# Rubrikat > Mentori akademik >  Research Competition !!!

## Arbushi

Message: 2
   Date: Mon, 06 May 2002 20:40:22 +0200
   From: Florian Bieber <bieber@policy.hu>
Subject: CfA :maci: ERGE GDN Social Science Research Grants for SEE


CERGE-EI Announces Research Competition

CERGE-EI, with financial support provided by the World Bank through the
Global Development Network and additional funding provided by the 
Government
of Austria for the South-East European region, 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. 
Projects
from the South East European region will be administered in conjunction 
with
the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW). 
Proposals
must be postmarked by 15 July 2002.

For the 2002 competition, the sponsors have identified the following
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
  II. Labor Markets
  III. EU Accession including Euro Adoption
  IV. Globalization including Regional and International Economic 
Policy
Coordination
  V. The Reform Process
  VI. Education including Educational Policy, Reform, Funding and 
Outcomes

Area VI. has received additional financial support from the World 
Bank's
Development Grants Facility and, therefore, it is anticipated that an
especially large number of projects will be funded in this area.

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. 
The
median grant awarded to start in January 2002 was approximately US 
$12,000.
Grants must begin no later than 31 December 2002 and end no later than 
31
December 2003.

*  Applicants must be residents of any of the following countries: 
Albania,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Former
Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, 
Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia, or Yugoslav Federation. 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
non-residents. 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.

*  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.

*  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 WIIW in order to
facilitate development of links across researchers.


Proposal Submission


*  Eight (8) complete printed copies of all proposals must be 
submitted. In
addition, all materials should be included on a diskette in WordPerfect
(.wpd), Word (.rtf or .doc) or Acrobat (.pdf) format. All proposals 
must be
submitted in English.

*  Proposals must be postmarked by 15 July 2002 and sent by the fastest
practical method of delivery. The mailing address is:

GDN 2002 Research Competition, CERGE-EI, Politickych veznu 7, 111 21 
Prague
1, Czech Republic


*  In order to ensure against postal problems, when a proposal is sent, 
an
e-mail indicating that it should be expected should be sent to:
research.competition@cerge-ei.cz. Proposals must, however, be submitted 
in
hard copy and on diskette. No e-mail submissions will be accepted.



Proposals must include the following seven components:


1.   A cover sheet clearly specifying the project title, thematic area
addressed from list of priorities if any, names of principal 
researchers,
e-mail contact addresses (very important - 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 participating researchers.

6.   A budget 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; Equipment 
Purchases;
Data and software purchases; Materials, supplies, telecommunications
charges; Institutional Overhead.

7.  A letter signed by a responsible officer of the sponsoring 
institution
agreeing to administer the grant.


Proposal Review Process


Applications will be screened to ensure that they fall within the terms 
of
reference for proposals. All qualified proposals will receive a minimum 
of
three external reviews. Anonymous reviewers' comments will be shared 
with
applicants after the final selection of grants to be funded. Final 
selection
will be made by an independent panel of senior scholars into 
consideration
the external reviews along with the evaluation criteria enumerated 
below.


Evaluation Criteria


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 principle 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
non-academic 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.

Questions and inquiries may be addressed to:
research.competition@cerge-ei.cz



notice released 18 April 2002

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