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.