Consumer Protection Research Initiative

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: fraud in digital channels, consumer redress and complaints handling, product information and consumer choice, and overindebtedness.
 

Our call for proposals is now closed. Thank you to all who submitted applications. Future funding rounds will be announced via our consumer protection mailing list, so please sign up here to receive those updates.

 

Human Trafficking Research Initiative

IPA’s Human Trafficking Research Initiative (HTRI) is a five-year research initiative in partnership with the Program to End Modern Slavery (PEMS) at the U.S. Department of State, and with scientific advisors Guy Grossman (University of Pennsylvania) and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo (University of California, Berkeley). The initiative will foster partnerships between researchers and practitioners; innovate on and improve the research methods for studying this challenging topic; initiate formative pilot testing of programs; and conduct large-scale studies on the efforts to prevent trafficking, prosecute crimes, and protect trafficked persons.


As of September 10, 2021, the HTRI invites researchers, policymakers, and implementing organizations to submit Expressions of Interest (EOI) to measure the impact of counter-trafficking programs. HTRI welcomes proposals to assess counter-trafficking interventions across the “4 Ps” of trafficking (prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnership). Applicants can request full funding for randomized control trials (RCTs), partial funding for RCTs, or funding for new arms of existing RCTs. All EOIs must be submitted through IPA’s online portal by 11:59 pm US Eastern time on October 15, 2021.

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Peace & Recovery Program

 
The Peace & Recovery (P&R) Program is supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and the Open Society Foundations (OSF). Under the academic leadership of Dr. Chris Blattman and Dr. Betsy Levy Paluck, the P&R program supports field experiments and related research on reducing violence and fragility, promoting peace, and preventing, managing, and recovering from crises. Our competitive fund is open to proposals for full randomized trials, pilot studies, exploratory and descriptive work, travel grants, and (in rare but deserving cases) quasi-experimental evaluations.
 
P&R’s seventh call for proposals is now open. Proposals are due November 8, 2021, at 11:59 Pacific. More information and application instructions can be found on our P&R webpage.
 
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Research Methods Initiative

In December 2020, IPA's Research Methods Initiative announced two parallel funding strands, one focused on validating measures of soft skills and one focused on innovative and advanced research methods. Those RFPs are now closed. To read about the projects funded to date see here, and check back in this space for future updates.


Women’s Work, Entrepreneurship, and Skilling (WWES) Initiative

In response to the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls, IPA launched the Women’s Work, Entrepreneurship, and Skilling (WWES) Initiative as part of RECOVR (Research for Effective COVID-19 Responses). The WWES Initiative combines data collection efforts, research projects, and policy work, focusing on two key themes: (1) women's work, entrepreneurship and time use and (2) youth skilling and school-to-work transitions.
 

The WWES's open call for proposals is now closed. Thank you to all who submitted applications.