Annual Fellowships

Each year ARI selects a number of individuals from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to expand its expert partner network. Under the Annual Fellowship Program, these individuals, coming from different professional and/or academic profiles, contribute to ARI’s work by producing original research and providing informed local experiences.

The Annual Fellowship program not only allows ARI to execute its mission of articulating home-grown agendas for democratic change in the region by empowering individuals and mobilizing stakeholders on the ground but also enlarges different communities of practice where relevant stakeholders grow collectively.

Over the course of a year, based on their expertise, the Annual Fellows get the opportunity to work on different projects, programs and/or countries that ARI focuses on and contribute to the institution’s knowledge production through different platforms.

In March 2025, following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and in memory of our founder, Dr. Bassma Kodmani, who passed away in March 2023, we launched the Bassma Kodmani Fellowship. This one-year fellowship is dedicated to fostering rigorous research and policy engagement on Syria’s transition toward inclusive governance, human rights, and social justice.

“ARI’s fellowship program allows us to engage in-depth with a broad range of researchers and practitioners from the region. It directly benefits ARI while also providing the fellows with an opportunity to strengthen their own research and contacts. ARI’s approach provides activists with the space to reflect on their activism while researchers get an opportunity to test their ideas with practitioners and policy makers.” - Nadim Houry, Executive Director