Research Group on Indigenous Governance of Biodiversity, Institute of Global Value Inquiry (IGVI), Berlin, Germany (Position Remote).
The Institute of Global Value Inquiry (IGVI), founded in Berlin in 2024, is a non-profit foundation promoting intercultural and comparative research into values and norms, with a particular commitment to scholarship based in the Global South.
IGVI is establishing the Research Group on Indigenous Governance of Biodiversity. The Group will investigate the values — ethical, philosophical, spiritual, scientific, secular and cultural — that underpin biodiversity outcomes in biodiversity-rich regions of the Global South, and the governance arrangements through which those values become effective in practice. The forces of market enclosure, centralised regulation, extractive industry, migration, and climate change now press on those value systems. The group asks where and why these values prove resilient. It asks how communities adapt them to new circumstances. And it asks which governance arrangements allow them to produce measurable ecological outcomes.
The program is a four-year comparative inquiry across five regions, organised around a shared three-axis framework: a values axis, an institutional axis, and a biodiversity-outcomes axis. The program runs for four years, from 2026 to 2030.
Positions Offered
IGVI invites applications for four Research Scholar positions, one in each of:
- the Amazon basin (Brazil);
- North-East India (e.g., Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Assam);
- the mountainous regions of Africa (Kenya/Uganda);
- the Andes (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia).
Each position is held by one scholar rooted in, fluent in the working languages of, and connected to the case region.
What We Offer
- A monthly stipend of €800–€1,500 for the full four-year appointment. The exact amount will depend on whether the stipendiary has alternative income sources.
- A remote appointment held at the scholar’s existing home institution or affiliation. No relocation to Berlin is required.
- Travel funding for two events per year: an annual research meeting of the full Group, and one external dissemination event of the scholar’s choice.
- A modest fieldwork budget per case region covering in-country travel and local research assistance.
Expected Deliverables
Over the four-year appointment, each Research Scholar is expected to produce the following. The list is binding in substance.
- A case scoping note within first three months, locating the proposed fieldwork sites.
- Primary fieldwork in the case region across the appointment, of sufficient depth and duration to support the analytical conclusions reached. Qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods enquiry as best suits the case and the scholar’s disciplinary background.
- A case specific chapters of sufficient length and depth for the Group’s edited volume, structured around the three-axis framework. This will be the Group’s cross-regional synthesis paper. The Group’s edited volume will have six chapters, and five chapters will be contribution from the region-specific cases. The chapters must vary from the peer reviewed journal article though the essential hypothesis might be in the same direction.
- At least one case-specific peer-reviewed journal article every year.
- Annual progress and findings presentations at the Group meetings.
- At least one presentation at an external dissemination event during the appointment.
The four years are best thought of as four overlapping phases — scoping and protocol, fieldwork, analysis and writing, synthesis and dissemination. The pace at which any scholar moves through these phases will depend on the conditions of the case region.
Coordination and Reporting
Research Scholars share progress and emerging findings with the Senior Researcher leading the Group, and with the other Research Scholars, through monthly virtual meetings of the full Group. Brief written updates accompany each meeting. The purpose is collective rather than supervisory: the monthly rhythm keeps the comparative synthesis alive throughout the four years and allows methodological questions and progress obstacles to be worked through in common, where applicable, rather than in isolation. Ad-hoc bilateral consultations between any Research Scholar and the Senior Researcher are encouraged as needed.
Eligibility
Applicants must meet all of the following conditions.
- Hold a PhD in a relevant discipline — ecology and conservation biology, environmental anthropology, human geography, political ecology, institutional economics, philosophy (environmental ethics, intercultural philosophy, indigenous philosophies), legal scholarship on customary tenure and indigenous rights, or related fields. Researchers trained across two disciplines are particularly welcome.
- Be currently affiliated with a university, research institution, or community-based research organisation in the relevant case region. The four positions are explicitly designed for scholars based in the Global South.
- Hold citizenship in a country classified by the World Bank as low-income or lower-middle-income, or a country in South America not falling under this classification.
- Have working fluency in at least one local language relevant to that region (in addition to English). Demonstrated fieldwork experience in the case region is desirable.
- Be able to commit to the four-year duration of the project.
Selection Criteria
Applications are assessed against the following, in roughly equal weight.
- Quality and originality of the scholar’s existing work.
- Strength of regional embeddedness — institutional, linguistic, and relational ties to the case region.
- Methodological fit with the Group’s three-axis framework.
- Capacity for comparative work — willingness and ability to translate regionally-specific findings into a cross-regional analytical conversation.
Application Materials
Applicants should submit, in a single PDF (in English):
- A research proposal of 2,500 to 3,500 words outlining the case region, the institutional arrangement under which fieldwork would be conducted, the values and governance systems of central interest, and the biodiversity-outcome indicators the scholar would deploy.
- A current curriculum vitae with a publications list.
- A list of three relevant publications, briefly annotated.
- For shortlisted candidates: Two letters of reference, submitted directly by the referees to the IGVI secretariat. At least one referee should be familiar with the applicant’s regional and community work.
- Where applicable, a letter of institutional support from the applicant’s home university or research organisation.
Deadline and Submission
The application deadline has been extended to 6 September 2026. To ensure that this call reaches researchers across the region, we are circulating it more widely than originally planned and have extended the initial deadline of August 9 accordingly. Letters of recommendation are no longer required at the point of application; they will be requested from short-listed candidates only. Applications that have already been submitted remain fully valid; applicants who wish to do so are welcome to add to or update their application materials until September 6.
Submit by email, in a single PDF with the subject line ‘IGVI Research Scholar — Biodiversity Governance — [Region]’, to info@igvi.org. Short-listed candidates will be invited to a remote interview with a panel comprising the Research Group Leader, at least one of IGVI’s two Co-Directors and one external reviewer.
Inquiries
Inquiries should be directed to the IGVI secretariat at info@igvi.org.
A Statement of Commitment
IGVI is committed to building a Research Group that is plural in its disciplinary, regional, and epistemic composition. We particularly welcome applications from indigenous scholars; from scholars affiliated with community-based research organisations; from women and other under-represented groups within their regional academies; and from post-doc, early- and mid-career researchers.