We are pleased to share that the Governance & Integrity Fellowship Programme was officially launched at the 9th Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN) Forum, held at Central European University in Vienna from 12–14 June 2025.
This inaugural Fellowship is a joint initiative by GI ACE at the Centre for the Study of Corruption (CSC), School of Law, Politics and Sociology, and the ICRN, created to support research by early career researchers from the Global South. Through a combination of funding, mentorship, training, and networking, the Fellowship aims to foster and promote excellent research on governance, integrity and anti-corruption.
From June 2025 to June 2027 Fellows from Georgia, Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Tanzania and Togo will engage in a two-year Programme coordinated by GI ACE at the University of Sussex and the ICRN. This will include a bespoke programme of workshops on research design, methods and impact; a mentoring scheme involving senior academic researchers; a research grant to implement their research projects; and opportunities to engage in the wider research community and present their work at international conferences.
GI ACE Director of Fellowships and Assistant Professor in Politics at the CSC, Rebecca Dobson Phillips, says “We are delighted to welcome this international group of talented researchers to the Centre for the Study of Corruption and the University of Sussex. We look forward to a productive collaboration and the opportunity to support them to produce outstanding research in the field of governance, integrity and anti-corruption.”
From the hundreds of applications made for this prestigious Fellowship, we selected twelve outstanding research projects to support through a three-stage peer review process. The selected projects all engage with important and emerging issues within the wider context of research on corruption and anti-corruption: from the growing concern with environmental corruption, to the efficacy of digital technologies for improving governance outcomes, to the role of women and citizen-based approaches in tackling corruption. Each project promises to make significant contributions to our understanding of corruption and help provide evidence-based solutions to tackle it in the real world.
The ICRN Forum is a vibrant gathering of international early career researchers from a wide range of disciplines—including but not limited to anthropology, economics, history, law, political science, psychology, and sociology—as well as practitioners from the field of anti-corruption, transparency and integrity. The Forum offers participants the opportunity to present their research, exchange ideas, initiate collaborative projects, and engage in co-creation sessions. It also serves as a platform for sharing work at various stages of development and is designed to reach a broad audience. By bringing together scholars and practitioners, the Forum aims to bridge the gap between research and policymaking.
GI ACE, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), focuses on delivering actionable and context-sensitive research. By addressing the complexities of corruption, this research seeks to inform innovative and effective policy options. Since its transition to Sussex in early 2024, the programme has built on CSC’s reputation for high-impact research, policy engagement, and teaching on corruption and anti-corruption measures.