Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP) - Development Award
The Development Award (DA) progressed the Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP) Networks Plus proposal to full stage application. The CUSP Networks Plus is a 2 million GCRF grant that was selected for the 2nd stage of the application process. Through close collaboration with LMIC partner academic and non-academic institutions/organisations, the CUSP DA ensured a strong proposal to work in the area of conflict transformation through arts and cultural work in communities experiencing tensions and fragility in Ghana, Mexico/Guatemala, Morocco, Palestine and Zimbabwe. The CUSP-DA set in place structures and strategies should CUSP proposal be successful, to ensure a horizontal, decolonizing approach to collective work. At the same time, the DA will work to strengthen the capabilities of LMIC partner non-academic organisations, ensuring they have the know-how to access and shape future GCRF funding but also informing UKRI on ways to make funding calls more responsive to LMIC partners’ ways of working. By focusing on capability building for funding applications, the DA had a positive impact regardless of the outcome of the CUSP proposal.
CUSP Development Award – Covid Allocation (CoA)
The CUSP CoA integrates the Development Award project, which ended in December 2020 and which was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown.
PI & Co-Is
PI - Giovanna Fassetta, University of Glasgow, School of Education
Start and End Date
Development and Inception Awards
1 July 2019 - 30 December 2020
Covid Allocation (CoA)
1 January 2021 – 21 September 2021
Funder & Funding Amount
AHRC
DA: £60,000
INDUCTION: £100,000
Internal funding
COVID ALLOCATION (CoA): £21,000
Project News
CUSP Development and Inception Awards
The project impacts on the welfare of people in CUSP’s LMIC partner countries (i.e. Ghana, Mexico, Morocco, Palestine and Zimbabwe) through the successful application and set up of a Network Plus. The Network finds sustainable avenues to talk about gender-based violence (SDG 5) and to achieve sustainable peace by strengthening academic and non-academic institutions and organisations, in line with SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions). This is achieved through:
- capacitating local researchers to carry out investigation on conflict transformation and cultures of peace through the mutual design and sharing of full CUSP Network Plus applications;
- developing peer-learning sessions on decolonising research methodologies during a face-to-face meeting;
The Network also collaborates toward the economic development and the welfare of people in partner LMIC countries, in line with SDG 16, by:
- empowering non-academic partners to actively pursue funding calls to meet the needs and priorities they have identified by sharing knowledge and know-how on UKRI funding requirements and processes;
- actively encouraging the participation of women at all stages of the full CUSP Network Plus application;
- ensuring that LMIC women’s needs and priorities are central to the full development of CUSP Network Plus full application;
- ensuring that the majority of participants at the face-to-face meeting are women
The Network ensures the welfare of women and girls in CUSP partner countries, in line with SDG 5 (gender equality and empower all women and girls) by:
CUSP Development Award – Covid Allocation (CoA)
The CUSP DA project developed and established the international team and plan of activities for the CUSP Network Plus large grant. The CUSP DA aimed to provide a space for all partners to discuss their knowledge and understanding in relation to CUSP Network Plus questions and plan of activities, and to establish a common ethical and safeguarding framework for academic and non-academic partners in the countries involved (UK, Ghana, Mexico, Morocco, Palestine, Zimbabwe). Covid-19 meant a move online of all the activities, with substantial delays to the induction schedule and more demanding staff and IT commitment. The CoA project allows the CUSP team to: reflect on the challenges and opportunities of online working though artistic means (in collaboration with Ignite theatre, Glasgow); increase staff time for online activities; expand the website to allow more online collaboration, outputs and showcasing; increase the multilingual dimension of the project through translation of a wider range of written materials.