2025 Call to the Research Innovation Programme

Across Europe, liberal democratic norms are being tested. In Greece and Cyprus, longstanding concerns about corruption, state capture, and institutional performance intertwine with emerging debates on surveillance, transparency, new polarisations and civic disaffection, producing an increasingly complex political and social landscape reflected in voting behaviour, party affiliation, civil mobilisation, and the rise of unconventional political formations.

This theme focuses on the structural challenges to democratic functioning in both Greece and Cyprus. It seeks to explore the erosion of trust in institutions, the role of corruption, political alienation, state capacity, and the evolving boundaries between state, market, and civil society. It also opens space to examine issues like deep state narratives, establishment resilience, authoritarian drift, or new forms of citizen activism.

Relevant research topics may include:

• Trust in democratic institutions and corruption perceptions: causes and consequences
• Surveillance, citizenship, and state power
• Forms of state capture (party/corporate), quality of institutions and political legitimacy
• Electoral disengagement and civic response to institutional failures; forms and impact of civic mobilisations.
• Role of media and misinformation in democratic erosion
• Democracy and political legitimacy in multi-crisis contexts (e.g., debt, pandemic, migration)
• New forms of populism: social media influencers in politics, “deep state” or anti-establishment narratives, and their impact in shaping political attitudes and behaviour

Climate-related disasters such as wildfires, heatwaves and floods are increasingly frequent and severe in Southern Europe. In Greece and Cyprus, these events expose not only ecological vulnerability but also social and institutional weaknesses. This theme explores how climate change and extreme events (e.g. wildfires, floods, heatwaves) intersect with socio-economic aspects such as housing, inequality, financial security, or public health. While climate change mitigation remains a long-term imperative, this theme seeks to move beyond general sustainability discourse and explore the social and institutional capacity to manage climate-induced risks, protect the vulnerable and build resilient local systems.

Relevant Topics May Include:

• Housing markets, mortgage risk and urban planning: adaptation and responses to climate shocks
• Public health and public mental health systems: preparedness and response to climate-induced events
• Vulnerability, environmental justice and inequalities: social and economic impacts of extreme climate events and adaptation strategies across different regions or population groups
• Civic preparedness and local governance efficacy: the role of local governance and citizen engagement in building adaptive capacity
• The efficacy, political-economic drivers and distributional consequences of government policies for climate change mitigation and the green transition

The global policy landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by escalating geopolitical tensions associated with unconventional trade measures and the resurgence of militarised conflict. This theme invites proposals that critically examine optimal policy responses to these developments, with a focus on small states / small open economies, such as those of Greece and Cyprus. Proposals are invited across disciplinary fields, examining aspects of security, economy, society, psychology and politics. While proposals should take issue with recent policy developments, they should be grounded empirically on analysis of past historical examples or comparative cases. Theory-building proposals are also welcome.

Relevant research topics may include:

• How do small states respond to shifts in trade relations (e.g., U.S.-EU Framework Agreement) to support their competitiveness, growth and successful participation in value chains?
• International realignments (e.g., in response to trade measures or militarised conflicts) and the management of domestic politics and the public’s normative concerns (e.g., on humanitarian issues)
• Policies on military conscription, defence readiness and the defence industrial base
• Normative and positive analyses (including in legal studies) of the tension between geopolitical interests and moral imperatives
• Securitised statecraft and the erosion of international accountability mechanisms
• Psychological and sociological effects of increased militarisation (including questions of citizen mobilisation and/or disaffection)

The Call is open to researchers with a university affiliation who hold a PhD and normally have at least two years of postdoctoral research experience. This criterion does not apply to research assistants appointed to the project.

Applications from groups of researchers are also eligible, provided that the Principal Investigator and lead team members meet the eligibility criteria.

Applicants who have previously received funding from the Hellenic Observatory’s research calls may not reapply in the same academic year in which their previous project concluded.

Each individual or team may submit only one application per year.

A member of the Hellenic Observatory – LSE Centre for Research on Contemporary Greece and Cyprus may be included in the proposed project, but may not act as the Principal Investigator.

Proposals are to be submitted electronically in Word format to Hellenicobservatory.Research@lse.ac.uk

Proposals should not exceed 2,500 words and must address the five evaluation criteria outlined in the Selection Process section below. They should be structured under the following sub-headings:

• Summary: project title, name of the Principle Investigator (and other lead researchers together with a structure of the team and the allocation of tasks across its members), start and end dates, total budget figure
• Research objectives and project outline (including literature review)
• Methodology
• Time-Line
• Planned Publications (other than the Policy Brief and the Research Paper- see Deliverables below): format, content, publisher, date of submission
• Impact
• Annex 1: Personnel (including short biographies). Full CV’s should be attached as separate documents together with a listing of cited references.
• Annex 2: Detailed Budget - see Budget below. Please complete the Excel budget template provided.

The budget must provide a clear justification for all identified costs. Eligible costs include salaries, travel, research assistance, data and fieldwork, impact and knowledge exchange activities, and publications, provided that these can be reasonably considered essential to the proposed research.

Overhead costs of up to 15% of the total budget are permitted and must be included within the submitted budget.

The Selection Committee reserves the right to request further clarification on budget items and may award a smaller amount than that requested or advertised. Funds awarded must be used exclusively for the purposes outlined in the application.

Proposals will be selected by the Hellenic Observatory - Centre for Research on Contemporary Greece and Cypris and members of the Research Advisory Group according to the following criteria:

• Originality, significance, rigour and impact of the research
• Placement to internation literature / contribution to academic debates
• Dissemination and publication plan
• Policy relevance and impact
• Quality of the team / evidence of ability to deliver the stated outcomes

The Hellenic Observatory – Centre for Research on Contemporary Greece & Cyprus and the Research Advisory Group are solely responsible for approving the eligibility of applications and reserve the right to request additional information from applicants. Shortlisted candidates may be invited to participate in a video interview.

In all cases, the decisions of the Hellenic Observatory and the Research Advisory Group will be final. The Centre and the Research Advisory Group also reserve the right not to make any awards or to adjust the number of awards granted.

The successful researcher or research team is required to provide the following:

• Progress Report: A progress report of up to 1,500 words to be submitted in month 6 of the project (plus, additional Progress Report at the end of month 12 for projects of a 24-month duration), detailing milestones achieved and any changes in the research plan (data, methodology, research design, etc).
• Final Report: A final report of up to 2,000 words to be submitted by month 12/24 of the project, listing the main achievements of the project, explaining how each of the project objectives have been met (also in relation to the evaluation criteria listed above) and detailing the main results and empirical findings of the project and their key policy implications.
• Policy Brief: A policy brief of 1200 words, submitted at the conclusion of the project, following the provided template – please see the documents section.

In addition, grant-holders undertake the following obligations:

• To provide a brief description of the project and short bios of the project team, for the project website.
• To update the HO regularly on any dissemination activities or publications accruing from the project, during and after the completion of the project.
• To give full acknowledgement to the Centre in all publicity and outputs related to the project.
• To deposit with the HO any primary data collected or created as part of the project, under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
• To present their work related to the project at the HO seminar series (upon invitation) and to facilitate the production by the HO or relevant publicity for the project outputs, including social media posts and podcasts/vidcasts (upon request).
• To submit a full research paper for consideration of publication at the HO’s GreeSE Papers series (subject to single-blind review), within 3 months from the completion of the project or as soon as possible thereafter.

The funds will be paid following the signature of a Research Grant Agreement between LSE and the institution(s) of the Principal Investigator(s) of the successful research projects. This Agreement will incorporate the programme of work proposed at the application stage. It will be drawn up upon notification of the successful candidates and must be signed prior to the commencement of the research project.

Projects are expected to start in January 2025 and no later than 1 March 2026. Payments will be made to an institutional research account at the Principal Investigator’s host institution.

Funds will be transferred in two equal instalments: the first upon commencement of the project, and the second upon completion of the defined outputs to the satisfaction of the Hellenic Observatory - Centre for Research on Contemporary Greece & Cyprus.

Application Deadline: 19 October 2025

Successful Projects advised: November 2025

Contracts drawn up: November – December 2025

Project Commencement: January – March 2026

Proposals should be submitted electronically in Word format to Hellenicobservatory.research@lse.ac.uk by 19 October 2025 (23.59 GMT) and the subject line of the email should read “HO Call 2025”. All applicants will receive a confirmation email upon receipt of their proposal.

All enquiries should be directed by email to Hellenicobservatory.research@lse.ac.uk.