Call: Preparing for Tomorrow – Societies and Strategies in Times of Transition

The Trans-Atlantic Platform (TAP) is pleased to announce its forthcoming fifth international funding call, Preparing for Tomorrow: Societies and Strategies in Times of Transition.

In a time of profound global uncertainty—shaped by climate change, pandemics, geopolitical tensions, economic disruption, technological transformation, and epistemic challenges—the call will support innovative, transnational social sciences and humanities (SSH) research that strengthens society’s capacity to anticipate, understand, and respond to future challenges and opportunities.
 

Aim of the call

The Preparing for Tomorrow call will fund collaborative research that advances conceptual, empirical, and normative understanding of how societies envision, prepare for, and respond to uncertain futures. It seeks to generate knowledge that supports resilient, inclusive, and forward-looking strategies, and that informs policy and practice at local, national, and international levels.

Scope and focus

Proposals will be invited from transnational research teams to address one or more of the following overarching themes:

• Uncertainty: sources, costs, communication, and improvement
• The many faces of the future and crisis: historical, cultural, and regional perspectives
• Scope and coordination of response strategies
• Normative inquiry into prevention and preparation for future crises

Research may draw on a wide range of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, theoretical, methodological, and applied approaches within SSH, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, historical, and future-oriented methodologies.

Key features

The call will:

• Support international and interdisciplinary collaboration across countries on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond.
• Encourage engagement with policymakers, communities, and other stakeholders.
• Promote diversity within research teams, including the involvement and development of early career researchers.
• Address both risks and opportunities arising from societal, political, technological, and environmental change.

Next steps

Further information, including eligibility criteria, and key dates, will be published in due course.

Researchers interested in applying are encouraged to monitor updates on the T-AP website(externer Link) and to develop international partnerships and project ideas in preparation for the call. Agencies from Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and South Africa are planning to participate in this call.

Results of Previous Calls

• Results of First T-AP Call "Digging into Data(externer Link)"
• Results of Second T-AP Call "Social Innovation(externer Link)"
• Results of Third T-AP Call "Recovery, Renewal and Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World (RRR)(externer Link)"
• Results of Fourth T-AP Call "Democracy, Governance & Trust(externer Link)"