JOI Brazil Request For Proposals

Overview

J-PAL’s Jobs and Opportunity Initiative (JOI) Brazil will provide competitive funding to generate policy-relevant rigorous randomized impact evaluation research that addresses pressing labor market challenges in the country.

Eligibility

Candidates belonging to the following groups are eligible to apply for funding:

J-PAL affiliates
J-PAL invited researchers
J-PAL post-doctoral fellows
PhD students who have the support of a J-PAL affiliated researcher or invited researcher that are part of their thesis committee*

*PhD students have application restrictions that are not applicable to the other three target groups. See the JOI Brazil RFP Overview at the bottom of this page for more details on the set of restrictions.

Ineligible applicants will be notified during LOI reviews and will not be invited to submit proposals.

Priority Themes

The Jobs and Opportunity Initiative Brazil will focus on evaluating the impact of programs related to:

Supply and matching
Job creation
The future of jobs
Social issues and labor market

In addition, we focus on topics of cross-cutting interest, namely: gender, race, youth, green jobs, regional inequalities, soft skills, and job quality. JOI Brazil is interested in stimulating impact evaluations outside the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo areas and focusing on vulnerable populations. See the JOI Brazil RFP Overview at the bottom of this page for more details on the set of priority research questions.

Research Agenda

The purpose of the JOI Brazil research agenda is to summarize the existing evidence on labor market issues based on rigorous research and to identify gaps in the literature that could be addressed in future evaluations. Read on»

Types of Proposals

Candidates may apply for funding in three distinct categories:

Full research projects: These grants are for research projects at a mature level of development. The research question must be clear and the applicants must demonstrate a commitment from implementing partners, a method of randomization, well-defined instruments, and sample size estimates.

Pilot studies: These grants are for studies with a clear research question, but for which the design and implementation requires further testing and pilot data.

Development grants: These grants cover work related to preliminary research ideas, such as conducting background research, developing partnerships, visiting field sites, and collecting preliminary data.

Funding

JOI Brazil opens two calls for proposals per year. However, projects can also be submitted throughout the year as off-cycle proposals. The funding limit for off-cycle proposals is BRL 200,000, and proposals must clearly justify the off-cycle urgency and need for funding.

GRANT	MAXIMUM FUNDING (IN BRL)
Full research projects	500,000
Pilot studies	200,000
Development grant	50,000
Full research or pilot (PhD students)	135,000
Off-cycle proposal	200,000

Timeline

The RFP rounds are expected to occur twice a year. JOI Brazil’s RFP 3 (First Semester 2023) is now closed for proposal submission. Its timeline was as follows:

RFP 3 launch: February 09, 2023
Letter of interest (LOI) submission deadline: March 16, 2023
Proposal submission deadline: April 27, 2023
Awards announced: Week of July 24, 2023

Application Instructions

Before beginning your application:

Many J-PAL initiatives, including JOI Brazil, use an online portal for all application submissions, proposal reviews, invoice submission, and grantee reporting.
Our portal operates best when using the latest version of Google Chrome.
We recommend using the latest version of Google Chrome when accessing our online portal.
If you do not have a J-PAL portal account and need one created, please complete this form and specify that you want an applicant account. Account creation normally takes no more than two business days; you will be asked to verify your email address and set a password.
If you already have an account but do not remember the password, please contact [email protected] for help.
For further information and troubleshooting, please get in touch with [email protected].

Once you have your J-PAL portal account setted-up:

The first step is to fill out the letter of interest (LOI) on our online portal. The LOI is an expression of interest categorized by filling in some initial fields within the online portal. This step serves for the JOI Brazil team to analyze thematic pertinence and eligibility and is eliminatory. The JOI Brazil team will notify you once we have reviewed your LOI and if you are clear to begin filling out your proposal.
In the interim, to facilitate your proposal development, please find below reference documents that outline in detail all required information that applicants will be asked when submitting a proposal to JOI Brazil via our online portal system. You are welcome to begin drafting your proposal materials using these templates. Please, however, do not send these documents to JOI Brazil's email, but rather, please submit them via our online portal.
We emphasize that the materials must be in English.
Please be sure to submit your budget in BRL. The JOI Brazil initiative is funded by donations in Brazilian Real (BRL) and the initiative will make all awards in BRL.
We also make available JOI Brazil’s email address ([email protected]) to clarify any doubts, in English or Portuguese, that you may have.

General tips for proposal development
For general advice on developing a successful proposal, please visit our Research Resource page on grant proposals.