Summary: In Israel, the UEA, Turkey, and many other countries in the MENA region, the study of the interface of science and religion from a social science perspective is not yet developed into an established field of inquiry. The proposed network seeks to help encourage research that studies the social and cultural dimensions of the interaction of these two extremely powerful forces of science and religion in society. By bringing together leading scholars, both from the region and well as from the global research community, with emergent local scholars and advanced local graduate students, the network aims to promote further academic engagement and scholarship in such wide-ranging disciplines as history, sociology, education, religious studies, cultural studies, STS, law, philosophy, theology, and anthropology. The recent normalization of diplomatic relations between a number of countries in the MENA region presents a momentous opportunity for allowing broader geographical and cultural inclusion within a regional research network and exciting new openings for cross cultural comparisons and collaboration on research.

In order to enable dialogue between the three target groups of: established scholars, early careerists and graduate students, along with some outreach to the broader public as well, the proposed structure of the network is based around six kinds of activities:

1. The formation of a steering committee for the network by regional researchers committed to planning the events of the network. We have preliminarily reached out to researchers in Qatar, Turkey, Israel, UAE, and Morocco who are interested in participating.
2. An opening workshop will launch the network by providing high level presentations and interaction for local scholars. Some of the presentations will be offered by members of an advisory board for the network. We have preliminarily reached out to regional scholars, such as Prof. Noah Efron, and well as international scholars, such as Prof. Michael Reiss, who have expressed their interest in participating in the advisory board.
3. Six-eight grants for early career/advanced graduate students to conduct research, write and present papers to the network will be provided through three calls for papers with two researchers selected in each call by the steering committee.
4. A seminar series will be offered on key topics in the field by members of the steering committee, advisory board members, and others. These programs will be conducted live for maximal interaction of network members, but will also be taped for use on the website and other platforms.
5. Monthly video interviews with network members. This is an activity that can reach the broader population to raise interest in the scholarship being produced by members of the network.
6. A conference highlighting current research will be organized for June 2023. This online gathering will consolidate research projects and collaborations that were triggered by the network and representative contributions will be edited into a special issue of a journal or a book.

All of these activities will be supported by the infrastructure of a dedicated website and social media presence that will facilitate contact between members and access to information and activities.