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SAGA
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SAGA Progress Report
April, 2004

IV. COMPETITIVE GRANTS

Summary

To date, the SAGA Competitive Research Grants program has awarded 20 grants for research to be conducted in collaboration with SISERA Institutions. Thirteen (13) students (4 females), and 7 faculty (2 females).

All Year 1 awardees have successfully completed their fieldwork during this reporting period and now are either completing or have already completed their research work.

During Year 2 we awarded 11 individuals, 7 students (3 females) and 4 faculty (1 female). To date, two (2) have successfully completed their fieldwork. Seven (7) of the awardees are currently in the field, and two (2) are preparing to depart for their fieldwork.

Activities over the past six months

The specific tasks listed below were accomplished during this reporting period:
  1. Wrote the second annual report on the Competitive Research Grants Program of SAGA. The report was disseminated to the Principal SAGA Researchers and discussed at the SAGA Annual Advisory Board Meeting (November 2-4, 2004). The report was presented in two parts, Part I: Research Grants Program – Year 2 and Part II: Research Grants Program – Year 1 Follow up.

  2. Participated in the Advisory Board meeting at Cornell University (November 2-4, 2003). Presentations were made about the activities and outputs of the Competitive Research Grants Program.

  3. Processed and completed all the close-out budgetary and reporting activities of all of Year 1 Awardees. This included processing all relevant receipts submitted by awardees, and preparing a reimbursement packet for the awardees consisting of any and all monies due for direct expenditures incurred during their fieldwork, including the Host Institutions. We also assembled fieldwork trip reports, and provided an updated copy of the expected deliverables still due to the SAGA Research Grants Office.

  4. Modified and updated the survey instrument used in Year 1 to collect information of the research experiences of the awardees and the host institutions. We disseminated this survey instrument to all of Year 2 Awardees.

  5. Processed and coordinated the departure of 9 (out of the 11) Awardees from Year 2. We have begun processing the return of 2 Awardees from Year 2, which includes the process of preparing their reimbursement packet and collecting their fieldwork trip reports.

  6. Updated the Competitive Research Grants web site. The revised version includes abstracts of all funded research projects for the last two (2) years of the grant, and field trip reports of all awardees from Year 1.
The following are also worth reporting:
  1. Two (2) students from Year 1 have now completed their Ph.D studies, Dean Karlan from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Chia-Hsin Hu from George Washington University. Dean is now an Assistant Professor at Princeton University and Chia-Hsin is Research Economist.

  2. Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue from Cornell University has completed his final report and submitted two papers for publication.

  3. ames Nyankori from Clemson University has completed his final report and submitted one paper for publication.
The other Ph.D. students are in the process of completing their PhDs and writing papers for publication. All the awardees have indicated that they are continuing to work with their respective SISERA collaborating institutions.

The deadline for proposal submission for the 3 rd round was, March 30, 2004. Although we were not certain about the amount of funding for this round, and we shied away from advertising the program, we nevertheless received several proposals. We are not, however, certain how many of these if any will be funded during this cycle.

Activities anticipated over the next six months

In an effort to ensure a successful research experience for the awardees, we remain in contact with those still in the field as well as with those still completing their final reports on their projects. This requires us to not only be a backstop for all awardees who are either in the field or have returned but also to follow up on deliverables and distribution of project outputs.

More specifically, during the next six (6) months we plan to:
  1. Process and coordinate the return of all awardees from Year 2 (includes: collecting expenditure reports, processing reimbursements, etc.).

  2. Conduct follow up surveys with the Awardees and their respective host institutions (i.e., we will use the survey instrument used in Year 1).

  3. Follow up and assemble all final reports from all Year 1 awardees.

  4. Prepare annual report for Year 3. This will include assembling and coordinating trip reports and statements about fieldwork experiences.

  5. Draft a brochure summarizing at least the intermediate level of outputs from the two rounds (Year 1 & Year 2) funded research projects under the Competitive Research Grants Program.


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