Strengthening place-based collaboration, synthesis and action across Southern Africa

Since launching the Southern African Hub of the Society for Social-Ecological Systems (SocSES), our regional community has continued to grow and link SES researchers and practitioners across Southern Africa. The Southern African Hub builds on the foundations laid by the Southern African Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (SAPECS), the Southern African Resilience Academy (SARA), and other regional networks – communities of practice that have shaped social-ecological systems scholarship, strengthened stewardship and adaptive governance across diverse landscapes, and fostered meaningful policy engagement and practitioner learning throughout the region.

We are excited to invite proposals for Southern African regional working groups that will run from 2026 until 2028, to help advance social-ecological systems science, collaborative learning, knowledge co-production, and transformative action across our diverse landscapes and seascapes.

Why regional working groups?

Working groups are the primary engines of collaboration, synthesis, and collective learning within the Southern African Hub. Inspired by the long-standing ways of working in SAPECS and other SES networks, they provide flexible spaces for deep engagement with place-based SES challenges, regional transformation priorities, and emerging conceptual developments in the field.

Consistent with the values of SocSES and the broader ambition to strengthen inclusive, globally connected but regionally grounded SES research, regional working groups (as a collective) will:

• Support synthesis and comparative learning by connecting cases, approaches, and insights across diverse landscapes and seascapes, generating comparative analyses, joint publications, and integrative outputs that inform scholarship, policy, and regional transformation priorities and conceptual development.
• Foster transdisciplinary innovation by convening researchers, practitioners, community partners, and government actors in co-learning and co-design processes, strengthening practice-oriented work such as resilience dialogues, stewardship initiatives, and collaborative experimentation.
• Strengthen the regional SES community by creating vibrant relational spaces that help sustain long-term engagement within an international society, e.g. thematic discussions, collaborative writing groups, early-career learning circles, or methodological exchanges.
• Build regional leadership by providing opportunities for early-career scholars and practitioners to co-lead activities, facilitate dialogue, participate in policy-relevant synthesis at local, regional and global scales, and exchange knowledge with other Regional Hubs.

What will working groups do?

Working group members will work collaboratively towards at least one journal article, other peer-reviewed publication, and policy-practice engagement process over the three years (2026-2028).

Working groups will also be expected to host at least one activity per year for members of the Southern African Regional Hub. We encourage creativity, but activities should first and foremost be practical and interesting for the working group to run.

Who should apply?

We welcome proposals from researchers, practitioners, and mixed teams, working on social-ecological systems challenges in Southern Africa. We particularly encourage participation from early-career scholars and practitioners, and from teams that bring together diverse perspectives, disciplines, and geographies across Africa. Working groups may be new, or emerge from existing networks – including SARA, SAPECS, or other communities of practice – who wish to link their ongoing work to the SocSES regional hub, broaden their collaborations, or reach a wider regional audience. Groups are welcome to co-brand activities if part of other networks (e.g., being both a SocSES working group and a working group from another network). We particularly encourage participation from early-career scholars and practitioners, and from teams that bring together diverse perspectives, disciplines, and geographies across Africa.

Working group structure and activities

Each working group will consist of 5-10 members, with two co-leads. The proposal should specify who these members are, and their roles. We encourage diverse teams that bring together different career stages, disciplines, and perspectives from across Africa. Leads may choose to change some of their membership over time.

Working group leads will be responsible for coordinating the group’s activities, attending periodic online working group meetings to link to activities in the wider hub (~3 a year), and reporting on the group’s activities. Such reporting is mostly informal, at hub meetings, but we will also circulate a short form every year to better understand what groups are working on and what they are doing.

(Optional) smaller, in-person WG meetings may be scheduled alongside a regional event, such as the Garden Route Interface Network (GRIN) meeting, if funding allows. Working group members may participate in a maximum of two regional working groups. Co-leads may lead only one working group at a time.

The Society’s Community Coordinator will manage the SocSES Community Platform to support working group activities, such as webinars, virtual discussions, discussion fora and mailing lists. Please get in touch with us if you are unsure how the Society would support your envisioned activity.

Please note, SocSES does not support working group members’ salaries, per diems, fieldwork costs, or grants to other institutions.

Application process and timeline

• Friday, 27 March 2026 – Due date for proposals
• Early April 2026 – Introductory meeting for regional working groups

The application requires a working group title, a 300-word summary of the working group’s focus, up to five keywords, a 250-word outline of planned academic outputs and timeline, a list of 3 to 5 proposed activities for the first year with brief descriptions (150 words each), the names and details of the two co-leads and the 3 to 8 other working group members (including their expertise and confirmation of participation) and short CVs (up to two pages) of each co-lead (in PDF format).

Proposals will be evaluated by members of the Southern African Hub’s coordination team according to their relevance, diversity and feasibility.

For more information, or to share this call for proposals with others, see the brochure available here.

Complete the online application form here by Friday, 27 March 2026.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about this call, the application process, or the role of regional hubs and working groups, please don’t hesitate to reach out at info@soces.org.

We look forward to supporting you in your application and collaboration!