Governance Initiative Request for Proposals

Overview

J-PAL’s Governance Initiative (GI) funds randomized evaluations of strategies to improve governance in low- and middle-income countries. By providing targeted funding for rigorous evaluations of the most promising programs to improve governance, GI aims to offer guidance for implementing organizations, governments, and donors, so that policies can be guided by scientific evidence to improve development outcomes.

From April 18th to May 29, 2024, GI is accepting proposals for its Spring 2024 RFP. This round, GI is only accepting proposals from PhD-level graduate students of J-PAL affiliates or invited researchers (from any J-PAL initiative or regional office) and all proposals must relate to political participation. 

Accepted proposal types in Spring 2024: PhD students, with a letter of support from an adviser who is a J-PAL affiliate or invited researcher, are eligible to apply for: 

• up to $10,000 for travel/proposal development grants,

• up to $50,000 for a pilot study, or

• up to $50,000 for a full-scale study

Proposal Timeline

GI usually has two funding cycles per year for full research projects, pilot studies, travel/proposal development grants, and multidisciplinary research projects that address open questions outlined in the Governance Initiative Review Paper. 

Our Spring 2024 timeline is as follows: 

• Thursday, April 18: RFP launch date
• Wednesday, May 29: Proposals are due via email to [email protected] by 11:59 p.m. ET.
• Late June: Results announced

Stay tuned for our Fall 2024 RFP announcement later this year, where J-PAL affiliates, J-PAL post-docs, and invited researchers will be eligible to apply for funding for full-scale evaluations (for a maximum of $400,000; typically up to $250,000), pilot studies (up to $75,000), travel/proposal development grants (up to $10,000), and two new multidisciplinary research grants (up to $30,000). Eligible PhD students will also be able to apply for lower funding levels (capped at $50,000). We expect our Fall 2024 RFP to cover all of GI's core themes outlined in the Review Paper, and not only political participation.

Application Instructions – Spring 2024 Call for Proposals

Proposals for full, pilot, and travel/proposal development grants are due via email to [email protected] by 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. For this round, all proposals must relate to the topic of political participation and be led by an eligible graduate student to be considered.

For further instructions on how to apply and eligibility criteria, please refer to the RFP Overview document and required application templates under “Application Documents” below.

We encourage you to reach out with questions to [email protected]. We look forward to receiving your proposals to the Spring 2024 RFP

Off-cycle proposals

GI is not accepting off-cycle proposals at this time. 

Policy Outreach Support

GI is not accepting proposals for policy outreach grants during this round.

Reporting Templates for Awardees

To access reporting templates for your GI-funded grant, please click here.