2020/2021 E4J Grants for Higher Education Institutions

Higher education matters and is key to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. UNODC has therefore, within its Education for Justice (E4J) initiative, started working with academics and higher education institutions around the world to strengthen cooperation to advance the SDGs, particularly SDG 16.

This Grants Programme is intended to support higher education institutions to become SDG16 hubs by teaching students on issues related to SDG 16 and the rule of law. This includes supporting lecturers to come up with innovative teaching on today’s greatest challenges, including corruption, organized crime, wildlife crime, cybercrime and terrorism – topics covered by the peer-reviewed E4J University Module Series.

The aim of the 2020/2021 E4J Grants Programme is to build an even stronger network between E4J and academics around the world who will both use and further disseminate E4J materials and tools, thereby advancing teaching on SDG16 related topics.

During the period of the call, a total of 227 applications from 69 countries from all regions of the world were received; 54 applicants from 29 countries were invited for Round 2.

The awarded grantees and their programmes are:

Universidade Fluminense, Brazil: Promoting the teaching on organized crime and firearms in South America by strengthening the capacity of academics from Brazil and neighbouring Southern Cone countries, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina
King’s College London, United Kingdom: Fostering an E4J Anti-Corruption Champions Network of young academics in Brazil and China to strengthen teaching and researching on corruption related topics
Nelson Mandela University, South Africa: Tightening the Net: Increasing Capacity to teach on integrity and ethics; corruption; organized crime, wildlife, forest and fisheries crime, and crime prevention and criminal justice in Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa and Tanzania
University of Pécs, Hungary: The Culture of Lawfulness: International Training Workshop on utilizing the E4J University Modules in Central European Higher Education Institutions in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia

Universidade Fluminense, Brazil

Promoting the teaching on organized crime and firearms in South America by strengthening the capacity of academics from Brazil and neighbouring Southern Cone countries, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina

The activity conducted is a twelve-hour workshop for university professors and lecturers of Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Public Security and Law from Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian states and the neighbouring Southern Cone countries, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.

The overall objective of this activity is to improve educational resources available to Brazilian and bordering Southern Cone countries’ higher-level educators on the theme of organized crime and firearms, empowering them on the task of promoting the rule of law. The main objectives of this activity are to:

Raise awareness about the E4J initiative and UNODC’s thematic areas among scholars from Brazil and bordering Southern Cone countries;
Disseminate the materials on organized crime and firearms created by the E4J initiative among scholars specialized in research on armed violence, illegal markets and organized crime in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina;
Gather a group of these specialized scholars to discuss the contents of selected modules from the E4J initiative and suggest adaptations to local contexts;
Translate the modules and/or topics considered relevant to the Brazilian context from English into Portuguese to be used as an educational resource in Brazilian universities.

King’s College London, United Kingdom

Fostering an E4J Anti-Corruption Champions Network of young academics in Brazil and China to strengthen teaching and researching on corruption related topics

‘E4J Champions in Brazil and China’ (E4J-BC) is designed to bring together junior academics from key Brazilian and Chinese universities, who research and teach corruption-related subjects.

The goal is to strengthen quality education by creating a network of scholars and researchers who will be able to promote E4J principles and tools in their tertiary education institutions. E4J-BC also aims at internationally disseminating best practice in researching and teaching in these two key emerging economies, thereby contributing to democratizing the international curriculum on corruption and anticorruption studies.

In a series of panels and workshops during a two-day conference to be hosted at King’s College London and organized by the King’s Brazil and Lau China institutes, the participants will:

compare and discuss the experiences from battling corruption in Brazil and China;
identify areas for comparative and collaborative research;
share their experiences and insights on how anticorruption subjects are taught in their respective countries;
work on designing country-specific and comparative academic modules that combine local materials and insights with the E4J initiative’s educational tools.

Corruption & Anti-Corruption Conference - 15-19 March 2021 - online

Nelson Mandela University, South Africa

Tightening the Net: Increasing capacity to teach on integrity and ethics; corruption; organized crime, wildlife, forest and fisheries crime, and crime prevention and criminal justice in Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa and Tanzania

The E4J Grant Programme for Higher Education Institutions aims to strengthen the network between E4J and academics in order to use and promote E4J materials and tools. There is an existing link between academics from Nelson Mandela University (South Africa), University of Mauritius University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and University of Nairobi (Kenya). Following a ToT approach, the lecturers from the various institutions will use be introduced to the materials selected, receive training on how to use the materials as an integral part of their curricula in order to promote the protection of national resources, which are subject to serious threat from international organized crime.

University of Pécs, Hungary

The Culture of Lawfulness: International Training Workshop on utilizing the E4J University Modules in Central European Higher Education Institutions in Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia

The goal of the project is to promote the use of the E4J teaching materials in higher education in the Central European region. The leading university’s experience is that higher education lecturers in the region tend to prefer not to use external teaching materials, regardless of their quality or origin, Apart from this subjective factor, it is also true that the differences in higher education systems and curricula can represent an objective hindrance factor to the incorporation of materials such as those of the E4J initiative. Based on this assessment, an innovative training approach is applied with resource persons in the selected countries, accompanying the adaptation and integration process. This will also lead to increased awareness of topics related to SDG 16, as this can be considered low in the region. The project takes a novel approach to tackle these issues by organizing an online interactive workshop for young scholars from Universities in the Central European region.

Find more information about this programme:

Doha Declaration

Education for Justice

Grants Programmes

Opportunities for researchers

Opportunities for universities & higher education institutions