The project of civilization in Liangshan, Southwest-China (1923–1949)
A British Academy/ESRC Chinese Visiting Fellowship was awarded for a visit by Dr Aga Zuoshi, September–December 2008, supervised by Dr Uradyn Bulag.

The death of the Buddhist state: violence and sovereignty in early socialist Mongolia
A British Academy small research grant awarded to Dr Christopher Kaplonski in support of his research on the emerging socialist government's attempts to deal with the politically powerful Buddhist establishment in early socialist Mongolia. The grant chiefly supports work in the National Central Archives and the archives of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Black Sea Currents
Professor Caroline Humphrey with Dr Yael Navaro-Yashin and Dr Vera Skvirskaya have been funded by the Migration and Diasporas Programme of the AHRC for a 3-year study entitled ‘Black Sea Currents’ This project aims at comparative analysis of the cosmopolitan dynamics and migration flows of two great Black Sea port cities – Odessa, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey – focusing on old and new diasporic subjectivities and identities.  Historically it will investigate urban coexistence in the authoritarian Tsarist/Soviet and Ottoman states and the effects of the Cold War and its aftermath.  Contemporary research will investigate the residues and memories of these periods, as well as current flows of diverse migrants between the two cities.  What is the impact – in particular the cultural impact – of these sporadic, yet repeated, travels across the Black Sea, which until recently seemed to divide the region into different worlds, "European"/"Asian", "Communist"/"non-Communist", and "Christian"/"Muslim"?

Oral History of Mongolia
A co-operative research project between the MIASU and the International Association for Mongol Studies in Ulaanbaatar.  The Principal Investigator is Dr David Sneath and the project will be managed by Dr Christopher Kaplonski. Professor Caroline Humphrey (Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge) will act as senior consultant. The project will collect over 600 personal oral histories from Mongolians throughout the country to create a publicly accessible, dual-language database of the oral history of twentieth-century Mongolia. The aim is to create a new understanding of individuals’ memories and experiences of state transformation and to document and analyze the remarkable changes that this huge but remote country has experienced. This project will help preserve Mongolian cultural and historical heritage and further develop collaborative anthropological and historial research projects between Mongolia and the UK.

The Historical Study and Documentation of the Pad gling traditions in Bhutan
Dr Stephen Hugh-Jones and Dr Hildegard Diemberger have been awarded funds for a
5-year project with Dr Karma Phuntso as the researcher, which will study the Pad gling Traditon, one of the two major religious traditions in the Kingdom of Bhutan. The project aims to assess the religious, cultural and political role of the institution and its members in Bhutanese history  and in the greater Tibetan Buddhist world. The literature connected with the tradition will be digitized, the original manuscripts and wood block prints will be preserved and deposited in local archives and the British Library and the entire textual corpus will be entered into a complete xml catalogue.

A Tibetan Woman-Lama and her Reincarnations: a Study of the Samding Dorje Phagmo (15th-21st Century)
Funded by the AHRC, this project is directed by Professor Caroline Humphrey in collaboration with Dr David Sneath (MIASU) and Burkhard Quessel (British Library), and the principal investigator is Dr Hildegard Diemberger.

The Treasures of Danzan Ravjaa
Funded by The British Library Endangered Archives Programme and the Axis Mundi Foundation, Switzerland, the project aims to preserve a significant aspect of Mongolia's historical and religious patrimony by digitally scanning and producing a catalogue of a rare, privately-owned cache of Mongolian manuscripts recently unearthed from caves near Sainshand, Dorngobi Province, Mongolia. Co-ordinated by Dr Hildegard Diemberger.

Sacred Sites in Inner Mongolia-Spatial and Landscape Concepts
This project, funded by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research (Cambridge) is now entering its fifth year. The project is directed by Professor Caroline Humphrey with researchers Hürelbaatar (MIASU), Dr Nasanbayar (Inner Mongolia University), Mönxbuyan (Inner Mongolia Normal University) and Gai Zhe-yi (Institute of Agricultural Development, Huhhot, Inner Mongolia). Dr James Laidlaw joined the project in 2002 and a third period of fieldwork at Mergen Monastery, Inner Mongolia, was carried out by the team during summer 2002. The projects findings to date have been summarised in two annual reports, which are available on request. A book is in preparation.