Innovations for Poverty Action is Accepting Research Proposals for COVID-19 Response

Innovations for Poverty Action is Accepting Research Proposals for COVID-19 Response

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a research and policy non-profit that discovers and promotes effective solutions to global poverty problems. It works in fragile states and countries that have recently experienced conflict, violence, or disaster. IPA brings together researchers and decision-makers to design, rigorously evaluate, and refine solutions and their applications, ensuring that the evidence created is used to improve the lives of the world’s poor. Funding for the Program comes from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), which has approved £12 million of UK Aid to IPA. The competitive fund predominantly supports projects with a focus on DFID’s priority countries.

IPA’s Peace & Recovery Program is accepting off-cycle proposals, capped at $50,000, for time-sensitive additions to research projects that study or support the COVID-19 response. Due to the limited funding available, this funding will likely not fund entire randomised evaluations, but is meant to support research projects with additions such as:

Adding a module to an existing survey in order to track COVID-19 exposure or response.

Adding a treatment arm that may support communities’ resiliency in response to COVID-19.

Anonymising, curating, and sharing already-collected data quickly so that it can be used for decision-making by the humanitarian community.

‘Downstream surveys’ that follow up on a sample that participated in an already-completed randomised trial in order to identify whether the intervention studied has an impact on the communities’ response to COVID-19.

Successful applicants will have a research team, or staff, that has the necessary experience to study the emergency response. As a result, interdisciplinary teams are encouraged. Researchers from anywhere in the world can apply.

The above are examples of potential types of projects, but the Peace & Recovery Program is open to receiving all proposals that meet the Peace & Recovery’s Program’s Guiding Principles.