Policy Outreach Award

Applications for the 2025 Policy Outreach Award are now open! You can submit your application here.

Bridging the Gap (BTG) is pleased to announce that it is accepting applications from early-career scholars for our Policy Outreach Award. This award, generously supported by the Raymond Frankel Foundation, supports focused outreach to members of the policy community by outstanding early-career scholars on issues related to international security, politics, and foreign policy. The award will support outreach efforts that convey policy implications of the scholar’s research to policy practitioners, with the purpose of informing policy making or practice. These outreach efforts could include meetings, briefings, or talks with officials at U.S. government agencies, U.S. Congressional staff, diplomats from other countries, officials at international institutions, think tank experts, advocates in non-governmental organizations, or private sector representatives.

The award will fund travel to Washington, DC and three nights of accommodation in DC. Each award recipient will also be assigned a mentor who is a senior member of the Bridging the Gap network and will provide the recipient with focused guidance and advice on their policy outreach. To be eligible, scholars must have completed their PhD in international relations, international studies, political science, history, or public policy within the past five years. The opportunity is open to scholars based in the U.S. regardless of citizenship.

BTG will use a competitive application process to select Policy Outreach Award recipients. To apply for 2025, please submit by Monday, December 9 the following materials:

• A statement of no more than 1000 words that describes important policy implications of your research in a style accessible to non-academic audiences and identifies some institutions or offices to whom you would like to present your ideas.

• Your CV.

BTG will select up to four Policy Outreach Award recipients in 2025. BTG will select awardees based on the potential of their expertise and knowledge to influence policy making or practice on an important international issue. Once the awardees have been selected, BTG will work with awardees to fine-tune their policy outreach plan.