King's College London

The Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy has won three highly sought-after European Union grants, totalling €4.5M, from a total of just 38 awarded across all UK institutions.

The European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grants were won by Dr Helen Adams, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography, Dr Rebekka Friedman, a Reader in International Relations, and Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska, Director of the Menzies Australia Institute.

Dr Friedman works in the School of Security Studies, whilst Dr Adams and Dr Sobocinska are both from the School of Global Affairs, whose success comes soon after its Global Health and Social Medicine degrees were ranked number one in the UK by the Guardian University Guide 2024.

Dr Friedmans’ project is called: 'Relational Harm: Targeting the Family in War and Oppression'

She said: This project examines harms that individuals and communities experience through the targeting and control of their intimate relationships. The project will focus on historical and contemporary cases of ‘forced separation’ and will look at the ripple effects and hidden costs on families and communities when a dependent is targeted or taken away. The project will make a significant contribution through its examination of family, intimate bonds, and family life as central to the waging and experience of war.

Dr Sobocinska’s grant is entitled ‘Actually Existing Development: Twentieth Century International Development and the Global South’.

She said: “International development—the cross-border transfer of funds and expertise for developmental purposes—formed a core plank of the twentieth century international system. The project will examine the encounters between individuals, groups and worldviews that reshaped on the ground development across the Global South, from the 1950s to the 1990s.

“Uncovering the complex negotiations that remade international development projects in practice will reveal the previously unseen viewpoints and input of Global South communities and mid-level aid workers on the international system. It will apply this approach to programmes and projects implemented by a range of development actors, including Western and Eastern bloc state development agencies, multilateral development banks, international organisations, and development NGOs in Asia, Africa and Latin America.”

The ERC awarded 328 Consolidator Grants in total, with a combined value of €678M. Funded research will be carried out at universities and research centres in 25 EU Member States and in other countries associated with Horizon Europe, such as the UK.

The aim of the grants is to support outstanding scientists and scholars as they establish their independent research teams and develop their most promising scientific ideas.

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe.