Research Funding

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In this image:Participants in an IPA study on teacher transfers digitize marks from copies of students' tests in Kampala, Uganda. © 2018 Aude Guerrucci
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IPA's research funds provide competitive funding for rigorous research on understudied topics of global policy interest.

Our funds are managed by in-house experts and supported by guidance from leading academic researchers. IPA has managed large-scale competitive funds for rigorous research (randomized controlled trials or RCTs, and other rigorous evaluation methods) on numerous topics, including financial inclusion, human trafficking, intimate partner violence, peace and recovery, and small and medium enterprises, along with funds for developing and improving research methods.

IPA has developed robust systems for soliciting, selecting, and managing awards, ranging from travel awards and seed funding for partnership development, to pilot studies, to full RCTs. We have also funded add-ons to existing studies, meta-analyses, policy outreach support, and infrastructure and public goods creation such as panel datasets. IPA research awards are made with the expectation that the funding will eventually lead to a high-quality impact evaluation, publishable in an academic journal.

IPA staff work with academic advisors to form selection committees composed of experts in the topic and research methodology, along with members with deep policy knowledge. Proposals are generally scored based on academic contribution, policy relevance, technical design, project viability, and value of research.

Awards can be made to projects in IPA country offices (with research managed by IPA) or outside of IPA country offices. Applicants may be from any institution so long as they have sufficient expertise to carry out the work. We encourage applications from researchers from multiple disciplines and historically underrepresented groups, and we strongly prefer research teams include researchers from the countries where the project will take place.

 

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Closed Funding Opportunities

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Consumer Protection

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IPA's Consumer Protection Research Initiative is a four-year research initiative, which partners with policymakers, financial institutions, and civil society to develop new consumer protection solutions in digital financial services. The Initiative focuses on key consumer protection themes relevant to digital financial services.

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A Tibetan woman works as a weaver in the carpet workshop of the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre in Darjeeling, India. © 2017 Shutterstock / Mazur Travel

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Displaced Livelihoods Initiative

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Displacement is at an all-time high and is projected to climb in the coming decades. There is limited rigorous evidence, however, about how to best respond to displacement and strengthen outcomes for displaced and host communities. What is more, even when effective programs and policies are identified and evaluated, decision-makers often struggle to determine how to use that evidence for impact at scale. IPA and J-PAL are actively working to fill these evidence-to-policy-and-practice gaps. Through the Displaced Livelihoods Initiative (DLI), supported by the IKEA Foundation, IPA and J-PAL supports rigorous impact evaluations, pilots, exploratory studies, infrastructure and public goods projects, and scaling work to inform policies and programs on sustainable livelihoods for displaced populations and host communities. DLI’s inaugural Call for Proposals is now closed as of Friday, January 19, 2024. We expect to announce our second round in Spring 2024. If you have any questions, please contact displacement@poverty-action.org.

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Human Trafficking

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Despite the gravity and prevalence of human trafficking, there is a notable lack of evidence on what programs work to reduce trafficking and support victims. To support research on this critical and understudied topic, IPA has established the Human Trafficking Research Initiative in partnership with the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS) at the U.S. Department of State, with the guidance and support of co-scientific advisors Guy Grossman (University of Pennsylvania) and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo (University of California, Berkeley). HTRI's recent call for proposals for seed grants for partnership building, pilots, and data analysis is closed as of Friday, March 31, 2023. Thank you to all who submitted proposals. If you have any questions, please reach out to ipa_htri@poverty-action.org.

 

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A vector illustration of a group of women. © SvetlanaDesign06685 / Shutterstock.com

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Intimate Partner Violence

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Globally, violence against women is a leading cause of premature death and morbidity. Almost one-third of women report experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lives, and nearly 40 percent of all homicides of women are committed by an intimate partner. IPA has been a leader in the recent expansion of high-quality IPV research to identify how we can substantially reduce IPV.

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Peace & Recovery

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IPA's Peace & Recovery Program (P&R) sector supports field experiments and related research in several broad areas: reducing violence and promoting peace; reducing "fragility" (i.e. fostering state capability and institutions of decision-making); and preventing, coping with, and recovering from crises (focusing on conflict, but also including non-conflict humanitarian crises such as COVID-19). Through its competitive fund, P&R supports full randomized evaluations, pilot studies, exploratory and descriptive work, travel grants, and (in rare but deserving cases) quasi-experimental evaluations. For reference, see past funded projects.

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Research Methods

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The Research Methods Initiative is a collaboration between IPA and the Global Poverty Research Lab at Northwestern University.The initiative supports systematic studies into how to improve the methods and measurement of key outcomes in global poverty research. The initiative was created to examine sources of measurement error in research studies including in questionnaire design, sampling, fieldwork implementation, and validation of key indicators. It is organized around three themes: (1) research design, (2) questionnaire design, and (3) fieldwork implementation and data quality.

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