Rising Scholars supports a new generation of researchers in the Global South

In March 2025, INASP relaunched one of its largest bodies of work.

AuthorAID, a community platform for and driven by early career researchers, with over 14,000 members across Africa, Asia and Latin America, became Rising Scholars.  Along with the new identity comes a renewed commitment to supporting the next generation of researchers, scientists and educators to thrive as they confidently tackle today’s complex global challenges.

To talk more about the decision to move from AuthorAID to Rising Scholars, as well as the future vision for the platform, INASP’s Tabitha Buchner answers some key questions about the relaunch.

Why the new identity?

INASP has been working in partnership with universities, research institutions and their staff in the majority world for over 30 years, and AuthorAID has been at the heart of that work for almost two decades. It’s a  successful and far-reaching initiative that has an 18-year history of finding new ways to bridge the learning gap for early career scholars and build specialised expertise in the Global South.

Over the years, as the AuthorAID community continued to grow, and the depth and breadth of the work grew in unexpected and impactful ways, we felt that the name and identity of the platform wasn’t doing justice to what the community had become. We started having conversations with members of the community – our ‘Rising Scholars’ as they’re now called – and they agreed. The community is a global network of energetic, engaged and innovative researchers, educators and change-makers, and we needed an identity that better represented them and the valuable global work they’re doing.

Changing the name and design of the platform, and introducing the community as Rising Scholars, has reenergised the network and given the community of scholars a stronger sense of identity. The work has the same purpose, the same core values – it’s a global network that provides support, mentoring, resources and training for researchers in lower- and middle-income countries – but now it has an identity that better represents the growing and evolving community that it serves.

Why was the change to ‘Rising Scholars’ important at this particular moment in time?

Global issues have never been so pressing. We’re facing severe changes in our global climate along with food security issues, human health crises and increasing areas of social instability. We desperately need evidence-based solutions for mitigation, adaptation and community resilience in the face of these challenges, and we need a new generation of researchers to respond to this need.

The scholars who are part of the Rising Scholars community are the individuals who will be changing the future for the better and we need to do everything we can to support them to succeed. Through the Rising Scholars platform, we can provide them with the training, tools and networks needed to confidently tackle complex local and global challenges.

The relaunch shows our unwavering commitment to this community and the work they’re doing. INASP believes in Rising Scholars, and we want to show that.

We want to support a new generation of researchers to rise, to expand, to transform research, to redefine education and to drive change for their nations and their communities.

Is there anything different about the work now; is anything changing?

The core purpose of the work isn’t changing – it’s always going to be about supporting and championing researchers, educators and global change makers – but we are adapting and responding to what the community needs.

The urgency and complexity of current local and global challenges demand more from the Global South research community than ever before and we’re exploring new thematic hubs aligned to the specific challenges they’re facing. By facilitating learning and network opportunities that respond to thematic areas, we can more effectively support researchers to build the skills needed to conceive of new strategies, and design practical and relevant solutions for their local communities.

How would you describe Rising Scholars to someone who’s never heard of it before?

Rising Scholars is a community of 14,000 early career educators and researchers from the majority world, coming together to learn, share ideas and contribute expertise. INASP facilitates learning opportunities to support them to navigate their careers, secure their first publications, and win new grants – and most of all to bring their passion, talent, ideas and expertise to bear on the challenges of our time. To support researchers effectively, INASP meets them, wherever they are, with a flexible programme of modular courses, bite-size learning videos, regular webinars and opportunities to connect and learn.

For example, carrying out her research in the wetlands of Kenya, Sharon Gubamwoyo joined the Rising Scholars community to make use of the free online courses, and to find a mentor that could support her growing research career. Research can be particularly daunting when institutional barriers and lack of access to mentorship can hinder progress. In these situations, Rising Scholars can provide essential support and offer the support of a global community to equip researchers like Sharon to tackle local problems that have a global significance.

Can you tell us more about what we can expect to from Rising Scholars in the future?

The Rising Scholars platform will continue to provide a flexible programme of online resources that offers space for researchers to strengthen their skills, deepen their confidence and forge new collaborations, inspiring new thinking and new solutions to global challenges. Looking forward, there will also be a strong thematic focus. We want to develop skill-building opportunities that are guided by the global and local issues faced by the Rising Scholars community.

For us, Rising Scholars is a movement for transformation in the global research and tertiary education ecosystem, led by those who want to see that change most. Rising Scholars is a community for and driven by researchers and educators from the majority world. It supports the universities and research institutions that provide the critical foundations for this generation to rise.

As facilitators of the platform, INASP will continue to create spaces where all members of the research community feel a sense of belonging, a space where they feel supported to innovate and thrive. The Rising Scholars community is an exceptional collective intelligence of 14,000 researchers and we want to support and create opportunities for all members, empowering them to find innovative and impactful solutions.

And where can people go to find out more?

We’ve updated the Rising Scholars website, refreshed the Rising Scholars Instagram page, and plan to share more stories and case studies from the Rising Scholars community so everyone can get to know the members better. You can also find Rising Scholars on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Youtube.