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SAGA Progress Report
October, 2002
ATTACHMENT 4.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
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Secrétariat d’Appui Institutionnel à la Recherche Économique en Afrique
Secretariat for Institutional Support for Economic Research in Africa
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STRATEGIES AND ANALYSES FOR GROWTH AND ACCESS (SAGA) PROJECT
All SISERA Partner Institutions:
Information and Invitation to Participate in SAGA.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is implementing an economic research and training program entitled Strategies and Analyses for Growth and Access (SAGA), covering the period October 2001- September 2006. The overall goal of SAGA is to increase African capacity to produce high quality, policy-oriented research on key issues affecting economic growth and access in Sub Saharan Africa. In support of this goal, SAGA has four main objectives: (1) strengthening of selected African economic research institutes; (2) expanding the pool of highly trained African economists; (3) conducting policy oriented research on economic growth and access issues; and (4) facilitating linkages between U.S. and African researchers.
The Secretariat for Institutional Support for Economic Research in Africa (SISERA) has received a grant that will support its programs of activities under SAGA. SISERA will use part of the funding support received from USAID to conduct its core activities and the remainder to implement activities designed specifically for the delivery of the SAGA project.
SISERA’s research competition under SAGA
SISERA is organizing a research competition program to support research projects carried out by African economic research institutes. The purpose of this research competition is twofold: to strengthen the internal workings of the institute so that its ability to function effectively as an institute is increased, and to strengthen an institute’s visibility in providing the analytical underpinnings for various government policymaking. Specifically, proposals that help build an institution’s reputation in a particular area of research and/or include collaborative research amongst researchers at institutes are very desirable. In addition, indication of support for the research from the policymaking community or other important civil society constituencies is highly encouraged.
The competition is open to researchers or team of researchers of SISERA and non-SISERA member institutions. Researchers or team of researchers from non-SISERA member institutes must submit proposals through a SISERA member institute in their country. All proposals should be submitted through the directors of SISERA member institutions. In countries where there are no SISERA member institutions, applicants may submit their proposals directly to SISERA.
Themes and specific research topics
Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged to submit an application. The topics for research are open to any area of economics. The topic(s) must address an issue with current policy relevance in the respective countries or region. Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of set criteria, including contribution to institution building, policy relevance of the research, the soundness of the theoretical framework and methodology and cost effectiveness. Potential applicants should note that the overall goal of this competition is to support capacity utilization rather than capacity building. That is, the competition expects to draw very solid and technically sound proposals that can feed into the policy process in a timely manner.
SISERA will host an annual meeting for researchers in the research program to present interim and final reports.
Application guidelines
All proposals must be prepared employing the following guidelines. Institutes may submit multiple applications.
- Title of proposal
- Principal Investigator(s): Your name(s), Institution, telephone number, fax number, mailing address, and email address on the cover page of the proposal
- Abstract of the proposal
- Project summary: Provide a brief description of your proposal. This summary should be approximately 6-10 pages. The title of the proposal, names and affiliation of principal investigator(s) and the abstract will be your page 1.
Follow standard approach. This includes:
- Introduction and problem statement
- Objectives
- Data and Research methods
- Application of the research results—indication of demand for this research by policymakers or other domestic constituencies should be included here
- Anticipated impacts
- Project timeline including seminar presentations and reports and working papers preparations
- Proposed Budget with detailed budget notes. Also show contribution by research institute
- Bibliographic references
- Curriculum vita of principal investigator (s) or team leader (s)
All grantees are expected to present the results of their work in seminars at their local institutions and at SISERA’s annual meetings and submit a final report to SISERA at the completion of the research. The final report has no page limit. In addition, grantees are expected to prepare working papers and relevant policy briefs out of their final reports. The working papers should not be more than 20 pages (double-spaced) in length and should follow the format of SISERA working papers. The working papers and policy briefs will be published at SISERA’s website. The dissemination of research results is an important aspect of the SAGA program. Therefore, applicants should include it as a key component of their proposal and reflect this accordingly in the budget. Researchers are also encouraged to prepare journal articles to be considered for publication in regional and internationally refereed journals. SISERA will explore the possibility of publishing some of the work as a special edition of selected journals.
Project Preparation.
Cornell University and CEPA (collectively called support institutions hereafter) will be available to assist on research themes and methods and to provide support for bibliographic search and access to databases. Specifically, the assistance includes, among others, (1) identifying and locating data sources; (2) providing suggestions for literature review on the subject of interest, and help in acquiring that literature; (3) suggestions for methods appropriate to a given problem; and (4) suggestions for appropriate data collection methods. The SAGA program covers the cost of these consultations. Researchers or teams of researchers are therefore encouraged to make use of these services.
Contact persons at the respective support institutions are:
Cornell University: Dr. Stephen D. Younger, Cornell University, 3M4 MVR Hall, Ithaca, NY. 14853, USA, email: sdy1@cornell.edu
Centre for Policy Analysis: Dr Joseph Abbey or Dr. Charles Jebuni, Centre for Policy Analysis, No. 30A Josif Bros Tito Ave, Switchback Rd, Accra, Ghana, email cepa@ncs.com.gh.
Project Duration
There is no specific duration required for the projects and multi-year submissions will be accepted. However, no award will be made within nine months, which falls on January 2006, to the end of the project. For multi-year projects, whether or not the timeframe is realistic will be an important criterion in the decision to grant an award.
Procedures for preparation and submission of project proposals
- Researcher or team of researchers develops concept for research project in consultation with head of institutions or director of centers. The consultation is important to ensure that research topics reflect institutional research priorities. Researchers or team of researchers are expected to demonstrate that such consultation actually occurred.
- Interact with support institutions on assistance needs (if applicable and desired).
- Researcher or team of researchers writes up project and corresponds with support institutions for comments on drafts, etc (if applicable and desired).
- Researcher or team of researchers prepares final draft
- Researcher or team of researchers sends copy of project proposal to director of SISERA member institution and a copy to SISERA for its records. SISERA will not act until an official submission is received from the Director.
- Director of institution officially submits proposal to SISERA.
All applicants are requested to send an electronic version of the proposal. Prepare all documents using MICROSOFT word or Word Perfect
Amount of Grant
The amount of a grant for a one-year research project should not exceed US $40,000. Since projects can last more than a year, the cost effectiveness of the project should be given high consideration when preparing the budget. We expect to finance 5-8 proposals each year until nine months before the end of the project. The final reports and working papers for grants made in the fourth year of the competition must be received no less than three months (by June 2006) before the end of the program.
Selection panel.
The selection panel will consist of SISERA and three independent reviewers. Upon receipt of proposals by SISERA, they will be sent out to three independent reviewers for their assessment. SISERA will provide the reviewers with guidelines and criteria for evaluation of project proposals. A meeting will be convened following the review to determine which proposals should be funded. All applicants will be informed of the decision of the selection panel. In some cases applicants might be requested to undertake some revision as recommended by reviewers and re-submit proposals for consideration.
Deadline.
Your institution is being requested to disseminate this information to your researchers to prepare proposals for funding. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged to apply. All requests must be submitted through the Directors of the centers OR in countries where there is no SISERA member institutes directly to SISERA. Applications are being considered on a rolling basis so please apply immediately. Decisions about grants will be mailed to applicants in April, August and December each year. No grants will be awarded nine months before the project ends in September 2006.
Address your submissions to:
Catherine Daffe (SAGA Research Competition), cdaffe@idrc.org.sn.
Centre de Recherches pour le Développement International, Bureau régional pour l’Afrique centrale et occidentale / International Development Research Centre, West
and Central Africa Regional Office - BP 11007 CD annexe, Dakar, Sénégal, G (221) 864.00.00 Fax: (221) 825.32.55
E-mail: cdaffe@idrc.org.sn
SISERA est appuyé par / SISERA is funded by: AfDB, DGIS (Netherlands), IDRC/CRDI, UE/EU, USAID, WBI
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