Australia-France Social Science Collaborative Workshops

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Austalia, in partnership with the Embassy of France in Australia, is proud to administer the Social Science Collaborative Research Program. This joint program will support early and mid-career social science researchers in the form of a Workshops initiative, creating structured opportunities for social scientists to deepen collaboration, share expertise, and advance bilateral research priorities.

Applications for 2026 will be open from 10 January – 10 March. 

Program Objective

This research funding program is intended to foster and reinforce social science collaboration between Australia and France through:

• Workshop activities on a topic of interest to Australia and France, provided to eligible French and Australian researchers, especially early and mid-career researchers.

• Workshop activities relevant to Pacific Island Studies (including those in French overseas territories).

• Workshop activities relevant to the Indo-Pacific region.

• Workshop activities with the capacity to support the development of strategic alliances between France and Australia.

Proposals with a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary character are strongly encouraged.

Funding

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Embassy of France in Australia will support two collaborative workshops per year with funding to a maximum of $10,000 AUD each (excluding GST).

Funding through this program is designed to facilitate:

• Workshops that catalyse innovative ideas in social science research and social policy, build capability amongst young researchers, and foster networks across social science disciplines and with practitioners from government, the private sector, and the community sector on issues of common concern.

Eligibility 

Eligible applicants are France and Australia affiliated social science researchers (by residence or nationality), and experts in public or private sectors.

At least one of the applicants must be employed by a university or research organisation in a social science discipline on a permanent or fixed-term contract, with capacity to administer, acquit and report on grant expenditure.

Applications can include teams of up to four workshop convenors. A researcher can be listed in more than one application within the same application round. PhD candidates may participate in the workshop but are not eligible to apply as primary convenors. Affiliated experts from government, NGOs, and industry may serve as co-convenors.

As the Academy and the Embassy of France in Australia encourage the participation of early and mid-career researchers, at least one researcher involved in the project should be fewer than fifteen years beyond the completion of their PhD.

The Academy recognises career interruptions can have a significant impact on the period between conferral of a researcher’s PhD and the submission of an application. We therefore allow extension of the eligibility periods for specified career interruptions.

Please see the Call for Applications for more information regarding eligibility.

Guidelines

Please read and review the Call for Applications here.

Agreement

By submitting your application, you will be asked to acknowledge and agree to the following conditions:

• Information on the Application Form is collected to make recommendations to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia on the allocation of financial assistance under their respective budgets. The information collected may be passed to assessors for the purposes of obtaining a peer-review assessment of the application. It may also be passed to other funding bodies and other public organisations (including Universities and research bodies) judged appropriate by the funding organisations. In other instances, information on this form can be disclosed without your consent where authorised or required by law.

• While the Embassy of France and the Academy’s selection committee gives careful consideration to applications, it is not able to enter into discussion or correspondence regarding the reasons why an application is unsuccessful.

• Successful applicants, or their institution, will invoice the Academy for the awarded amount before the close of the relevant financial year.

• Successful applicants are required to submit a report of the research activities funded by the program and an acquittal of funds within two months following the completion of the funded activity.

Contact

Anna DevenportE: international@socialsciences.org.au