The GEM Report and Open Society Foundations would like to thanks all applicants for the second call for proposals to be 2019 GEM Report Fellows. The call for proposals has now closed.
We would like to thank all those who applied and extend their congratulations the following who were awarded the GEM Report Fellowship in 2018:
- Madhuri AGARWAL (India) – “Retain, promote or support - How to reduce inequality in educational opportunity: evidence from India”
- Gabriel BADESCU (Romania) - “Fostering inclusive education by enhancing cooperative skills”
- Donny BAUM (United States) – “Non-State Actors in Early Childhood Education: Implications for Education Equity and Quality”
- Enrique VALENCIA-LOPEZ (Mexico) – “Improving and Aligning Measurement of Ethnicity in International Surveys”
The GEM Report
The Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, formerly known as the Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR), is an editorially independent, authoritative, and evidence-based annual report that monitors progress in education in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with special focus on SDG 4 on education. Its mandate was established in the Incheon Declaration of the World Education Forum in May 2015. The Education 2030 Framework for Action defined this mandate for the GEM Report as the mechanism “for monitoring and reporting on SDG 4 and on education in the other SDGs” and for reporting “on the implementation of national and international strategies to help hold all relevant partners to account for their commitments”.
The Report is funded by a group of governments, multilateral agencies and foundations. Although independent, it is hosted and published by UNESCO and is widely recognised as an indispensable advocacy and technical tool serving the international community. It draws on the latest data and on evidence from a wide array of sources leading to recommendations on how to accelerate progress towards achieving the international education targets.
Each report has two parts: one focusing on monitoring the international education targets and one focusing on a theme, which is selected jointly with its Advisory Board. The themes of the first three reports were education and the other development goals (2016), accountability (2017/8) and migration and displacement (2019). In addition to the main report, the team also produces the summary, the youth version, the gender review, six policy papers per year, and the World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE). It commissions about 40 background papers per report cycle.
Open Society Foundations
The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people. The Open Society Foundations are committed to empowering young people by supporting efforts to increase access to quality education. From early childhood to higher education, the Open Society Foundations work to ensure young people from different backgrounds have equal access to education and to promote critical thinking, respect for diverse opinions, and free and open intellectual inquiry.
The GEM Report Fellowship Programme
The GEM Report Fellowship programme, supported by OSF, aims to strengthen the evidence base on education, particularly in emerging economies, build research capacity in education, and reinforce the links between research, policy, and practice in education. As such, the fellowships will be open to exceptional individuals who have quantitative research skills, demonstrate a potential for transformational impact in their domain, and share a commitment to provide more people with better educational opportunities.
The GEM Report Fellowship programme will support proposals for studies in the area of international and comparative education with a special focus on:
- utilizing the GEM Report’s data resources, notably those household and school surveys linked to the World Inequality in Education database, to strengthen analyses of global, regional and national education trends on issues of access, equity, inclusion and quality;
- strengthening the content of the GEM Reportwith respect to its coverage of important issues at the regional and national level, through evidence-based analyses of educational policy and practice;
- advancing the SDG 4 monitoring agenda, especially on issues related to the global and thematic indicator framework that have been highlighted in previous reports;
- supporting the themes of forthcoming GEM reports, i.e.2021 report on the role of non-state actors in education, and the 2022 report on technology, innovation and the future of education.
While the 2020 report on inclusion and education will be nearing completion at the end of 2019,applicants are welcome to submit proposals related to inclusion should they be interested. If so, please consult the 2020 GEM Report concept note.
Recipients of a fellowship will have the opportunity to work with the GEM Report team’s specialists, one of the world’s leading teams in this field, to conduct research and analysis of education data with a primary focus on SDG 4, the global education goal. The fellowships will help build new skills and deepen the participants’ capacity, while also sharing their experience and knowledge with the team as well as, where possible, with regions and countries. Learning from their experience with the team, the fellows will also be able to participate in and influence the work of the GEM Report.
Fellowships will typically provide or contribute to the funding for fellows to conduct their research and build their networks for one year, of which at least one month would be spent at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The actual length and level of the fellowship will depend on the research proposal. Arrangements will be made for the fellows to build a GEM Report fellowship network.
Candidates
Applications will be opened to all nationalities, however the selection committee will look favourably at applications from individuals from low and middle income countries. Calls for proposals will be issued twice a year and published through all relevant UNESCO and partner networks. Applicants will apply online. The GEM Report team will aim to host an average of three fellows per year in the team.
A successful proposal will
- explain the policy areas of interest, spell out the policy questions to be addressed, and indicate how the research will promote access, equity, inclusion and quality in education systems
- show why GEM Report resources and research areas (thematic or geographic) are particularly well suited to address those questions
- show how the research relates to monitoring issues highlighted in past GEM reports or thematic issues of future GEM reports
Applicants will be required to provide three references to support their application. The final output will be a research report of publishable quality.
Selection criteria
The fellowship programme will support individuals who have experience with quantitative research methods, including in the use of large-scale surveys, and a strong policy orientation, seeking to use research findings to inform policy makers and other education stakeholders. Applications are encouraged from a variety of disciplines, including, but not limited to, education, sociology, economics, political science, psychology, demography, statistics, and psychometrics. Applicants may be working at research institutions, universities, government agencies or professional organisations. A Ph.D. and a record of publications in peer-reviewed journals will be an advantage. A commitment from the applicant to engage with diverse audiences will also be considered positively. Preference will be given to proposals with a clear comparative element.
GEM Report team support to Fellows
Each fellowship will last between six months to one year, depending on the work to be carried out, with one month spent in Paris. The GEM Report team will provide:
- A stipend (up to US$25,000) for the duration of the fellowship (up to one year) and full travel costs for at least one month to be spent in Paris for each of the fellows;
- A mentor from the team of GEM Report researchers. The GEM Report staff will allocate 3-5 hours per week to mentor and guide the fellows when they are in residence in Paris, and 2 hours per week while they are based in their home country;
- A desk and computer during their stay at the GEM Report team office, in the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.