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CERGE-EI Announces Eleventh Annual GDN Regional Research Competition
CERGE-EI, with financial support provided by the Global Development Network (GDN) announces a
research competition in all fields of the social sciences. Proposals are invited from economists,
demographers, political scientists, sociologists, and other social scientists. Projects with a significant
commercial aspect or that propose funding the distribution of previous results (such as book preparation)
rather than original research are explicitly excluded.
The sponsors have identified several priority areas of research. While funding for research in other areas will
be provided, projects in these areas will receive priority:
I. Enterprise Development and Behavior including Corporate Governance and Restructuring
II. Labor Markets including Retirement, Social Assistance and Health Economics
III. Globalization including Regional and International Economic Policy Coordination
IV. The Reform Process including Public Finance, Fiscal Burden, and Taxation
V. Education including Educational Policy, Reform, Funding and Outcomes
VI. Urban Policy / Development, Rural Policy / Development
Funding Details
Maximum funding will be US $20,000 although it is expected that the vast majority of grants awarded will be
for substantially smaller amounts. Grants in excess of US $15,000 will be granted only in exceptional cases.
The median grant awarded to start in January 2010 was approximately US $8,600. Grants must begin no
later than 31 December 2010 and end no later than 31 December 2011, although a six-month no-cost
extension request may be made during the year.
Applicants must be residents of any of the following countries: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo (UNMIK), Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro,
Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. Applicants must be resident for the substantial majority of
each year in the country from which they are applying although they may be of any nationality or citizenship.
Graduate students now outside of the region are encouraged to collaborate with current residents but will not
be considered residents unless they provide credible evidence of an intention to return to Central Europe
after completion of their degrees (an example of such evidence would be a binding labor contract with an
employer granting leave for study).
Applications may be submitted by individuals or teams of researchers. In the latter case, at least 50% of the
researchers must be residents of eligible countries. No grant funds may be used to pay compensation to nonresidents.
Grant funds may, however, be used to pay travel and other direct costs required to enable
participation by non-residents if such participation serves a clear scientific purpose. No applicant can submit
or be a part of more than one proposal. Formal application must be made by an institution with which the
applicant is affiliated and that will administer funds if awarded. No funds may be paid directly to individuals.
Examples of eligible institutions include universities, research institutes or non-profit organizations.
Administrating institutions may charge no more than 10% of the total grant as overhead.
In the interest of diversity, no grants will be made to persons who have served as a principal researcher in a
GDN Regional Research Competition-funded grant in the past three years.
Funds will be released one-third upon award of the grant, one-third upon receipt of a progress report at the
mid-point of the grant and one-third upon receipt of final deliverables from the grant. Where this schedule
would result in a serious hindrance to the proposed research, the applicant may petition for funds to be
released on a different schedule after award of the grant. Final deliverables must include at least one formal
research paper that has been submitted to an international peer-reviewed journal. Proof of submission will be
required.
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All successful applicants must agree to come to Prague to present a seminar on the completed work (at
CERGE-EI’s expense) if requested. In addition we anticipate smaller workshops involving recipients in the
various thematic areas held either at CERGE-EI or other regional institutes in order to facilitate development
of links across researchers.
Proposal Submission
Four (4) complete printed copies of all proposals including all of the components detailed below must be
postmarked by 01 July 2010 and sent by courier or regular post to:
CERGE-EI
GDN RRC11 Proposals
Politických vězňů 7
11000 Prague 1
Czech Republic
A brief confirmation letter signed by a responsible officer of the sponsoring institution (head of finance, Dean,
President, Director etc) agreeing to administer the grant if awarded must be included with the hard copies.
One copy of this letter is sufficient.
In addition, a complete set of all materials specified below must be sent as a single .pdf file to
research.competition@cerge-ei.cz
Proposals must be in English and submitted both in hard copy and by email. E-mail submissions without hard
copies or hard copy submission without e-mail submission as specified will not be considered.
There are no formal application forms. Proposals must include the following six components:
1. A cover sheet clearly specifying the project title, thematic area addressed from list of priorities if any,
names of principal researchers, mailing address and e-mail contact addresses (very important as e-mail will
be used for follow-up requests and questions).
2. An abstract of no more than 200 words outlining the significance of the research and the methodology to
be used.
3. A research proposal of no more than ten (10) doubled-spaced pages showing sufficient familiarity with the
topic and methodology to provide confidence in the project’s successful completion.
4. A bibliography of relevant literature.
5. CVs of all principal researchers.
6. A budget in USD showing expenses in all categories. While the categories will vary from grant to grant,
they should, where applicable, include as a minimum:
Salaries and other compensation for the grantee(s) (including payroll taxes and fringe benefits);
Salaries and other compensation for research assistants and clerical personnel (including
payroll taxes and fringe benefits); English Editing Fees; Grant-related travel (for research
purposes - no conference travel will be granted); Equipment and/or data/software Purchases;
Materials, supplies, telecommunications charges; Institutional Overhead.
Proposal Review Process & Evaluation Criteria
Applications will be screened to ensure that they fall within the terms of reference for proposals. All qualified
proposals will receive two to three external reviews. Anonymous reviewers' comments will be shared with
applicants after the final selection of grants to be funded. Final selections will be made by an independent
panel of senior scholars considering the external reviews along with the evaluation criteria enumerated
below.
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The primary criterion will be the scientific merit of the proposed research. Scientific merit will be evaluated
based on:
* Clarity of the proposed research question.
* Originality (preference will be given to projects that develop new methodologies or use the transition
experience to obtain new insights into fundamental questions rather than those that call for mechanistic
application of conventional techniques to new data).
* Use of the most modern and appropriate techniques.
* Competence of the principal investigator(s).
Other things equal, preference will be given to projects that:
* Are relevant to current policy concerns and interests of the World Bank, broadly defined. For an overview of
the types of research of interest to the bank, please see http://econ.worldbank.org.
* Are cost effective. Smaller proposals will receive priority over larger ones in order to increase the number of
projects that can be funded.
* Request funds for direct research expenses rather than income augmentation (i.e. could not be undertaken
without the proposed grant). It is recognized, however, that low academic incomes often mean that scholars
in the transition economies must supplement their base salaries from other sources including research grants
and that grant support may facilitate research output by enabling scholars to substitute scholarly for nonacademic
activity (such as corporate consulting).
* Promote cooperation between residents of eligible countries and scholars from those countries who
currently reside elsewhere (including advanced graduate students).
* Increase the geographic, disciplinary, ethnic, gender, or other diversity of funded proposals.
* Expand the pool of research-active scholars in the region. Preference will be given to proposals from
researchers who have not been awarded grants in previous competitions. Proposals by past grant recipients
should include significant changes in team composition and/or research topic.
Each team will receive an e-mail confirming receipt of their proposal by 15 August 2010, and final award
decisions will be announced in December 2010. Questions and inquiries may be addressed to:
research.competition@cerge-ei.cz