NEW YORK, July 19, 2017—This summer, thirty Greek- and Cypriot-born scholars hailing from a cross-section of twenty-eight prominent United States and Canadian universities are traveling to Greece to conduct academic projects with their peers at Greek universities as part of the Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program. They will work in areas that range from medical physics to curriculum co-development in clinical neurophysiology, and from Anglo-American Modernist Poetry to educational psychology. Thirteen Greek universities were selected to host the fellows for collaborative projects that meet specific needs at their institutions and in their communities, based on proposals submitted by faculty members and administrators at the Greek universities.
With this second round of Fellowships, the program has now selected a total of 51 U.S. and Canadian based academics to collaborate with universities throughout Greece to develop curricula, conduct research, and teach and mentor graduate students in priority areas identified by the Greek universities.
The Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program is designed to help avert Greece’s brain drain and develop long-term, mutually-beneficial collaborations between universities in Greece and the United States and Canada. Launched in 2016, the Fellowship Program is managed by the Institute of International Education in collaboration with the Fulbright Foundation in Greece, and funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
Projects supported by this round of Fellowships include:
- The University of Crete will host a Fellow from St. Mary’s University and Queens College, City University of New York. This collaborative research project will focus on the sociology of culture and the sociological study of earlier and contemporary Greek migratory exodus to the U.S. and Canada. The project will also incorporate graduate student teaching/mentoring and curriculum co-development.
- A Fellow from the University of Kentucky will visit the National Technical University of Athens to work on graduate student teaching and mentoring and collaborative research in addressing nighttime road safety issues.
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki will host a Fellow from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, to assist with collaborative research and graduate student teaching in the area of process systems engineering. The project will focus on product and process synthesis and design, process operations in a dynamic environment and the modeling and optimization of biological systems.
“One of the main goals of the Greek Diaspora Fellowship Program has been to engage productively one of Greece’s most important assets, its diasporic academic community,” said Stelios Vasilakis, Director of Programs and Strategic Initiatives at SNF. “The response and caliber of the Fellows selected for this first iteration of the Program, point to the existence of a critical mass of scholars that can contribute significantly to Greek Universities at a critical moment in modern Greek history. This is a collaboration that is mutually beneficial and carries the potential of long term impact and of changing the means of engagement between the motherland and its extensive diaspora.”
“The Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s generous support for these Fellowships demonstrates the Foundation’s commitment to expanding Greece’s human capital and investing in the country’s long-term economic recovery,” said Allan Goodman, President and CEO of the Institute of International Education.
How the Projects and Fellowships Work
All projects are collaborations between the host institution and the visiting Fellow. The proposed scholar and project requests are each evaluated by a review committee based on merit and are subject to approval by the Advisory Council. Fellowships match host universities with Greek- and Cypriot-born scholars.
Host Institutions: Degree conferring institutions in Greece are invited to submit a project request to host a scholar for 14 to 60 days. Prospective hosts may name a proposed scholar with whom they have a preexisting relationship in a project request, but this is not required. If a project request does not name a scholar, IIE will review the roster of qualified Greek- and Cypriot- born academics to fill the university’s stated needs.
Prospective Fellows: IIE maintains a roster of qualified scholars to facilitate matches, according to the discipline, expertise, activities and objectives described in a project request. Candidates are required to have a terminal degree in their field and can hold any academic rank. When a scholar is successfully matched with a selected project, he or she is awarded a Fellowship to conduct a project visit to the host institution. The Fellowship includes a daily stipend, transportation, a housing allowance and health insurance coverage during the specified length of the project visit. Scholar applicants are also encouraged to contact universities to explore collaborative projects.
Contact greekdiaspora@iie.org for questions related to the application process.
Contact:
Sharon Witherell, IIE Public Affairs, switherell@iie.org
Virginia Anagnos, Goodman Media for SNF, virginia@goodmanmedia.com
About the Stavros Niarchos Foundation
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation [(SNF) (www.SNF.org)] is one of the world’s leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. Since 1996, SNF has committed $2.1 billion, through 3,891 grants to nonprofit organizations in 113 nations around the world. The Foundation funds organizations and projects that are expected to achieve a broad, lasting and positive impact for society at large, and exhibit strong leadership and sound management. The Foundation also supports projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means for serving public welfare.
In addition to its standard grants, the SNF has continued to respond to the urgent needs of Greek society, by providing relief against the severe effects of the socioeconomic crisis through three major grant initiatives of $378 million.
The Foundation’s largest single gift is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), in Athens. The project’s total cost is $861 million. The SNFCC is designed by the renowned architectural firm Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and includes the new facilities of the National Library of Greece, and Greek National Opera, as well as the Stavros Niarchos Park. The Center was delivered to the Greek Society on February 23rd, 2017. Following the handover, the SNF announced its commitment to continue supporting the SNFCC for the next five years, through grants totaling up to $53 million. The grants support the implementation of public programming and help cover part of SNFCC’s operational costs. All events funded with SNF support are free to the public.
About the Institute of International Education (IIE)
The Institute of International Education (www.iie.org) works with policymakers, educators and employers across the globe to prepare students and professionals for the global workforce and equip them to solve the increasingly complex challenges facing our interconnected world. An independent, not-for-profit organization founded in 1919, IIE has a network of 18 offices and affiliates worldwide, and over 1,300 member institutions.
The Fulbright Foundation in Greece
Fulbright is the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange program in the world, supported for more than half a century by the American people through an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress and by the people of partner nations. The Fulbright Foundation in Greece (http://www.fulbright.gr/en/) offers scholarships to Greek and American citizens – students, teachers, scholars, and artists – to pursue a wide variety of educational projects. The Foundation awards grants to Greek and US citizens to study, teach, lecture, or conduct research in the United States and Greece respectively. The Fulbright Foundation in Greece operates an Educational Advising Center in Athens where staff offer free, comprehensive information on American institutions of higher learning.
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