By Taigu Muchiri

The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in partnership with Henry Luce Foundation announced a call for proposals from across the social sciences and related fields that address the social, economic, cultural, psychological, and political impact of Covid-19 in the United States and globally, as well as responses to the pandemic’s wide-ranging effects. The SSRC’s COVID-19 Rapid-Response Grants supports innovative research projects that deploy remote research methods to shed light on both the short and potential long-term effects of COVID-19 across a range of issues. The deadline for application is June 1. For more details, visit https://covid19research.ssrc.org/rapid-response-grants-on-covid-19-and-the-social-sciences/

The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) together with Sida (Sweden), Wellcome Trust, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have called on African scientists to prioritize the Research and Development (R&D) needs of the COVID-19 outbreak for the continent. The deadline for application is June 30, 2020. For more details, visit https://www.aasciences.africa/calls/funding-covid-19-research-development-goals-africa.

In the current context of the pandemic, social sciences scholars have had to grapple with a series of questions regarding how to explain but also to innovate on solutions that would inform policy and related policy actions by governments, intergovernmental organizations, donors and related players. The questions that social scientists are grappling with include the restrictions put in place such as physical distancing and their impact on the quality of human interactions, the mechanisms of working from home, measuring the impact on livelihoods broadly brought about by disruptions in the global supply chain, modalities of the ‘new normal’ and how it will look like post COVID-19.