Afghan Challenge Fund Call for Proposals

The OSUN Threatened Scholars Integration Initiative seeks applications for its Afghan Challenge Fund Initiative (ACF), which offers fellowships for newly arrived Afghans in the US and Canada and the United Kingdom whose research, teaching, and public work have placed them in critical danger and whose continued activity is valuable for the future of their country and society.

Applicants must seek out a host institution and host institutions must seek out applicants to apply. Only host/applicant paired applications will be eligible. In addition, applicants and host institutions must currently reside in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom to be eligible to apply. 

The ACF seeks to defend and extend Afghan scholars’ intellectual, professional and activist contributions and amplify their public voice, with particular focus on the areas of human rights, democracy and constitutionalism, media and journalism, religious pluralism, development economics, drug policy, gender and women, civic education, literature, culture and the arts.

The ACF offers fellowships in two categories:

(1) The Higher Education Fund (e.g. universities, research institutes, and think tanks)

(2) The Civil Society Fund (e.g. NGOs, artistic, journalistic and cultural institutions, such as those listed above, that support democratic and civil societies)

Each ACF fellowship grant will include funding of up to $40,000 as well as access to available professional development and other programs organized by TSI.

Deadline: March 15, 2023