Short notebooks for public advocacy
Presentation
The Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) invites its Member Centers to participate in the Call for Proposals “Short Policy Notebooks for Public Influence”, an initiative aimed at strengthening the collective production of critical knowledge, promoting collaborative work between institutions and contributing to the design of public policies from a situated perspective committed to social transformation.
The purpose of this call is to promote the collective development of short notebooks for public advocacy on strategic challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean. These documents aim to serve as inputs for public advocacy and policy formulation, while their collaborative development process among Member Centers strengthens coordination, academic cooperation, and networking.
The call arises from the survey carried out among the CLACSO Member Centers in the second half of 2025, which made it possible to identify installed capacities, convergent research agendas and opportunities to strengthen territorial and regional articulation.
Short notebooks are brief, rigorous, and action-oriented documents that synthesize evidence, analysis, and recommendations on relevant public issues at the national and regional levels, while also incorporating a perspective from the Global South. Their purpose is to contribute to public debates, provide input for decision-making, and strengthen the influence of Member Centers in policymaking processes, the revitalization of democracies, and transformative social practices.
Objectives
The call for proposals has the following objectives:
1. To contribute to the debate on the main challenges of Latin America and the Caribbean within the framework of the Global South, through concrete proposals for public policy and institutional action.
2. Strengthen cooperation and collaborative work between Member Centers from the same country or region.
3. Promote the collective development of short policy notebooks aimed at public advocacy and policy formulation.
4. To promote the exchange of experiences and learning between institutions from a collaborative perspective.
5. To make visible the public, academic and territorial capacities of the CLACSO network.
RULES OF THE CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
- Notebooks for public advocacy may be submitted by teams made up of at least three CLACSO Member Centers belonging to the same country or region.
- Group applications are welcome (teams of 3 to 6 members). Team composition must respect gender parity. Teams are expected to be intergenerational, integrating authors from diverse backgrounds and experiences.
- Teams must be made up of trained authors, that is, those who hold a master's degree, doctorate or equivalent, and proven academic track record; and authors in training, that is, those who are currently pursuing master's/doctoral studies or hold a degree.
- If the notebook is selected, the authors who make up the team must submit a letter of support for each Member Center represented, signed by the corresponding authority and including the names of all the authors belonging to that Center who are part of the proposal.
- Participating CLACSO Member Centers must not have any outstanding debts in the payment of membership fees for the year 2025.
- Members of the Steering Committee or officials of the CLACSO Executive Secretariat may not participate.
- Each author may only participate with one proposal in this Call for Proposals.
- To register the notebook, the team must select one member as responsible for registering the project. That person must open the form and include the other team members. They should not open forms individually.
- Common knowledge: technologies, artificial intelligence, open science and territorial knowledge
- Democracies in dispute: horizons, resistances and the construction of alternatives from the public and the common
- Social right to education, public policies and pedagogical alternatives
- Structural inequalities and redistributive justice in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Migration and human mobility: rights, displacement and disputed policies
- Social movements and activism in Latin America and the Caribbean: resistance, articulations and the construction of the commons
- Feminist thought and action: transformations for the sustainability of life, justice and peace
- Reconfigurations of work and production models: challenges for social justice and the sustainability of life
- Geopolitical reconfigurations and multilateralism in transformation: perspectives from the Global South
- Just transitions and contested sovereignties: towards sustainable and inclusive futures from the Global South
- have a maximum extension of 3.500 words (approximately 7 pages);
- to present a single collective text;
- develop a well-founded diagnosis of the problem;
- formulate concrete recommendations for public policy or transformative institutional action;
- incorporate a regional, critical and comparative perspective when relevant;
- Use clear, accessible language geared towards decision-makers.
- fulfill the CLACSO editorial guidelines
- Qualification.
- Participating Member Centers.
- Authors.
- Strategic axis within which it is framed (there can be up to 3 per Notebook).
- Executive summary.
- Problem diagnosis.
- Situated analysis of the country or region.
- Public policy recommendations
- Proposals for regional coordination.
- Brief bibliography (it is suggested to keep both the bibliography and the notes to a minimum)
- In the first stage, applications will be reviewed for their formal and administrative aspects to ensure compliance with the competition rules. Applications that do not meet the established requirements will be subject to technical review.
- In a subsequent stage, the submitted public policy briefs will be evaluated by a committee appointed by the CLACSO Executive Board. The evaluation will give particular consideration to:
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- relevance to the strategic axes;
- analytical quality;
- originality;
- critical perspective and potential for public impact;
- effective coordination between Member Centers;
- feasibility of the proposed recommendations.
- Situations not covered by this call for applications will be resolved by the convening institution.
- The ruling will be irrevocable and unappealable.
- Enter the website of CLACSO.
- Register in the CLACSO Single Registration System (SUIC). The generated username and password will be required each time you wish to access the system to consult, modify, add, or submit information for this or any other CLACSO activity. Applicants who are part of collective proposals must open a single form where all authors of the team will be included. Do not register individually. Also, one of the authors must be designated as responsible for registration.
- Identify the proposal by indicating its title and the pseudonym of the applicant(s). Applications with pseudonyms that correspond to the applicant's first and/or last name will not be accepted. Once the corresponding fields are completed, the system will enable the uploading of the following data.
- Applicants must indicate their institutional affiliation with CLACSO Network Member Centers on the application form. The updated list of member centers can be found at: https://www.clacso.org.ar/clacso/centros_miembros_clacso/inicio.php.
- Complete the personal and academic data form and attach your curriculum vitae in free format; a digital copy of your identity document, passport or ID card; a digital copy of your highest academic degree (or proof of degree in process) and your photograph (which will be used for the publication of the decision if you are selected).
- The policy advocacy notebook should be attached once the personal and academic data has been completed.
- Once registration is closed, the system will produce an electronic certificate of receipt that will serve as proof of application.
Deadline for notebook submission: October 30
Publication of opinion: December 2026
The results will be published on the CLACSO website. Those selected will be contacted by email.
Queries: [email protected]
