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CEGA Affiliate Handbook

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This is an internal page for CEGA faculty affiliates. It should answer many of your questions about what it means to be an affiliate, how one becomes an affiliate, and how to get the most out of your CEGA affiliation. If you have additional questions, please contact Lauren Russell, CEGA’s Director of Operations, at laurenrussell@berkeley.edu

Q: What does it mean to be a CEGA faculty affiliate?

CEGA faculty affiliates are academic researchers that CEGA has formally invited to become a part of our network. Affiliates are faculty members at universities along the West Coast of Anglophone North America (United States and Canada) who conduct rigorous impact evaluations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Faculty hail from a diverse set of academic disciplines—economics, political science, psychology, computer science, engineering and more. See here for a current list of CEGA affiliates.

Q: How does one become a faculty affiliate?

Three times per year, CEGA invites current faculty affiliates to nominate new affiliates. Nominations are reviewed by a Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) comprising Faculty Directors Ted Miguel and Josh Blumenstock, CEGA’s Executive Director, and faculty leads of major CEGA research initiatives (otherwise known as “Scientific Directors”). To be approved, nominees must meet all of the following criteria:

  1. Completed a Ph.D. at least one year prior to nomination.
  2. Current affiliation with an academic unit at a university in California, Oregon, Washington, or British Columbia.
  3. Strong commitment to empirical research on social and economic development, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. In particular, the nominee should: (a) conduct field work involving micro-level data in developing countries, or work with governments to access existing micro-data; and (b) have consistently demonstrated technical rigor in prior empirical research; and (c) have an original research article from a rigorous, policy-relevant impact evaluation published (or forthcoming) in a leading peer-reviewed journal.
  4. Demonstrated interest in joining the CEGA network (by attending events, communicating and collaborating with staff, etc.) and willingness to serve as good citizens of CEGA once accepted. This includes willingness and desire to actively participate in policymaker outreach, events including conferences, training courses or workshops, and peer-review for grant programs managed by CEGA.

Nominees are not contacted or made aware of their nominations until they are formally approved. New CEGA affiliates will receive a signed letter granting them a five-year renewable term, after which the FAC will review the affiliate’s research and engagement record and renew if the affiliation criteria are still met. New affiliates are invited to join an onboarding phone call with a CEGA program manager working in one of their areas of interest.

Q: What are the benefits of CEGA affiliation? faculty affiliate?

Being a CEGA affiliate confers a number of benefits to faculty including:

Funding

  • Eligibility for a number of “closed” CEGA’s research grant competitions. (Not all competitions are strictly limited to CEGA faculty, but many are.)
  • Opportunities for PhD students to compete for research funding administered by CEGA
  • Consultations with seasoned CEGA staff on grant proposals (for junior faculty only)

Leadership Development 

  • Opportunities to provide intellectual leadership for new research agendas and general Center direction (as desired)
  • Opportunity to serve as a Scientific Director or on the Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC)
  • Plan research events and other activities that advance your work and generate public goods for others

Dissemination and Partnerships

  • Links to potential collaborators through partnerships and targeted matchmaking with visiting scholars, research institutes, NGOs, governments, and development banks
  • Dissemination of your research to policy‐makers and funders through CEGA’s communication channels including: social media, website, working paper series, policy briefs, events, monthly newsletter, press engagement
  • Invitations to participate in and speak at CEGA workshops, conferences, and dissemination events
  • Curated listservs featuring new funding, event, partnership, and other opportunities.
  • Hiring help: Affiliates can post a job description to CEGA’s careers page and direct applicants to apply through a submittable form, if they wish. We also organize “pre-doc drives” twice per year and provide additional ad hoc support. To post a job, and for guidance on job descriptions, reach out to Lauren Russell (laurenrussell@berkeley.edu). 

Q: What does CEGA expect of our affiliates?

As an affiliate of CEGA, we request that you:

  • Participate periodically in core center activities, such as peer review (for grant‐making), partnership development, mentoring visiting scholars, and attending or presenting research at CEGA-hosted events & workshops.
  • Join our one-day faculty research retreat, R^2, held at UC Berkeley in November each year.
  • Maintain a high standard of research integrity (see our Research Transparency & Reproducibility policy).

Q: What does it mean to lead a CEGA initiative?

CEGA builds portfolios of research, which in turn, house coordinated research initiatives—such as the Agriculture Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI), the Digital Credit Observatory (DCO), and the East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST) Collaborative, among many others. Initiatives address specific, policy-relevant questions and are funded by government agencies, private foundations, and philanthropists.

Faculty leadership is critical to the success of CEGA’s research initiatives. Affiliates who provide intellectual vision, contacts, and expertise to the design and implementation of initiatives are called “Scientific Directors” (see Guidance to CEGA Scientific Directors for more information).

If you are interested in leading a CEGA research initiative, or have an idea for a new initiative, please reach out to us and we’d be happy to brainstorm with you.

Q: What makes CEGA unique?

CEGA exists within an ecosystem of research organizations—including J-PAL, IPA, 3ie, IDInsight, and many others—that have similar objectives. Our “peer centers” differ slightly in approach and funding structure but have mutually shared goals and frequently collaborate with us. So what makes CEGA different?

  • We take an interdisciplinary approach that is agnostic to specific method. This means that our network includes computer scientists as well as policy researchers, and we fund rigorous research in all forms—not just randomized experiments. 
  • We invest heavily in capacity building for researchers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and encourage affiliates to conduct research in partnership with researchers and partners from LMICs whenever possible, as part of our Global Networks programs and beyond.
  • We focus on the role of data and measurement in poverty reduction and prioritize the use of new types of data (e.g. call detail records, remote sensing imagery, etc.), technologies (e.g. sensor networks), and analytical approaches (e.g. AI/ML) to measure outcomes and address complex economic and social challenges.
  • We recognize that for research to be deemed credible, it must be conducted in a transparent and reproducible manner. Research projects funded or carried out by CEGA adhere to our transparency guidelines. Read the full policy.

Q: What is CEGA’s organizational structure?

CEGA is governed by two Faculty Directors (Edward Miguel and Joshua Blumenstock) and a staff leadership team comprising an Executive Director (Carson Christiano), Director of Operations (Lauren Russell), Director of Communications (Matt Kertman), and Director of Inclusion and Policy (Maya Ranganath). The Center receives strategic input from a 6-8 member Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) as well as a 15 member external Advisory Board. Each topical vertical is run by a Program Manager, often with the support of a Program Associate. We often hire Post and pre-doctoral Scholars, Graduate Student Researchers (GSRs), consultants, and interns to carry out special projects. A centralized Operations team provides support on matters related to financial management, HR, events, and communications across the Center. Please reference our Organizational Chart and our staff page for more information.