Fellowship Opportunity at SEI

Call for Fellowships

“SUMERNET 4 All” (S4A), the ongoing phase of SUMERNET (2019-2023), focusing on water insecurity in the Mekong Region is providing a 12-month fellowship hosted at the SUMERNET Secretariat in Bangkok, Thailand.
The fellowships are intended for young and early-career (not older than 35 years) Mekong Region citizens with researcher and/or practitioner backgrounds from the countries of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Background:
SUMERNET is a regional research network focused on the six countries of the Mekong region. Its overall focus is to undertake research that influences and informs policy on sustainable development in the region thereby bridging the science to policy continuum. The network takes a participatory approach in
identifying and finding ways to meet the strategic focus of S4A and utilize the rich research and policy engagement experiences of our partners. Through this approach the network aspires to transform the lives of communities affected by water insecurity in the Mekong Region.

One of S4A’s outcomes is to enhance the knowledge, attitude, and skills of knowledge producers so that they can deliver credible, gender inclusive, human rights-based, conflict-sensitive, and poverty-reduction focused research on key water resource challenges in the Mekong Region. The knowledge producers can
improve their research practice and contribute to enhancing the discourse on water resource planning, management and/or governance in the region. In S4A, among others, the programme focuses its interventions to improve capacity of young and early career professionals in the fields relevant to SUMERNET 4 areas of work: research, policy engagement, communications and project management (including monitoring & evaluation). This fellowship call seeks applicants interested to work under
Component 1: Multistakeholder engagement and/or Component 2: Research for Policy and Practice. This call is looking to recruit two fellows who will closely work with the Coordinator for Component 1 and Component 2 to undertake work as outlined in E. Specific Tasks section below.

Objectives:
1. To strengthen knowledge, capacity and skill of young Mekong citizens and graduate students with interests in research, policy engagement, development practice, communications and media
work.

2. To help deliver credible, gender inclusive, human rights-based, conflict-sensitive, and poverty reducing research, practice and communications related to addressing environmental sustainability in the Mekong Region.
3. To strengthen partnership and networking opportunities between their institutions of origin and the SUMERNET Steering Committee, SUMERNET Secretariat and other SUMERNET member institutes. Young professionals or graduate students from member institutes of SUMERNET are encouraged to apply and will be given higher priority for this grant.
4. To enhance a sense of ownership towards SUMERNET as a regional research network for the early career researchers, development practitioners, communication or media people, or graduate students.

Allowance:
The SUMERNET 4 All Fellow will receive a monthly allowance of approximately US$ 750 (SEK 7,500) to cover basic living costs and accommodation while residing in Bangkok, Thailand plus standard/economic level Alternative State Quarantine (ASQ) costs (if required), basic health/travel insurance, and relevant direct costs (return flight and transit accommodations) plus internet/communication costs. For the duration of their fellowship, SEI will arrange a Thailand visa and work permit fees to enable the fellow to legally live and work in Thailand.

Duration:
The duration of this grant is 12 months. There is a possibility to extend the fellowship for another term of 6-12 months is dependent on the evaluation of the candidate’s work and with the agreement of all parties concerned (SUMERNET fellow, SUMERNET Steering Committee, SUMERNET Secretariat, and also if relevant, the candidate’s home institution).

Specific Tasks:
Contribute to SUMERNET relevant work, specifically related to programme-wide activities (organized in Components) within SUMERNET 4 All. The applicants can identify with any of the two components as defined below to work with and gain hands-on experience. Please refer below to the expected role of fellow in each component:

o For Multi-stakeholder engagement (Component 1), learn from and support this Component 1 in
supervision, monitoring and capacity building activities of joint action projects, small grants and other policy and stakeholder engagement activities. Your role under this component is potentially to support SUMERNET Secretariat in advising grantee partners planning and implementing their policy engagement activities, analyzing policy impacts at research project and at SUMERNET 4 All programme levels, and in planning policy forum for SUMERNET which is organized annually.

o For Research for policy and practice (Component 2), learn from and support this Component 2 in supervision, monitoring and capacity building activities of research projects and integrated regional assessments and other research activities. Your role will be to carve out a project that adds value to your career and to S4A while helping grantee researchers deliver their work and extend its impact on policy and/or practice in the region. Examples of fellowship projects could include: how to design research and communication outputs that influence policy and practice for particular issues or applications; identifying and sharing insights for the development of local community actions or plans related to water resources; broader ideas on how to enhance the value and impact of scientific research across the Mekong; or undertake horizon scanning exercise for the Mekong to identify knowledge gaps related to water, food, ecosystems and climate change. Ideas that incorporate the goals of climate resilience and/or equitable development pathways will receive higher priority.

o Work with Component 1 and Component 2 to undertake stakeholders, institutions and policy mapping to inform our pathways for policy engagement. This can lead to a position paper on policy pathways, pathways to impact or related aspects for SUMERNET.

In additions, as a SUMERNET fellow you will get the opportunity to:
1. Learn about the subjects and themes of interest from relevant staff and researchers at the SUMERNET Secretariat, Steering Committee and Advisors through mentorship and supervision.
2. Actively support the development of SUMERNET Youth Network (SYN) and engage with young professional members in relevant SYN and SUMERNET activities.
3. Other tasks that are considered relevant and effective in building the capacity of the fellow, including temporary placement in the SUMERNET grantee projects if there is significant interest from both fellow and grantee research partners.

Requirements:
Required
1. Candidate is a citizen of one of the Mekong Region countries (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar,
Thailand, and Vietnam) and is not older than 35 years at the start of the fellowship.
2. Holds at least a Master’s degree in subjects relevant to the S4A programme of work.
3. At least 2 years of work experience in a field related to the S4A programme of work.
4. Available to commit to a 12-month full-time period of stay in Thailand based with the SUMERNET
Secretariat in Bangkok, Thailand.
5. Proficiency in English language along with their native language of the Mekong Region.
Preferable
1. Candidates who submit proof of previous work showing that they have relevant qualifications and
skills or are recommended by individual who is a member of SUMERNET or institution who is affiliated to SUMERNET as current or previous partners will be given priority in the selection process.
2. Candidates with relevant work experience, education, and skills relevant to Component 2 (Research for Policy and Practice) and/or Component 1(Multistakeholder engagement) will be given priority in the selection process.
However, any citizen of the five Mekong countries who feels they have the appropriate background and capacity is welcome to apply and will be given due consideration.