GO-GN Fellowships

The GO-GN Fellowship scheme was launched in 2020 and designed for three years (2020-2022). The motivation for the scheme was to provide support for, and formal recognition of, members after they have formally finished their doctoral studies. The Fellowship scheme provides visibility and a way for  alumni to share their expertise in the network.       

The scheme aimed to encourage and recognise mentoring, content production, and network activity for alumni. Therefore, the scheme intended to foster connections to other networks, promote GO-GN at strategic events and incorporate the outputs of the GO-GN Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) project to encourage applications from the Global South. In that sense the scheme was built on what has worked well previously in recruiting researchers to collaborate with GO-GN but expanded upon this, providing a means to keep alumni involved and recognise their work. The fellowship scheme provided a means of expanding support and increasing the reputation of the Network.

The scheme included a financial award and the fellows and their work were promoted on the GO-GN website. Initially, the scheme launch had to be delayed and reorganised due to the Covid-19 pandemic, to acknowledge that travelling for network promotion and face-to-face research could be limited. Therefore, suggested activities fellows could submit proposals for included:

  • Undertaking a piece of targeted OER/OEP-related research 
  • Producing an overview of OER activity in a region 
  • Strategic events identification 
  • Fostering connections to other networks 
  • Promotion of GO-GN at face-to-face conferences and online events 
  • New GO-GN members’ recruitment.    

During the fellowship, there were a number of regular check-in points with fellows to discuss progress and see if any support was needed. These included:  (1) a kick-off meeting at the start, (2) a midterm meeting and (3) an end of the fellowship meeting. Fellows provided three blog posts for the GO-GN website and the production of an output review report at the end of the fellowship (included in this publication).

Fellowships lasted for six months divided into three cohorts. It was a competitive process open to GO-GN alumni (within three years after completing their doctorate) to apply. The application form, reviewed by the GO-GN team, included aspects around two main areas:

  • Postdoctoral background. The applicant should detail the research after the doctorate, networks and research groups they have collaborated with, current role and connection with networks to expand GO-GN.
  • Fellowship. Provide a summary of the fellowship idea, main actions to prioritise during the fellowship, a timeline with those actions and a preliminary budget.

For the 2020 call for participation there were five applicants, four in 2021 and three in 2022. Applicants selected were invited to an interview with the team. The complete list of fellows successfully appointed during the scheme is as follows:

First Cohort (2020) Johanna Funk, Judith Pete, Chrissi Nerantzi and Virginia Rodes

Second Cohort (2021) Sarah Lambert and Verena Roberts

Third Cohort (2022) Michael Paskevicius, Viviane Vladimirschi and Catherine Cronin

Fellows presented their proposal in a webinar and results at a conference supported by GO-GN, as well fellows were invited to give feedback in a webinar and share experiences and ideas with the next cohort in the format of a round table. All fellows were interviewed during 20 minutes at the end of the scheme to capture their impressions.

You can access the The GO-GN Fellowship Reflections Report. There we summarise the experience of the fellowship scheme 2020-2022 drawing on the reflections of the nine GO-GN fellows.

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