Fifteen Southeast Asian scholars, one shared mission. Chosen from a highly competitive pool of applicants, the RGS 2026 grantees represent the next generation of Southeast Asian researchers tackling the region’s most pressing human rights and peace challenges.
For three days in Bangkok, they will work shoulder to shoulder with mentors and fellow researchers to sharpen their research designs, ethics, and strategies for getting their findings into the hands of the communities and policymakers who need them.
SHAPE-SEA, founded in 2015 by a group of human rights and peace scholar-practitioners in Southeast Asia, aims to establish ways to develop and strengthen the capacities and knowledge of fellow Southeast Asian scholars and academics in the region. The programme is made possible through the generous support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the two founding networks, the ASEAN University Network–Human Rights Education Theme (AUN-HRE) and the Southeast Asia Human Rights Studies Network (SEAHRN). SHAPE-SEA’s vision is to strengthen the protection and promotion of human rights and peace in ASEAN/Southeast Asia through research and education. It aims to support research efforts that contribute to cultivating a culture of human rights and peace in Southeast Asia.
This month, the SHAPE-SEA Programme officially commences its Research Grants Scheme (RGS) 2026 cycle with an Inception Workshop from 20 to 22 July 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The workshop reflects SHAPE-SEA’s long-standing commitment to building the research capacities of homegrown scholars. For years, research on Southeast Asia has too often been produced outside the region, framed by external priorities and disconnected from the communities it describes. By funding and mentoring emerging scholars from within the region, SHAPE-SEA works to ensure that human rights and peace knowledge is produced by the people who live these realities.
“These fifteen grantees are exactly who should be telling Southeast Asia’s stories,” said Dr. Bidyalaxmi Salam, SHAPE-SEA Project Lead for Knowledge Production. “They know the histories, the languages, and the lived realities of the communities they study, because these are their own communities. Our role is to make sure they have the funding, mentorship, and peer support to turn that closeness into rigorous, credible research. When they succeed, the region gains scholarship that is relevant, trusted, and lasting.”
The impact of the research programme is visible in the work of past grantees. Dr. Chomkate Ngamkaiwan, a 2024 grantee from Thailand, spent months conducting field research in Chana District, working alongside communities resisting threats to their land and livelihoods. The grant, she says, transformed a long-held idea into practice.
“The idea for my Chana project existed before I applied, but the grant made it possible to turn that idea into reality,” said Dr. Ngamkaiwan. “It gave me the time, funding, and flexibility for sustained field visits, which allowed me to build trust with local communities and understand their struggles beyond what desk research could offer. I learned enormously from my co-researcher and my mentor, whose close relationship with the community helped me approach the research more ethically, collaboratively, and context-sensitively. We shifted toward participatory methods and translated our findings into advocacy tools, including a video, so the research could reach audiences far beyond academia.”
This year, Dr. Ngamkaiwan returns to the programme in a new role: as a mentor to the incoming RGS 2026 cohort at the Inception Workshop, completing the cycle from grantee to guide. Moreover, Dr. Vachararutai (Jan) Boontinand, Executive Director of SHAPE-SEA, further emphasized that the Inception Workshop is designed to ensure grantees begin their projects on the strongest possible footing.
“A region cannot claim ownership of its human rights agenda if it does not own the knowledge that informs it,” said Dr. Boontinand. “Through this workshop, we make sure that all fifteen (!5) grantees start their projects with strong research foundations, clear ethical grounding, and a community behind them. Every grant we award for researchers and emerging scholars is more than an investment but a testament of our commitment towards co-creating a more just and peaceful region, built on rigorous evidence produced by the Southeast Asian ourselves.
The workshop combines thematic discussions on human rights and peace research with practical sessions on research design, ethics, academic writing, and project management. Particular emphasis is placed on refining research questions, strengthening interdisciplinary perspectives, and planning research outputs and dissemination pathways that inform advocacy in various forms, ensuring the research creates impact across the region and beyond its immediate scope.
SHAPE-SEA calls on universities, grant support funders, civil society and regional bodies to deepen their support for homegrown research across ASEAN and Southeast Asia.
