The European Research Council (ERC) funds researchers capable of carrying out ambitious frontier research projects, selected through a worldwide peer-review evaluation based solely on the criterion of Scientific Excellence.
Under the ERC 2025 Advanced Grant (AdG) call published within the framework of Horizon Europe, Prof. Dr. Ali Çarkoğlu from Koç University has been awarded funding of €2.5 million.
We congratulate our esteemed researcher and the host university and wish them continued success in their future endeavors.
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Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Ali ÇARKOĞLU Project Acronym: EMERGEPOL Tittle: Emerging Issues and the Dynamics of Affective Polarization Host Institution: Koç University Project Budget: 2,491,656 EUR Duration: 60 months Panel: SH2 - Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems |
In his project EMERGEPOL (The Dynamics of Emerging Issues and Affective Polarization) Prof. Ali ÇARKOĞLU aims to understand how political polarization emerges and which societal issues are most likely to become sources of polarization in the future. Prof. ÇARKOĞLU will investigate the conditions under which issues such as immigration, multiculturalism, identity politics, and climate change, topics that have increasingly moved to the center of political debate in many countries, develop into lasting social and political divisions.
Rather than examining polarization solely through its outcomes, the project will focus on the entire life cycle of emerging issues, from their initial appearance in public discourse to their broader societal impact. To achieve this, parliamentary debates, election manifestos, news content, and online discussions will be analyzed using advanced natural language processing techniques, while panel surveys conducted across four countries will track changes in citizens’ attitudes over time.
Covering Türkiye, Hungary, Ireland, and the Netherlands, the project also seeks to develop innovative tools capable of identifying emerging issues with the potential to become politically polarizing. One of its key outcomes will be a Polarization Potential Index, designed to measure the likelihood that a particular issue may trigger polarization in the short term. The project will also create an interactive web-based forecasting platform for use by researchers, journalists, and policymakers.
ÇARKOĞLU’s project proposal was supported during the application process through TÜBİTAK’s ERC Principal Investigator Development Programme (EBAG).
With this achievement, the total number of ERC projects completed or currently being carried out in Türkiye has reached 44.
Under the ERC-2025-AdG call, 30 applications were submitted from Türkiye. Of these, two advanced to the second-stage evaluation, and one was selected for funding.