Two members of the School of Politics and International Relations at the ANU, Dr Simon Niemeyer and Dr Sean Burges, have recently been awarded nationally competitive Australian Research Council (ARC) grants to assist with their research.

Dr Niemeyer, from the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, received an ARC Future Fellowship for his study of the capacity of democratic systems to debate and respond to the policy problems associated with climate change.  This project, ‘Deliberative democracy and climate change:  building the foundations of an adaptive system’, will both develop theories of deliberative democracy but also assist policymakers and inform the public debate on climate change governance. 

ARC Future Fellowships are awarded to outstanding researchers working in areas of national public importance.  In receiving the Future Fellowship Dr Niemeyer continues the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance’s reputation as a world leader in developing deliberative theory. 

Dr Burges, from the Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies, has received an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) for his study of the interactions between domestic fiscal policy and foreign policy in Brazil.  Specifically, the project will examine the role of Brazil’s national development bank, the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social, in that country’s political and economic expansion internationally.

The Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies at the ANU promotes the study of Latin America in Australia, marked by the recent announcement of Australia’s first Bachelor of Latin American Studies.  Dr Burges’ DECRA funding adds to the Centre’s commitment to enhancing the understanding of Latin America in Australia.