Deadline: 28 August 2020
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) are seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) to conduct research on the experience of women entrepreneurs participating in venture accelerator programs, with a specific focus on women entrepreneurs in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
This research will directly incorporate and/or build on a dataset of over 20,000 ventures that applied to accelerator programs, developed by the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI).
Research Questions
With the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), ANDE is seeking EOI from researchers based in and/or affiliated with institutions in Latin America or Sub-Saharan Africa to conduct deep-dive research into the effect of acceleration on women entrepreneurs using and/or building on the GALI dataset and existing research on the topic. Specifically, ANDE and IDRC are interested in research examining the following questions:
- How does the acceleration experience differ for women and men participants, and what is the impact of these differences on investment outcomes?
- What is the effectiveness of specific accelerator activities targeted towards increasing investment for women entrepreneurs, especially activities focused on confidence building and negotiation?
- How does the overall cultural context in different countries and regions impact the accelerator experience and venture outcomes for women entrepreneurs?
- Are there specific investment structures or investment decision-making processes that lead to lower gender disparities?
- What interventions are effective at boosting the growth orientation of women entrepreneurs to reduce gender disparity in the overall applicant pool?
- How does representation of women in specific decision-making roles in the accelerator and investment ecosystem affect outcomes for women entrepreneurs?
- What is the effect of investor bias on women entrepreneurs’ ability to raise capital?
While these are suggested research questions emerging from consultations and literature review, ANDE and IDRC are also open to other questions that address issues related to the acceleration of women-led ventures in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Outputs and ANDE Engagement
ANDE and IDRC expect that each research grant will result in a white paper that will be released publicly. While researchers may also submit these or associated papers to academic journals, the core deliverable must be a publicly available white paper to help inform policy and practice.
While the researcher is ultimately responsible for designing, managing, and completing the research, grant recipients should also expect to work closely with the ANDE team in working with the GALI data. This will include significant engagement with ANDE on the research design as well further engagement on analysis and feedback on writing. The extent of engagement will depend on the nature of the project and will be considered and discussed with grant recipients during the award negotiation and work planning processes.
Funding Information
The budget for each research grant should be between USD $20,000 and $30,000. This can cover direct expenses associated with the research, including salaries, travel, data collection, and other relevant costs. This grant funding cannot cover overhead expenses, and as such any such expenses should be included as direct cost line items (e.g. specific staff costs for administrative management of the grant). ANDE invites proposals that combine this grant funding with other sources of research support, though the status of these other support sources should be clearly noted in the proposal.
Eligibility Criteria
- The grant funding is available for researchers affiliated with academic or other scholarly institutions (e.g. Think Tanks) in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. This may include a partnership with academics elsewhere, but must be led or co-led by researchers in these geographies.
- The research should also focus on entrepreneurs in these geographies. Proposals from graduate students are eligible for grants.
For more information, visit https://www.andeglobal.org/page/ande-idrc-eoi