The ECTR announces the establishment of the Kantor Prize for Secure Tolerance, which is named after ECTR’ President and award founder Moshe Kantor.

The Prize will amount to one million Euro and will be awarded bi-annually. The first recipient is to be selected in 2020.

Kantor Prize for Secure Tolerance will be awarded for original thinking and research on how the theory and practice of tolerance should be re-imagined to meet the new challenges of a globalized world and the highly diverse and sometimes fragmented societies it contains.

In the recent past tolerance has been understood in negative terms as a condition that exists whenever human rights are properly respected. Understood in this way tolerance is a by-product of a right-based society, which can be promoted by a policy of non-interference in basic freedoms. But tolerance that is based only or mainly on a passive approach of this kind cannot be secure when society contains groups and movements that do not accept the value of peaceful coexistence that tolerance serves.

Organizations and ideologies that target particular groups with hatred, promote ethnic nationalism, racism and anti-Semitism or launch terrorist assaults on society at large are a growing challenge that a regime of rights cannot by itself resist. Far-right parties and violent Islamist networks are at one in rejecting the underlying objective of tolerance, which is a creative modus vivendi among different religions, communities and lifestyles. This goal of modus vivendi must be actively promoted as an end in itself, rather than expecting it to emerge as an automatic result of protecting rights. Areas of concern relevant to this end include increasing inequalities in wealth, income and opportunity, changing patterns of immigration and the growth of sub-cultures that have not internalized or actively reject the practice of tolerance.

ECTR Research Grants for Secure Tolerance.

To support forward thinking on secure and sustainable concepts of tolerance, the ECTR launches in 2018 a new Research Grants Programme. New thinking on secure tolerance needs to be developed in a variety of contexts and disciplines. Especially philosophy and theology, history and law, sociology and political science together with literature and the arts can contribute to re-imagining tolerance so that it can meet these new challenges. The ECTR seeks applications from practitioners of all these disciplines and others, whether they are individuals, groups or organizations, and from those who practice cross-disciplinary approaches. Applications will be judged on how they contribute to thought on that subject.

Up to 10 Research Grants amounting 20-50 thousand Euro each will be available for 2019/2020. The decision on the awarded amount will depend on the programmatic or scientific content of an application. It can be awarded to begin new research or continue research that is ongoing.

For the 2nd Call for Applications, the following priorities has been set:

Environment and ecological sustainability;

Health and quality of life; healthcare;

Education and educational systems.

The 2nd Call deadline is January the 31st, 2019.

The nominations review and selection of Prize recipients would be carried out by the ECTR Academic Advisory Group. The Group comprises of eminent scholars, including i.a. John Gray (Chair), Antony Beevor, Alexander Dynkin and Timothy Snyder.The Group is tasked with general overview of the Kantor Prize and Grants Programme and selection of incoming applications. Within the selection process, the Group can decide on the amount of funding contributed to each selected application.

NOMINATIONS

The ECTR welcomes nominations to the Kantor Prize on Secure Tolerance and applications for ECTR Research Grants at the e-mail: [email protected] and by traditional post to: ECTR, Avenue de Messidor 200/7, 1180 Brussels, Belgium.