The funding for the Creating Safer Space network forms part of the UK’s foreign aid budget, and each application must demonstrate eligibility for foreign aid funding. There is likely to be some overlap between this section and the Case for Support. Please use this section as an opportunity to elaborate and explain further how the project will benefit people living in an eligible DAC list country or countries. Please answer each of the questions on the Application Form in turn.
The sub-questions refer to ‘development challenges’. One of the key development challenges identified by the Global Challenges Research Fund, which funds the Creating Safer Space network, is “Security, Protracted Conflict, Refugee Crises and Forced Displacement”. It is expected that most Creating Safer Space projects should help to address some aspect of this development challenge. Please contact creating-safer-space@aber.ac.uk in advance if your project is focusing on a different development challenge.
Make sure to provide evidence to show that the development challenge that you are focusing on is a significant problem in your focus country or countries. What is the nature and scale of the problem – for example, how many people would be affected by improvements in this area? Many projects will focus on a specific local community, but might your research also lead to insights that could benefit other conflict-affected communities in the same country or in other countries?
Make clear who will potentially benefit from the project, how they will benefit, and what you will do to ensure these benefits are actually realised. While it is recognized that benefits from research are always uncertain and cannot be guaranteed, it is important to show that you have developed realistic and appropriate plans. For example, if you think local communities in a particular conflict area will benefit from research into new strategies for civilian protection, what will you do to ensure these benefits actually happen? How will you ensure the research is appropriate to the needs of this community and relevant to their circumstances? Will you work with the community at an early stage, to ensure the proposal and the research methods are appropriate to the community? How will you communicate the findings of the research? Will you produce outputs, in local languages, that the community is likely to engage with? Will you work with local community groups to ensure dissemination of the outputs?
Consider using participatory research methods, whereby researchers and participants work together to understand a problematic situation and to change it for the better. The Creating Safer Space network offers training in participatory research methods, and this can be a way to ensure that a community directly benefits from the research within the lifetime of the project. To find out more about participatory research methods, please visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter to find out about forthcoming events.
Building research capacity in DAC list countries is an important potential contribution of the project in its own right (though not sufficient on its own). For example, will early career researchers working on the project be given the opportunity to undertake relevant training, or to present the research at a conference?
Further advice is available in the UKRI ODA Guidance and in these observations by research funders. For advice on how to develop fair and equitable research projects and partnerships, please read the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings.