Small Research Grant Proposal Template

Please be sure to include the following headings in your research proposal. Please do not
change the format of the template. Proposals that do not follow this format or fail to include all
sections may be rejected before evaluation. Where specific details are required, guidance has
been provided. However, your application should not be limited to these points. The total length
of sections 1 through 8 should not exceed five pages with a minimum font size of 11.

Project Title:

Principal Investigator & Co-Investigators:

Contact Details of the Principal Investigator (Address/Telephone Number/Email):

Co-Funder(s):

1. INTRODUCTION
Introduction of the research question and its importance. Successful applications will have a
clearly defined research question that is broadly important to the STEG Research Strategy and
will contribute to academic knowledge and the policy knowledge of low- and middle-income
countries.
What are the main ideas that led you to propose this work and how does it link to existing
literature? Successful applications will contain references to recent work on the question of
interest and clearly explain how the proposed research will link to previous work. The
contribution that the proposed project will make to the existing body of literature will be an
important criterion in the selection process. Please do not exceed 1 or 2 paragraphs for this sub-
section.
Is the project feasible, and how can you (and we) be sure of that? Where initial work has been
performed, please report the results of that work.

2. METHODOLOGY
Please describe the methodology you will use to address the research question in greater detail
here. Methodologies should be rigorous and appropriate for answering the question to be asked.
Please explain how the methods will also be well-suited for informing the larger question of
structural transformation and economic growth.
The proposal does not need to include a fully specified model or detailed mathematical structure
of the analysis, but it should communicate the key elements of the proposed methods. These
key elements depend on the methods proposed. For example, in a quantitative modelling
project, a submission might indicate key model mechanisms and discuss the ways in which the
model will be taken to data. Projects that will rely more on empirical analysis should describe the

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data, discuss measurement issues, causal identification, and other methodological issues.

3. POLICY RELEVANCE AND COUNTRY FOCUS

Please explain the potential policy implications of your project. How will it help inform and
improve policy in specific low- or middle-income countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan
Africa? If the country which is the primary focus of the project is not a sub-Saharan economy,
please outline how the project might nevertheless be relevant for the structural transformation of
low-income countries (LICs) in sub-Saharan Africa and for which country(ies) in particular.
Please also describe any activities that might be undertaken as part of the project that would
facilitate the take-up of the project’s research findings into policy in specific countries.

4. RELEVANCE TO STEG RESEARCH AGENDA, RESEARCH THEMES, AND

CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES
How does the project relate to structural transformation? Justify how the proposed research fits
one or more of the STEG research themes or explain how the research otherwise relates to the
STEG Research Strategy. (N.B. the themes are not exhaustive. Other areas of interest may not
fit cleanly into any theme but are nonetheless centrally relevant to structural transformation and
STEG.) Please also explain how the proposed research addresses STEG’s cross-cutting issues.

5. DETAILED WORKPLAN
Please provide a detailed workplan (including a Gantt chart or similar and a list/table of
milestones) for the project, showing expected activities, with their length and sequencing; this
workplan should illustrate the feasibility of completing the project within the allotted time. This
should also show the time commitment of each investigator (in number of days).
Do you expect COVID-19 to present any difficulties to your project? Please outline these below.
If you are conducting fieldwork, what measures will you take to ensure the safety of respondents
and staff? What are your contingency plans in the case of restricted travel? What other potential
disruptions have you considered?

6. EXPECTED OUTPUTS
Please indicate the outputs (e.g. academic papers, events, policy briefs, data sets) you expect to
produce and a timeline for making these outputs available to other researchers.

7. CONTRIBUTIONS TO EXPANDING THE FIELD

Please indicate any ways in which your research project will contribute to expanding the field of
structural transformation and economic growth in terms of size and scope, or in relation to the
diversity of researchers working on these topics.

8. BUDGET NARRATIVE
What is the total budget requested and to what is it being directed? Explain how the budget will
be utilised and give a detailed description and justification against each of the direct expenditure
line items listed in the budget template.

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9. OTHER FUNDING
Please list other funding related to the proposed project that you have either received or for
which you have applied.
Funder Amount Dates

Please list other current or pending grants on which you are the Principal Investigator or one of
the Co-Investigators.
Funder Amount Dates

10. ETHICS
Before submitting your proposal, please ensure that you have read the Code of Conduct for
Researchers on the STEG website.
Please confirm that the Principal Investigator and the research team will comply Yes/
with the Code of Conduct for Researchers. No
Before submitting your proposal, please check whether you will require human subjects approval
from an Institutional Review Board (or equivalent ethics review body). If required, you will need
to obtain human subjects approval through your university and provide proof of approval to
CEPR before any funds can be dispersed.
Please indicate if your project requires human subjects approval. Yes/
No
Yes/
Have you already obtained human subjects approval?
No
If you have obtained approval, please append evidence of the approval to this proposal. If you
have not yet obtained approval but will need to, please state when you expect to apply for
approval and when you expect to hear from the review board.

11. PRIVACY
If your proposed research involves the processing of personal data, please ensure that you are
familiar with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and the UK Data
Protection Act. You can review the UK Government Information Commissioner’s Office’s
guidance on UK GDPR and DPA 2018. You may also wish to consult the University of
Edinburgh’s guide to the Act’s implications for researchers.
Does the proposed research involve processing of genetic information or personal Yes/
data (e.g. health, sexual lifestyle, ethnicity, political opinions, religious or No
philosophical convictions)?

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 Does the proposed research involve tracking the location or observation of Yes/
people? No
Does the proposed research involve processing any other “personal data” as Yes/
defined in the Data Protection Act, i.e. data that could be used to identify No
individuals?
Where the answer to any of the above questions is yes, please indicate below how you will
ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act. This may include anonymisation of published
datasets, securing consent from the individuals concerned etc. You may also set out any
exemptions you believe apply.

12. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

All intellectual property rights in all material (including but not limited to reports, data, designs
whether or not electronically stored) produced by researchers as part of the research funded by
STEG shall be the property of the researcher. In order to ensure the proper dissemination and
policy uptake of the research, the researchers shall, as part of their contract with CEPR, grant to
CEPR and FCDO a worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty free licence to use all the
Material. “Use” shall mean, without limitation, the reproduction, publication and sub-licence of all
the Material and the intellectual property rights therein.
Please confirm that you agree with the IPR policy stated above. Yes/
No

13. OPEN AND ENHANCED ACCESS TO RESEARCH OUTPUTS

FCDO’s (formerly DFID’s) Open and Enhanced Access Policy covers the whole range of outputs
produced by the research it funds. Judgement does need to be exercised over the materials that
fall within the policy, but the guiding principle is that the outputs made available will be of value
and use to others, erring on the side of inclusion over exclusion. Further information on the
policy can be found through the link.
For peer-reviewed journal articles, STEG researchers must pursue either “gold” or “green” open
access. STEG has funds available to support open-access publication. Researchers are also
requested to deposit datasets in a suitable subject or institutional repository such as those listed
in the Directory of Open Access Repositories. Where no suitable repository is available, simple
datasets may be deposited with R4D. In all cases, metadata for datasets should be deposited in
R4D (via CEPR). Applicants should detail any difficulties they will have in complying with the
open access policy.
Please confirm that the Principal Investigator and the research team will comply Yes/
with the provisions of FCDO’s Open and Enhanced Access Policy No
Please describe your plans for making the data you collect available to other researchers.

14. LIST OF REFERENCES CITED

Please list a bibliography of the references you have cited in your proposal.

15. APPENDIX
Please append any supporting documents to this proposal. Supporting documents include, but

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are not limited to, a letter of support from a supervisor (for current doctoral students) and the
supervisor’s CV, ethics approval certificates, evidence of other sources of funding, and
agreements with collaborating institutions.