GCRF COMPASS Shortlisted for Times Higher Education Awards

GCRF COMPASS receives “Highly Commended” accolade in International Collaboration of the Year category at 2021 THE Awards

Commenting after the awards ceremony, Prof. Korosteleva (PI) said: ‘We are delighted to announce that our project has been singled out as the most HIGHLY COMMENDABLE under the category of international collaboration, selected out of five hundred submitted and five shortlisted projects!  The winning award deservedly went to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, for their achievements in the fight against COVID-19, and we were cited alongside the winners.
It is not so much about the recognition that matters –  it is about the people involved in the project who have made it a real success!’

Details of the 2021 winners in all categories are published here

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) COMPASS project has been shortlisted for the International Collaboration of the Year at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2021, widely known as ‘the Oscars of Higher Education’

The Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) COMPASS project, hosted by the University of Kent in partnership with the University of Cambridge (UK), ADA University (Azerbaijan), Belarusian State University (Belarus), TNU (Tajikistan) and the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (Uzbekistan), has been shortlisted for the International Collaboration of the Year at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2021.

The GCRF COMPASS project works with higher education institutions (HEIs) from former Soviet Republics to develop global partnerships and more sustainable learning capacities through resilience in the face of adversity and crisis. Led by Professor Elena Korosteleva, in partnership with Dr Siddharth Saxena (COI, Cambridge), Rosalind Beeching (Project Manager, Kent) and Prajakti Kalra (Research & Communication Officer, Cambridge), the GCRF COMPASS consortium involves six Research Institutions, 24 members of staff and 100 affiliates. For its success it owes especially to the younger generation of scholars including but not limited to Dr Irina Petrova, Dr Muzaffer Kutlay, Dr Diana Kudaibergenova and Dr Anastasiya Kudlenko for their incredible enthusiasm, dedication and scholarship!

The project has been recognised by the judge’s panel of THE Awards 2021 for its creative collaborations, imaginative communication of research results, and tremendous achievements in difficult circumstances of war, conflict, uprisings, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supported by its International Advisory Board of policymakers, practitioners and academics across the globe, GCRF COMPASS fosters excellence through successful research integration, policy impact and community engagement. Despite the complex challenges both in the UK and the region, the project team, represented in the region by national team leads – Nargiz Ismayilova; Artsiom Nazaranka; Munira Shahidi and Ulugbeck Hasanov – has built close relationships, resulting in new research projects, international training schools for Early Career Scholars, Future Leaders Policy Forums, academic workshops and seminars and signature conferences. The result has been educational partnerships and the project outputs have informed peace and reconciliation between former adversaries and investing in a more sustainable future for the region and beyond.

The project team helped its partners, both in the UK and the region, to nurture signature specialisms to become global hubs in resilience (Kent and Cambridge), migration (Belarus), connectivity (Azerbaijan), regional security (Uzbekistan) and cultural diplomacy (Tajikistan). The project has produced 9 monographs and edited volumes; 6 Special Issues; over 100 journal articles and policy briefs.

Professor Korosteleva said: ‘We are delighted that the GCRF COMPASS project has been shortlisted for International Collaboration of the Year. GCRF COMPASS has succeeded to deliver, in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, civil unrest, border conflicts, war and other complex challenges. Exceeding ambitions, the project has produced nearly 300 publications, 7 follow-up projects, with over 40 virtual conferences and workshops in the last year alone. We are proud to have created sustainable links within the region, which were impossible a few years ago and proved that real partnerships build true resilience. We look forward to expanding our research network in the future, to foster excellence in the UK, and globally.’

Dr Saxena ( Cambridge), Project CO-I said that ‘the opportunity offered by this collaborative endeavour has allowed us to draw together multiple threads of research directions, relationships and capacity from across Central Eurasia, UK and Europe into long-lasting strategies for development and progress. Through our project we have been able to weave this robust and colourful narrative of collaboration, like a carpet, which will continue be useful for us and others for the times to come.’

Ulugbek Khasanov (UWED GCRF COMPASS national team leader) said
‘I feel proud and honoured to be a consortium member of this exciting and global cooperation academic project. The resilience, dedication, commitment, self-motivation, mutual support and hard work of all partners demonstrated during the implementation period of the GCRF COMPASS project were truly exceptional. The strategies that our project team laid out proved to be a catalyst in achieving the current unprecedented results. Our team has set a great example of leadership, bonding, and friendship during last 4 years.  We sincerely appreciate the whole GCRF COMPASS family’s role and hope that our partnership and exchange will continue in the future even beyond this academic project.’  UWED full press release is available here.

Nargiz Ismayilova (ADA University), director of the Centre for Excellence on EU studies and the National University Team Lead for COMPASS: ‘It is such an honour that the GCRF COMPASS project is shortlisted for such important award. This became possible because of wonderful collaboration established between all partners in the project. Despite the pandemic, we managed to continue activities and achieve the objectives set and even beyond. We are sure that this is just beginning, and we will continue setting new aims and achieving new horizons!’   The Azerbaijan ‘Trend News Agency’ has published the news here.

COMPASS partners:
TNU has published a press release on the THE shortlisting in English and in Russian.

BSU has published two press releases available here and on its website here.

Asya Kudlenko (GCRF COMPASS Postdoctoral RA) ‘It is a real honour and privilege to be part of the GCRF Compass team. I was attracted to the project not only because of its research excellence but also its focus on delivering impact to the communities and policy world at the same time. The consortium, skilfully led by PI Professor Elena Korosteleva and Co-I Dr Siddharth Saxena, represents a unique partnership of academics, policy makers and individuals interested in Eastern Neighbourhood and Central Asia. I am immensely grateful to be part of this excellent group that, I believe, will continue the collaboration, started by the project, for many years to come.’

Dr Diana Kudaibergenova (Assistant Professor, Cambridge) ‘GCRF COMPASS project is one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had in my research career. It offered a long-lasting platform for international collaboration, dialogues, and excellence in research. Collaboratively we have achieved tremendous results in bringing communities, researchers, and policy-makers from Eurasia, UK and EU together enriching the discussion with more insights from these various regions. In the project we worked collaboratively across different teams, experts and multi-sited spaces that often took us to the borderlands, mountains and to the depth of local resilient communities with whom we have worked together to find the solutions to the pressing problems. We have offered a rich engagement and learning platform for our partners across all of the regions where we have engaged. In our public outreach seminars, we have touched on global problems of climate change and addressed how it affects each community, we have discussed vaccine technology in the midst of the first months of the COVID pandemic that did not stop our research and wider community engagement but only boosted our productivity and resilience in the face of unexpected challenges. As a team, we have demonstrated how important it is to collaborate on so many different levels with the multiplicity of different languages and the complexity and richness of our cultures, identities and different backgrounds. Our sessions and dialogues across different research cultures at the Bukhara “Research in Action” Training School in the spring of 2019 remains one of the greatest highlights and inspires the path for the multi-layered and encompassing approach to doing academic work. GCRF COMPASS was one of the most innovative and engaging projects I have worked on and it has shaped me as an academic, a researcher, and a public scholar.’

 

Marwa Wasfy (PhD candidate) ‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing many of us at the School of Politics, including myself, to take part in some of the extraordinary activities of the project; it was a great memorable experience.

Dr Igor Merheim EYRE (Research Fellow, School of Politics and International Relations, Kent):  ‘GCRF COMPASS is an excellent platform for connecting junior and senior researchers, and strengthening links between academia and policy-making, In a time of rapid changes in the international system, instability, and contestation in the multipolar world order, COMPASS initiatives such as the Signature Conference provide a unique opportunities for discussing and addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing us today.’

Dr Zachary Paikin (Researcher, EU Foreign Policy unit, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS, Brussels), PhD in International Relations, University of Kent (2020)):
‘Thanks to COMPASS, I now feel at home in various cities across Europe and the post-Soviet space. My time as a project affiliate gave me the professional network and intellectual tools to succeed, both as a policy thinker and as a scholarly researcher, in a culturally diverse environment.’
Polina Bishenden (PhD student, Kent): ‘The COMPASS project worked to bring people together- from different universities, disciplines, countries. Attending COMPASS events, I found that I heard perspectives and learned about research from all sorts of vantage points. I was also able to receive wide-ranging feedback on my own ideas and research plans, which is so important for a PhD student.’
Political Studies Association (Turkish Politics) published an article about Dr Muzaffer’s Kutlay’s involvement in the project – full article here

The THE Awards 2021 ceremony takes place on 25 November 2021.