a member of its selection committee.”

IIE-SRF has been involved with BWF since its inception. Under the program’s initial arrangement, IIE-SRF vetted and prepared applications from eligible scholars for presentation to the BWF Selection Committee. Selected scholars’ fellowships were administered by the BWF team independently of IIE-SRF. Between 2017 and 2020, nine BWF fellows undertook academic appointments at six institutions across Baden‐Württemberg.

» About BWS: Founded in 2000, the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung is one of the largest foundations in Germany. Focusing on research, education as well as society and culture, the foundation invests in the future of the state of Baden-Württemberg and of its citizens. However, it does not limit its activities and its commitment to the state of Baden-Württemberg. Furthering international cooperation and understanding is at the heart of its largest program, the Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year.