The European Research Council (ERC) funds researchers capable of conducting ambitious frontier research projects, selected through a worldwide panel evaluation based on the criterion of Scientific Excellence.
Under Horizon Europe, in the ERC 2025 Consolidator Grant (CoG) call, Associate Professor Efe TOKDEMIR from Bilkent University has been awarded a grant of 2 million euros.
We congratulate our esteemed researcher and the host institution, and wish them continued success.
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Principle Investigator(PI): Assoc. Dr. Efe TOKDEMİR Project Acronym: COUNSTER Host Institution: Bilkent University Project Budget: 1 989 930 EUR Duration: 60 months Panel: SH2 - Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems |
In the project COUNSTER, Dr. TOKDEMIR aims to explain why, how, and when governments target the constituents of non-state armed actors (NSAAs), and what determines the success or failure of these government-constituency relations as a strategic tool in counterinsurgency. COUNSTER emphasizes that military force is neither the only nor necessarily the most effective option available to states. By adopting a constituency-centered perspective, the project examines the effectiveness of both attractive and repressive strategies that target NSAAs’ constituencies, and hence to sever the ties between. This approach allows for a systematic investigation of when these strategies succeed, when they fail, and why.
COUNSTER project seeks to offer a theoretical breakthrough for conflict studies by advancing the first comprehensive framework that fully integrates interactions among governments, armed groups, and their constituencies. The project employs a mixed-method design that combines comparative macro-level analyses with micro-level observational and experimental data. Ultimately, COUNSTER aims to uncover the causal pathways behind the varying outcomes of counterinsurgency/terrorism efforts. In doing so, it will provide scholars and policymakers with an evidence-based toolkit to better understand conflict dynamics and design more effective and sustainable strategies for conflict resolution and termination.
TOKDEMIR’s project proposal was supported during the application process under TÜBİTAK’s ERC Principal Investigator Development Programme (EBAG). TOKDEMIR had previously been supported under TÜBİTAK BİDEB 2247-D and was the recipient of the TÜBİTAK Incentive Award in 2023, the TÜBA GEBİP Award in 2020, and the BAGEP Award in 2019.
With this development, the number of ERC projects completed or currently ongoing in Türkiye has reached 43. Within the scope of this call, 31 applications were submitted from Türkiye, 3 of which progressed to the second-stage evaluation, and 1 was awarded funding.