OPPORTUNITÀ

Call for Funding Applications, multiple streams

University of Birmingham

31 March 2025

The Global Philosophy of Religion Project 2, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and a number of other sources, is running a series of funding competitions over the coming months. These include theoretical and conceptual research, science-engaged research, public engagement and impact, and several teaching and training stipends. The first call for applications is now open at this site with the earliest deadlines on 31st March 2025. A press release is available here. Please share widely to anyone who might be interested, and contact gpr@contacts.bham.ac.uk with any questions.

The Global Philosophy of Religion Project: Fundamental Spiritual Reality, Human Purpose, and Living Well is a £2.4million initiative to transform the philosophy of religion into a truly global and diverse field of inquiry. Based at the Birmingham Centre for the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Birmingham, it is led by Martin Pickup with Marie-Hélène Gorisse and David Cheetham. Continuing the work of the first Global Philosophy of Religion project (run by Yujin Nagasawa), this second stage has a particular focus on human purpose, the meaning of life, and what it is to live well, including ‘down-stream’ questions connected to religious practice. It will consider what role (if any) fundamental spiritual realities like God or other divine entities play in addressing such issues. It will expand to cover all religious traditions, including traditions which are at the crossroads between religions, philosophies, spiritualities and ways of life, such as Buddhism and various East Asian philosophies (e.g., Jainism, Confucianism and Taoism), as well as the position that can be described as the “spiritual but not religious.”