Grant Opportunities: Sixth Call for Proposals for STEG Small Research Grants

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November 29, 2022

Deadline: 3-Jan-23

The Structural Transformation and Rconomic Growth (STEG) invite applications to the sixth call for proposals for Small Research Grants (SRGs).

Research may focus on broad systemic patterns and processes of structural transformation and growth for low- and middle-income countries, in a comparative sense across time or space, or more narrowly defined topics related to one or more of the following six research themes:
- Data, measurement, and conceptual framing;
- Firms, frictions and spillovers, and industrial policy;
- Labour, home production, and structural transformation at the level of households;
- Agricultural productivity and sectoral gaps;
- Trade and spatial frictions;
- Political economy and public investment.
Other areas of interest may not fit cleanly into any of the themes but are centrally relevant to STEG and are also encouraged.
STEG is also focused around three cross-cutting issues that are simultaneously relevant to many areas of structural transformation, including the six research themes:
- Gender;
- Climate change and the environment;
- Inequality and inclusion.
Research proposals speaking to these issues will receive particular consideration.

SRGs of between £10,000 and £25,000 can fund research assistance, data collection and/or purchase, and potentially research stipends/teaching buyouts.
Duration: They aim to issue funding decisions within three months of call deadlines. An SRG is intended to be completed within 12 months.
Grants also support travel to field sites, even when secondary data is utilised. We view this kind of travel (with the possibilities for field visits and conversations with policy makers) as particularly important for researchers who lack prior experience in the countries that they intend to study.

Please note that an important criterion for funding of proposals is the relevance to policy in low-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Proposals focused on middle- and/or high-income countries need to make a clear case for the relevance of the research to policy in specific low-income countries. Proposals are also evaluated on the extent to which the research findings (including those from comparative work or from studies in other geographies) might be relevant to policy in specific sub-Saharan countries.

They welcome applications to our SRG calls from researchers all over the world.
In view of the current political situation and the imposition of economic sanctions on various Russian entities by Western governments, we are not currently able to accept proposals for projects that include researchers or members of the research team who are based at Russian institutions.
Principal investigators applying to SRG calls should currently have a PhD or be enrolled in a PhD programme. In exceptional circumstances, we will consider applications submitted by principal investigators who do not fit these criteria, however, they must be able to demonstrate a history of high-quality academic and/or policy-relevant research. Although there are no formal qualification requirements for co-investigators, co-investigators on STEG-funded projects usually have a PhD or are enrolled in a PhD programme. The knowledge, expertise, and qualifications of the entire research team will be taken into account when evaluating the proposal.

For more information, visit STEG.