Fulbright NEXUS Regional Scholar Program

Publicado el 07 de octubre de 2010

The Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research (NEXUS) Program will bring together a network of junior scholars, professionals and mid-career applied researchers from the United States and other Western Hemisphere nations for a series of three seminar meetings and a Fulbright exchange experience.

Application deadline: November 15, 2010In today’s increasingly globalized world, the Western Hemisphere faces shared opportunities and challenges that require societies  to be open to innovation, entrepreneurship, and the generation of new knowledge that transcends national boundaries. To achieve inclusive prosperity and national well-being, nations must fully utilize the creativity and dynamism of all sectors of their economies and societies.  Effectively addressing pressing public policy issues in the region necessitates that knowledge and solutions be generated through the synergistic efforts of governments, the private sector, and civil society. The Fulbright program has long pioneered exchange programs that promote cooperation among these sectors to increase mutual understanding and address critical global issues.

Building upon this tradition, the Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research (NEXUS) Program will offer a collaborative model for regional scholarly exchange that will be multi-national, multi-disciplinary, and multi-sectoral in scope; it will encourage the formation of new networks of scholars, practitioners and applied researchers, thereby fostering concrete collaborative ventures with long-term regional impact. Combining cutting edge theory with meaningful applied research in an array of fields, the Fulbright NEXUS program will create a network of experts who will seek synergies through individual and team-based multi-disciplinary research with potential for immediate and practical application, as well as provide a forum to spark new avenues for collaboration, share best practices, cultivate multi-sectoral partnerships, promote indigenous solutions, deepen regional ties, and foster private-public ventures.

The Fulbright NEXUS Program builds on successes and lessons learned from established Fulbright models, including the worldwide Fulbright New Century Scholars program, the Fulbright Lab to Market programs, and the latest Fulbright social entrepreneurship enrichment seminars. It also draws on current U.S. foreign policy initiatives that promote the sharing of best practices to fight poverty and inequality in creative, market-driven and socially-responsible ways. As the region continues to be plagued by the largest income gap in the world, initiatives such as Pathways to Prosperity, the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, and the Inter-American Social Protection Network (IASPN) converge to respond to the regional imperative of expanding broad-based economic opportunity to all citizens.

At its core, the Fulbright NEXUS Program will foster collaborative and multidisciplinary research to address challenging regional issues and produce tangible results.

• 20 outstanding scholars and practitioners from the U.S. and abroad will be selected as Fulbright NEXUS Scholars to participate in the program through an open competition. Approximately one-third of grantees will be selected from the United States. Approximately two thirds of the grantees will originate from Western Hemisphere countries other than the United States. Program activities will commence in May 2011 and conclude in April 2012.
• Fulbright NEXUS Program will provide a platform for scholars from across the region to engage in collaborative thinking, analysis, problem-solving and multi-disciplinary research in one of three inter-related topics:
  

  •	Science, Technology and Innovation
  •	Entrepreneurship
  •	Sustainable energy

• In order to create a platform for collaborative thinking and analysis, Fulbright NEXUS combines the core Fulbright research exchange experience with a series of three in-person seminar meetings and ongoing virtual communication among the multinational and multidisciplinary participants under the guidance of the Fulbright NEXUS Scholar Leader. NEXUS Scholars will be challenged to move beyond their individual research and to engage in collaborative examination of the program themes.
• NEXUS Scholars will work in research teams along program thematic areas described earlier. Scholars will engage in integrated group research as members of designated teams. Combining nationalities and disciplines, each team will include 4-5 participants.  In addition to the Scholar Leader, each of the NEXUS research teams will select a coordinator to lead their respective groups.
• While NEXUS Scholars’ pursuit of individual research objectives will be intrinsic to a collaborative and comparative analysis of the issues elaborated by the program, prospective applicants should be advised that at the time of application they will be expected to identify local stakeholders from a range of sectors (i.e. NGOs, government, private industries) that have a demonstrated commitment to the application of the proposed research projects as potential model solutions to real life challenges. Scholars will be expected to integrate selected stakeholders into their research as well as have them participate in two of the full group seminar meetings.
• At the end of the program year, NEXUS Scholars will convene for the third and final meeting to share the results of their collaborative interactions and report on the accomplishment of program objectives and the national and regional implications of their findings. Scholars will disseminate policy-relevant recommendations,  describe the concrete steps they have taken in implementing their projects and models at the local, national and/or regional level, and share the progress they have made and challenges they have faced in moving their recommendations from theory to practice.