Deadline: 10 June 2019
Under the PAGE-II Round 3 Call for Proposals, PEP is seeking proposals for projects that aim to support policy processes through the gender-sensitive analysis of actual policy solutions and address key knowledge gaps and policy needs in terms of the evidence base.
Theme
Proposals are invited on the following two broad themes:
- Entrepreneurship and financial inclusion;
- Productive employment in rural farm and non-farm sectors.
Aims
PEP support program (including training, guidance, mentorship, peer-review, etc.) aim to strengthen/develop teams’ capacity in:
- Designing and conducting of policy-oriented, gender-sensitive research;
- Designing and applying advanced methods and tools for scientific economic research and gender analysis;
- Understanding the research-policy interface, or nexus – i.e. how one must inform the other – and positioning a single piece of research-based evidence into the broader/relevant policy context and strategies;
- Designing and implementing an effective communication and influence strategy to maximize chances of evidence-informed policy making;
- Contributing to and advocating for a greater use of scientific evidence to inform policy making.
Funding Information
Funding is up to US $60.5 K, including US $24 K in a research grant and up to US $36.5 K in various subsidies.
Team composition
One of the key features of this call is that selected project teams must be composed of both researchers and government officials/officers:
- Four researchers: including one senior/experienced researcher acting as team leader and at least two researchers aged under 30 – with a sufficient academic and/or professional background in economic policy analysis. In particular, having a master’s degree/diploma or being currently enrolled in a master’s program is considered a minimum requirement (generally, team leaders should have a doctoral degree/diploma or be currently enrolled in a doctoral program).
- Two government officials/officers: from (and with their involvement sanctioned by) the institution in charge of the policy/program that the research aims to inform. These government-affiliated members must have a good understanding of the relevant policy processes and priorities, but are not required to have research experience.
Applicant teams must also:
- Be gender mixed, with female members representing at least 50% of all members (including the team leader).
- PEP also encourages teams with a female leader.
- Be composed exclusively of African nationals (who are residing in Africa for the duration of the project).
- Priority is given to low-income economies, fragile and/or conflict-affected situations (LFCs) but proposals are welcomed from all African countries (including North Africa).
Note:
- A researcher can be funded as a team member a maximum of three times by PEP (no more than twice as team leader) and should show marked progression over time.
- A researcher who is already involved in a funded project is not eligible to submit a new proposal before the approval of the final report of the currently funded project.
Other requirements
- All projects are contracted with individual researchers (team leaders), not with institutions. However, the government-affiliated team members must present evidence (i.e., an official letter) that their institution has approved 1) their involvement in the project, 2) the research questions and objectives, as well as 3) the general contents of the policy context analysis (including broader stakeholder mapping).
- Each team should identify one team member who has the expertise and capacities to replace the team leader if the latter is not able to complete the project for any reason.
Selection Process
Proposals are evaluated, and selected, based on the following criteria:
- Scientific quality – literature review, originality, methodology, data
- Policy relevance – in addition to the acknowledgement letter from their government-affiliated members’ institution, teams must provide a convincing argument that the evidence sought through the proposed research project will be useful/serve to inform strategic policy decisions
- Capacity building – in particular the contributions and expected skills to be attained by each team member, especially female and junior researchers, as well as the capacity of the team to execute the project.
A shortlist of applicant teams, each represented by two members (one researcher and one government-affiliated member), will be invited to present their (revised) proposal at a PEP conference in September 2019. Participants will receive training and feedback on both the scientific and policy aspects of their projects. Final selections will be announced after the conference.
The selected teams will be invited to participate in an online training course, from September to November 2019, relevant to the research methods/tools to be applied in their project. All members of the selected research teams are strongly encouraged to complete this course (completion is a prerequisite for participation in PEP conferences and study visits) and teams are expected to be gender-balanced (at least 50% female) in terms of course graduates.
How to Apply
Interested applicants can apply via given website.
For more information, please visit https://www.pep-net.org/pep-call-proposals-page-ii