Dr Masooda Bano, University Research Lecturer, has won a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant to run a major research programme on Changing Structures of Islamic Authority and Consequences for Social Change at ODID.

ERC Starting Grants are awarded to researchers with proven potential to become international research leaders in their field. The 1.4 million euro project will run for five years starting February 2014 and will recruit four post-doctoral fellows. It will enable Dr Bano to further develop her empirical work on comparative studies of Muslim societies and use this rich comparative data to advance our theoretical understanding of the working of informal institutions and how they contribute to development processes, while also being shaped by them.

The project advisory committee comprises leading scholars from the US and Europe with specialist expertise in the study of Muslim societies and informal institutions. The research programme, as well as the academic conferences and international workshops planned under this project, will provide numerous opportunities for ODID students and researchers to engage with these research themes and draw on the expertise of the project research team.