Inclusive Development Research Innovation Fund

Description

The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and the Network of Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA) invite applications for 2-3 small projects (up to USD $15,000 each) designed to enhance the leadership of African scholars in development economics research. Projects must align with the findings and recommendations of our Collaboration for Inclusive Development Research (CIDR), which are summarized below. Through surveys and interviews, CIDR uncovered several persistent barriers to inclusion that African scholars face at four key stages in the research pipeline: 1) higher education, 2) training and mentorship, 3) research production, and 4) policy impact (see page 2 for a summary). We hope our recommendations will inspire meaningful program innovations across each of these categories.

Deadline: August 17 at 11:59 pm EAT / 1:59 pm PT

ELIGIBILITY AND REVIEW CRITERIA

We invite proposals from institutions based in LMICs and HICs, including universities, research institutions, organizations providing training and mentorship, journals, and others supporting African scholars to lead and participate in social science research. We encourage collaborative proposals, but we can only disburse funds to one organization.

Note that we will only accept proposals for program activities, not research activities (although we highly encourage African scholars who may be leading relevant initiatives or who have institutional influence to apply).

Applications will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

Relevance to the CIDR recommendations (below)
Potential for impact
Innovativeness

BUDGET

Please estimate project costs using this template (do not edit the master template—make a copy of the template for your own budget). You may request between $5,000 to $15,000 USD. We have a total of $30,000 to allocate to 2-3 projects. Due to the limited funds, it is difficult for us to provide indirect costs, but please let us know if this is a problem for you.

Please reference this FAQ document before emailing Amy Shipow at amyshipow@berkeley.edu with any inquiries.

Submit Application Here

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Collaboration for Inclusive Development Research (CIDR)

African scholars face a range of resource and institutional constraints that limit their full participation and success in social science research. In the CIDR study, funding emerged as a critical barrier—Master’s students often cite financial limitations as the most important factor in deciding whether to pursue a PhD, and the costs associated with applications, article submissions, and access to journals are prohibitive at all stages of an academic career.

At the institutional level, faculty members are burdened with heavy teaching loads and administrative responsibilities, often needing to supplement their income through external work, which leaves them with little time for research, mentoring, or student support. Incentive structures within universities tend to reward the quantity of publications over their quality, and norms around collaboration and interdisciplinarity remain rare. Additionally, research methods courses are not consistently rated as high-quality, and many training and mentorship programs lack the funding needed to achieve sustained impact.

Despite these structural constraints, African scholars are highly motivated to publish, with over 80% of African researchers surveyed reporting that publishing in a journal is essential for career progression and recognition. However, at African institutions, the quantity of papers published is valued over quality for promotions and salary raises. African scholars cited training on research skills and easier access to funding as the most essential interventions to increase the quality and quantity of their publications. Access to research inputs—such as software, data, and academic literature—was also rated as essential for scholars to apply their skills effectively.

The full CIDR report, along with a complete list of recommendations, will be released towards the end of 2025. For this grant opportunity, CIDR has tailored our recommendations to those that could be feasibly implemented with a modest $5-15k grant, while still making progress towards a more inclusive global development ecosystem. Below are suggested approaches, but we encourage you to propose creative ideas within the spirit of these recommendations.

Publication Support:

Provide fee waivers to African scholars to submit to peer-reviewed journals
Facilitate open access for African scholars to ease the consumption of literature
Deliver a mini-course for early-career African scholars to help them navigate manuscript development and peer review
Develop author support services (e.g. pre-submission review, mentoring for revisions, feedback for desk-rejected papers)
For US Journals—collaborate with an African journal for mutual sharing and learning
For African scholars—develop a new Africa-based journal

Training and Mentorship:

Create a pilot “institutional mentorship” program to strengthen research administration systems and impact evaluation coursework at an African University
Pilot a new outreach approach for training and mentorship programs that support African scholars and universities, and document results to share
Provide conference and networking grants for African scholars
Provide trainings in leadership skills, negotiation, policy engagement, and communication for African scholars
Provide access to essential research inputs: software, academic databases, data collection tools, and computing infrastructure
Strengthen M&E frameworks used to evaluate the effectiveness of capacity-strengthening programs
Pilot new ways to make training and mentorship programs more inclusive of women

Higher Education:

Support research and co-authorship collaborations between faculty and students or junior colleagues
Pilot incentives for senior faculty to mentor students and junior colleagues
Develop or strengthen a high-quality course on impact evaluation at an African university
US universities—conduct outreach to African Masters students on opportunities for study (and consider waiving application costs)
Conduct a research environment and capacity scan at a university, that can be used to inform institutional change
Facilitate African scholars’ access to research inputs and publication infrastructure

Policy engagement:

Support institutional relationship building between African scholars and policymakers
Enable African universities to build internal policy units or knowledge translation offices to liaise with governments
Provide institutional support for Africa-based think tanks and civil society organizations that can act as intermediaries between research and policy and advocate for evidence-based policy decisions
Work to strengthen public data infrastructure and streamline data-sharing policies across ministries to enhance transparency and efficiency, and the productivity of African scholars’ research

Please reference this FAQ document before emailing Amy Shipow at amyshipow@berkeley.edu with any inquiries.