IFSH Visiting Research Fellows are selected for the “Emergency Fellowship Programme – Ukraine” funding scheme

In response to the war in Ukraine, the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP), with the support of the Ploughshares Fund, has established the Emergency Fellowship Programme – Ukraine (EFPU) to support affected scholars from Ukraine, allowing them to conduct their research on nuclear arms control, non-proliferation, and disarmament issues during short-term fellowships.

IFSH Visiting Research Fellows Mariia Kurando and Valeriia Gergiieva, affiliated with the Odesa National I. I. Mechnikov University (Ukraine), were selected to participate in the EFPU with their respective projects.

In her studies, Valeriia Gergiieva focuses on the Iranian nuclear program and the future of the JCPOA as one of the main sticking points for the future non-proliferation regime. She is researching it through the implications of the war in Ukraine as a key factor in the growing role of nuclear weapons

Mariia Kurando is conducting research on nuclear security and safety in war zones, with a particular focus on the experience of Pakistan and the lessons other states can learn from it. The war in Ukraine and the hazardous atmosphere around its nuclear facilities prove how nuclear safety can be undermined by military conflict and how easily the situation can get out of hand. Existing in a volatile and distrustful atmosphere as a result of its rivalry with India, and being one of the most terror-prone and politically unstable countries in the world, Pakistan is facing massive challenges to nuclear security and safety, and its experience is especially relevant for Ukraine’s broader understanding of how its nuclear facilities can be made more secure in the future.

The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation is an international non-governmental organization established in 2010 on the initiative of the Austrian Foreign Ministry. It is operated by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

You can find more about the VCDNP and Ploughshare’s Emergency Fellowship Programme – Ukraine here.