Chemists' Community Fund Announces major partnership with Cara Fellowship Programme

In a significant move to support at risk academics, the Chemists' Community Fund (the benevolent fund of the Royal Society of Chemistry) has begun a three-year partnership of £120,000 annually for the Council for At Risk Academics (Cara) Fellowship Programme.

The Chemists' Community Fund has worked to develop close links with Cara over a number of years and this partnership agreement marks a new chapter in the collaboration, providing crucial assistance to at risk chemists and their families, helping them to rebuild their lives.

"We are proud to be able to support Cara's Fellowship Programme," says Anna Dearden, Chemists’ Community Fund Manager. "This sponsorship will provide essential opportunities for chemists and their families in some of the most difficult and dangerous circumstances, allowing them to continue their important work, live, study and research safely in the UK and play their part in the global scientific community."

"It was not easy. It was not safe. So while I was lucky enough to be able to finish my degree, Aleppo was one of the most damaged cities in Syria and, by the time I graduated, my university was almost empty – empty of scholars, empty of expertise. You start feeling scared all the time, you start losing some of your friends, losing some of your family members and it becomes your reality.

"As hard as this all sounds, I think the most difficult thing and the biggest challenge is when you start losing hope. When you start feeling like your dreams are never coming true. You have no tomorrow.

"During my Master's degree journey I heard of Cara from colleagues – I was so impressed by their work and what they do – for me it was that small door of hope, that small light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

"Hope is a fuel. You can't keep going on in life if you don't have hope, especially if your life is full of obstacles and challenges. Once you take the first step and knock on the door, doors will be answered, people will hear you – that keeps you going on, that is your fuel, that is your flame.

"Sometimes I need to remind myself that this is real and not a dream. Because for people like me, it's one in a million. It's like a miracle."

The Cara fellowship programme: a lifeline for at-risk academics

Cara's Fellowship Programme has its roots in the 1930s, when the organization was founded by UK academics and scientists to rescue their threatened colleagues from Nazi Germany. Among its early supporters were prominent chemists, including Nobel Prize winner Ernest Rutherford. That legacy of support for chemists continues, with Cara's mission as more relevant as ever in the modern world.

Recently, their work has been dominated by conflicts in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Sudan, and since late 2023 by the crisis in Gaza. As a result, the number of ‘Active Fellows’ – those actually in placements, mostly in the UK, hosted by members of Cara’s Universities and Research Network (135 members) – has surged, reaching some 220 across 2024 as a whole. And many more are on the way; at any given time Cara's teams are sifting and assessing up to 90 new applications and working with another 80 or so Fellows at the next stage, agreeing the details of their placements – a complex and time-consuming task, followed by the whole process of actually getting them, and in many cases their families as well, to safety. 

The 'Active Fellows' team then takes over, working with the host universities to monitor each individual's progress and, as time moves on, discussing with each Fellow the various options they will have if a safe return home is still not possible as the end of their placement approaches.

Further information

• Find out more about Cara on their website
• Find out more about the Chemists' Community Fund