J-PAL Growing Futures Request for Proposals
Overview
Growing Futures supports rigorous research on how to break intergenerational cycles of poverty in Guatemala by improving the development and wellbeing of children and their families. Building on J-PAL LAC’s earlier work on Early Childhood Development, the initiative takes a multidimensional approach: it funds impact evaluations across four sectors: (1) education, (2) nutrition and health, (3) social protection, and (4) livelihoods. We are especially interested in studies that address meaningful gaps in the existing literature, including: evaluating existing programs whose impact, cost-effectiveness, or scalability are uncertain; adapting promising approaches to the local context; testing alternative mechanisms or service-delivery challenges; and piloting innovative solutions within each sector.
Eligibility
Candidates belonging to the following groups are eligible to apply for funding:
- J-PAL affiliated researchers
- J-PAL invited researchers
- J-PAL post-doctoral fellows
- PhD students who have the support of a J-PAL affiliated researcher or J-PAL invited researchers that are part of their thesis committee
All proposals may include collaborators outside of this network. Additional consideration will be given to proposals that involve locally-based researchers and partners, as well as those with interdisciplinary co-authors from other fields. Ineligible applicants will be notified during LOI reviews and will not be invited to submit proposals.
Any researcher can submit a maximum of three proposals, inclusive of all proposal types, within a 12-month period to Growing Futures, either as a main PI or co-PI in the proposal.
Priority Themes
J-PAL’s Growing Futures RFP will focus on evaluating the impact of programs related to Early Childhood Development and related thematics such as:
- Education
- Nutrition and health
- Social protection
- Livelihoods
Researchers are encouraged to examine open questions across these sectors. The Growing Futures initiative will support research conducted exclusively in Guatemala and is unable to fund studies based in other countries at this time. See the Growing Futures RFP Overview for more details on the set of priority research questions. Researchers from the J-PAL network can reach out to the team at [email protected] to request for potential connections in the country or to assess if their idea matches the research agenda.
Types of Proposals
Candidates may apply for funding in two distinct categories:
Full research projects: These grants are for research projects at a mature level of development. Not only must the research question be clear, but applicants must also demonstrate a commitment from implementing partners, a method of randomization, well-defined instruments, and sample size estimates from power calculations. Proposals can also be submitted for funding the continuation of research projects that have already started with other funding (including those for which field data collection has been completed). The expectation is that these projects will result in a publicly available paper that is eventually submitted to a top economics journal. De-identified data should be made publicly available within three years of the end of data collection (sooner if required by donors), or within 60 days of a paper’s acceptance in a journal.
Pilot studies: Pilot funding is available to studies with a clear research question, but for which the design and implementation require further testing and pilot data. ilot grants can also fund more foundational work that intends to inform a future full-scale randomization, including the refinement of measurement strategies, operationalizing logistics of implementing a research design, and collecting pilot data to inform the design of future research questions.
- These grants may be used for activities intended to facilitate access to administrative data for designing or conducting an RCT. Examples of these activities include but are not limited to, negotiating data use agreements, conducting exploratory data analysis and cleaning, or setting up technical access mechanisms. Pilots can also be used to test and strengthen tools, translate the tools to different contexts, etc. Pilots should not be mini-RCTs because of issues with statistical power.
- Grants may also be used to tackle a range of data collection challenges, including: deploying a novel measurement technology to test feasibility, assessing the validity and/or reliability of a new methodology to measure an outcome, identifying proxy indicators that allow for lower-cost data collection, developing strategies to minimize measurement error, etc.
Funding
The table below shows the maximum funding available for each proposal category.
GRANT | MAXIMUM FUNDING (QTZ) | MAXIMUM FUNDING (USD) |
Full research projects | 1,794,000 | 230,000 |
Pilot studies* | 585,000 | 75,000 |
*Note for Pilot studies: These grants may also be for descriptive work that aims to inform future randomized evaluation development.
** PhD students may be eligible to apply up to QTZ 390,000 / USD 50,000 in full research projects and QTZ 156,000 / USD 20,000 in pilot studies. To be eligible, PhD students must have a J-PAL affiliate or J-PAL invited researchers on their thesis committee. Consult our RFP Overview for more information.
Timeline
Growing Futures RFP is now open:
Growing Futures Second Semester RFP Launch | Thursday, July 30, 2026 |
Letter of Interest (LOI) Deadline
| Thursday, September 10, 2026 |
Full Proposal Deadline
| Thursday, October 15, 2026 |
Results Announced to the Applicants | Week of November 23, 2026 (tentative) |
Application Instructions
To respond to this RFP, please follow the directions listed below.
Please visit our website and download the template file that contains the Letter of Interest (LOI). Fill out the document and send it to [email protected] by Thursday, September 10, 2026, at 7:00 PM UTC-6.
The LOI is an expression of interest categorized by filling in some initial information. This step serves for the Growing Futures team to analyze thematic pertinence and eligibility and is eliminatory. The Growing Futures team will notify you once we have reviewed your LOI and if you are clear to begin filling out your proposal.
If you receive an invitation to apply, please submit your Growing Futures research funding proposal (pilot or full RCT), including all required documents, via email to [email protected] by Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 7:00 PM UTC-6. Please find below the list of required documents for submission:
- RFP Application
- Budget sheet
- Letters of support
- Project execution schedule and description of the activities
- Statement of adherence to policies and standards
Please be sure to submit your budget in QTZ (Guatemalan quetzal). We will make all the awards in QTZ.
For any inquiries, please contact the Growing Futures team at [email protected], assistance is available in both English and Spanish.
General tips for proposal development
For general advice on developing a successful proposal, please visit our Research Resource page on grant proposals.