Eligibility for Central and Eastern Europe

The Fellowships are intended to support students currently enrolled on degrees in Central and Eastern European higher education institutions, including universities, research academies and seminaries. The Fellowships are part of the ‘New Horizons for Science and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe’ project funded by the John Templeton Foundation so applications are especially encouraged from students working on topics that fall under the project themes, which are outlined below, but there are no disciplinary restrictions and applicants with academic backgrounds, which do not naturally support similar issues are also welcome.

For the purposes of the project, CEE is defined as: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, the former East Germany, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

The research themes supported under the ‘New Horizons for Science and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe’ project include research which engages with Big Questions at the intersection of science, theology and philosophy. Applications are encouraged from students whose interests fall within three broad themes: science and religion in the CEE context; reason and faith; and persons, mind and cosmos. Suitable topics include:

  • The significance of theological traditions for our culture today;

  • The relations of brains, minds and human persons;

  • Whether the natural sciences can explain subjective experience;

  • The relationship between science and religion;

  • The place of values in the natural world;

  • How the history of CEE has influenced views on science and religion;

  • Free will and scientific determinism and/or divine foreknowledge;

  • Empirical psychology and the second person perspective;

  • Phenomenological approaches to religion;

  • Understanding notions of God, good and evil in a scientific age.

For further example areas, applicants are strongly encouraged to visit the Ian Ramsey Centre’s website where further areas of interest for the New Horizons for Science and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe project as a whole are listed: https://cee.ianramseycentre.info/research