In 2022-2025, BCGE is funding four Signature Projects:

Critical Theory Under Pressure – Building Networks for Transnational Dialogue (CritUP)

The project fosters an international reciprocal academic dialogue for the exchange between forms of critical theory articulated in different regions of the world, addressing existing asymmetries in the global production of knowledge. Therefore, it strengthens and further develops the sustainable transnational platform critup.net. In the face of a global wave of authoritarian politics, CritUp also aims at identifying and countering threats to academic freedom. Among other things, the project sets up a competence network for German and European journalists who are looking for independent and critical voices from South America and Turkey. Researchers and institutions in Brazil, Peru, Chile and Turkey are involved in the project. The project is led by Professor Robin Celikates, Freie Universität Berlin, and Professor Rahel Jaeggi, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

PRODIGY – PRactices of Development and International Cooperation with a focus on Global Health Engagement

The project aims to implement an international joint knowledge exchange platform on maternal mental health. Specific therapeutic procedures for treatment and teraching material will be developed as well as the projects support experts in developing and ensuring quality criteria in research. The project follows a patient and public participation approach. It is embedded in BUA’s existing South-South-North collaborations with researchers, institutions and governments in Jordan and Vietnam, as well as with partners at Oxford University and McMaster University in Canada. It is headed by Professor Malek Bajbouj, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Professor Daniel Strech, Berlin Institute of Health, Professor Michael Zürn, Freie Universität Berlin, and Professor Isabel Dziobek, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

Co2libri - conceptual collaboration - living borderless research interaction

The project aims to make visible knowledge, theories, and research practices from the "Global South" in Berlin’s research landscape. Because the unfortunate reality is that researchers and intellectuals from marginalized regions or from ethnic or religious minorities are often left without a voice in scientific discourse. The project participants – a global network of researchers, artists, and activists – want to explore knowledge and theoretical contributions from the Global South. Their goal is to make the way knowledge emerges and the criteria for recognizing knowledge more equal across the globe. Prof. Dr. Kai Kresse from Freie Universität Berlin and Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (Leibniz Center for Research on Modern Orient) and Prof. Dr. phil. Claudia Derichs from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin are leading the project, which is working closely with international partners in Nairobi, Beirut, Delhi, and Vienna, among others.

Essential Workers, Essential Research. A Global Network of Critical Labor Studies

In this project, researchers from all over the world examine the major changes in the working world in a historical context. Growing inequality, precarious working conditions, and informal employment arrangements have been further exacerbated by the pandemic and have become more than ever a global problem. The network aims to shift the focus to local perspectives from countries such as Argentina, India and South Africa and incorporate these ideas into international research. The project is led by Prof. Dr. Andreas Eckert of Humboldt University Berlin and Prof. Dr. Sebastian Conrad of Freie Universität Berlin.

In the BCGE Inaugural Call, 17 projects were funded in 2020-2021: