Request for Proposals: Fall 2020 Psychology and Economics of Poverty (PEP) Funding Competition

Description:

The Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) is pleased to announce the Fall 2020 Psychology and Economics of Poverty (PEP) Funding Competition. Grant funding is supported by CEGA’s Psychology and Economics of Poverty (PEP) Initiative, bringing together psychologists and economists to better understand how poverty affects cognition, beliefs and decision-making with implications for a range of socioeconomic outcomes (including mental health, early childhood development, and economic welfare). We will award smaller grants ($1k – $10k) to PhD students and postdoctoral scholars and slightly larger grants ($15k – $25k) to faculty members based at CEGA-affiliated institutions.* We invite proposals that address one or more of the following areas of inquiry:

• How poverty impacts cognitive load, decision-making, social cognition, health (including mental health), aspirations, and/or economic outcomes
• The psychological consequences of resource instability or volatility
• Belief formation, the relevance of belief-based utility, affective adaptations to poverty, and the role of the “psychological immune system”
• The influence of cultural context and social norms on outcomes related to the above topics

While not required, we welcome work that explores these topics in the context of COVID-19. Additionally, we will consider funding projects that are not currently feasible given COVID-19 restrictions on in-person fieldwork presuming they have a realistic and well thought-out contingency plan. We may also offer a smaller amount of funding, or delay funding contingent on research becoming feasible by a certain date.

Priority will be given to projects that focus on low- and middle-income countries, although proposals focused on the US and other high-income countries will be considered. We encourage interdisciplinary projects and welcome pairs/teams of students and faculty members from different disciplines to apply for funding together. Grants may be used for scoping and/or short-term fieldwork, with funds being used to cover travel and lodging, data collection, data analysis, and PhD student and/or staff time as needed. Grant funds may not be used to cover faculty support.

Application Process:

To apply, please use our online Submittable portal (https://cega.submittable.com/submit) to complete a brief series of questions about your project and upload a PDF of your proposal narrative and budget (using the linked templates). Please see the full Request for Proposals for details about the application process.

Deadline for Proposals: Friday, October 16, 2020 at 11:59 PM Pacific Time

Please contact Kristina Hallez (khallez@berkeley.edu) at CEGA with any questions.

Scientific Directors: Supreet Kaur (Economics, UC Berkeley) and Mahesh Srinivasan (Psychology, UC Berkeley)

*CEGA-affiliated institutions include: all University of California campuses, Stanford University, University of British Columbia, Reed College, University of Oregon, University of San Francisco, University of Southern California and the Naval Postgraduate School.