Every year, we work on making sure that there are some follow-ups to WEASA, be it informal meetings with the summer school alumni or a publication showing off participants’ work. We have something even more exciting in store this year: for the first time ever, we will be launching a small grants programme. This will allow a select group of WEASA 2018 alumni to receive funding in order to pursue follow-up projects in their home countries.

We received many fascinating proposals from WEASA 2018 alumni. Some wanted to organise trainings or conferences that would bring WEASA’s lessons to a new audience, others sought research funding to look at some of the issues they analysed at the summer school in even greater depth. Still, all applications had an underlying theme: to take the lessons learned during WEASA and make sure they spread as far and wide as possible. All proposals were, in one way or another, tied to participants’ home countries or regions.

After a very competitive selection process, the following small grants projects were chosen and will receive funding:

  • Promoting digital literacy among educators – a project by Maryna Dorosh
  • Monitoring how the media are covering the topics for the EU/NATO accession process and the Referendum in Macedonia, detecting foreign influence – a joint project by LIljana Pecova Ilieska and Kire Babanoski
  • Critical analysis of propaganda activities in Macedonia and Western Balkan Region – a project by Marija Jankuloska

We thank everyone who submitted proposals and congratulate those who received a grant! We will be watching your projects with great interest!