The invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces has had a devastating impact on the country’s citizens and higher education system. As the war surpassed the one-year mark, the United Nations estimates that as many as 13 million people – including many professors and researchers – had fled the country, while millions more are internally displaced. Many of Ukraine’s universities and research institutions have been damaged or destroyed, limiting the ability of scholars remaining in the country to safely continue their work.
Like earlier crises in Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, and elsewhere, Ukraine’s higher education emergency underscores the need to protect the lives and work of Ukrainian professors and researchers. These scholars are integral to the country’s knowledge production and will help rebuild what has been lost. Since the conflict began, IIE-SRF has supported 23 Ukrainian scholars, many of them women, in academic fields ranging from children’s literature to medicine to fluid mechanics.
IIE-SRF continues to follow closely the events in Ukraine and the devastating impacts of the war on the academic community and country more broadly. Within this context, we are faced with the difficult decision of how to best allocate our limited resources. After careful consideration, IIE-SRF is focused on supporting fellowships undertaken in Eastern or Central Europe, where many are currently displaced and where there are fewer funded opportunities. We are unfortunately unable to consider applications from Ukrainian scholars seeking placements elsewhere, including in Western Europe. IIE-SRF will continue to evaluate its approach as events on the ground unfold. For any questions related to this policy, please contact srf@iie.org. Thank you for your understanding.
Current IIE-SRF fellows from Ukraine are carrying out fellowships in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Germany, where they are continuing their research and teaching while strengthening collaborations abroad and continuing to engage with students and colleagues at their home institutions, when possible, all with the hope of returning to Ukraine when conditions permit.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also laid bare the risks faced by Russian academics who defy their government’s line on the war. The Russians scholars who have appealed to IIE-SRF for assistance since the conflict began have faced arrest or dismissal for opposing the war in Ukraine and some are at risk of forced military conscription. IIE-SRF is currently supporting 11 scholars who can no longer safely continue their work in Russia.
IIE-SRF accepts applications on a rolling basis and welcomes applications from Ukrainian and Russian professors and researchers facing threats. (Click here to see IIE-SRF’s eligibility criteria.)
Featured scholar
In June of 2022, IIE-SRF awarded its 1,000th fellowship to Dr. Tetiana Danylova, a philosopher who was among the first group of Ukrainian academics to be supported by the program amidst the ongoing conflict. Dr. Danylova began her fellowship at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in October 2022.
She shared her reflections on life throughout the past year.
“A year has passed since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At first, we hoped that the war would end soon, but then we realized that it would last a long time.”
“However, life has shown that everything has two sides, and I was happy to get a fellowship provided by IIE-SRF, which enabled me to stay in a safe environment, continue my research, and live a normal life.”
Dr. Danylova has completed part of a monograph, published several articles, and participated in seven conferences. She is working on a project using parables as dynamic models and mediators in intercultural communication and expressed her feelings about being an IIE-SRF fellow through a well-known parable:
Once, a man was walking along the beach. Suddenly, he noticed a boy picking up and throwing starfish into the ocean. He approached the boy and asked, “Hi, what are you doing?” The boy replied, “There was a storm and starfish washed up. If I do not throw them back, they will die.” The man was surprised and said, “Oh, boy, look at the beach! You cannot save all these starfish. You cannot make any difference.” The boy picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean. Then he said, “I made a difference to that one.”
Dr. Danylova compares herself to one of those lucky starfish, while recognizing that many other scholars in Ukraine and around the globe also need support. She shares the parable’s conclusion: The man was inspired by the boy’s attitude and joined him in saving starfish. Other people on the beach joined them too, and by the evening, all the starfish were saved.
According to Dr. Danylova, helping all threatened scholars “can be accomplished only in partnership with all progressive elements of civil society, government, international organizations, and business structures.”
Featured host partner: University of Warsaw
More than ten million Ukrainian refugees have entered Poland since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Prof. Paweł Strzelecki, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics at the University of Warsaw, recalls how, in February 2022, the city of Warsaw “filled with Ukrainian refugees of all ages. They included scholars who, like others, lost their homes and jobs overnight.”
In response to this crisis, the University of Warsaw has become a first-time IIE-SRF host institution, opening its doors to two fellows, both of them women in the field of mathematics.
The fellows began their IIE-SRF appointments in October 2022 and have had the opportunity to “expand the topics of their work through regular contact with new Polish collaborators.” The University of Warsaw also has plans to employ the scholars as tutors for mathematics and informatics students from Ukraine and Belarus who will be studying at the university as part of a scholarship program.
