The Institute of International Relations Prague, Czech Anna Lindh Foundation Head of Network institution, in collaboration with the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Université libre de Bruxelles, has been awarded an ERC Synergy Grant 2025 for the project CLOSER – Party Systems and Social Cleavages in the Post-Ottoman Space of the MENA Region.

Granted by the European Research Council, the ERC Synergy Grant is among the most prestigious research funding schemes worldwide and is awarded to only a limited number of international research teams. This represents one of the first ERC Synergy Grants ever awarded to a Czech research institute in the social sciences.

The six-year project will examine long-term political stability and instability in the Middle East and North Africa through the analysis of party systems and historically shaped social cleavages. Covering countries including Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon, the research challenges explanations based on cultural exceptionalism and highlights historically formed socio-economic differences rooted in local societies.

Led by IIR senior reseacher Clément Steuer, alongside Jan Zouplna and Gilles Van Hamme, the project will involve over 40 researchers across disciplines and countries.

For more details, click on this link.