3ie’s 2016 Request for Proposals: Grants of up to US$7.5 million for Projects Related to Environment, Governance, Infrastructure & Public finance

Deadline: 18 January 2016

The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) requests research organisations or consortia to submit expressions of interest (EOI) for undertaking one or more impact evaluations under 3ie’s new Development Priorities Window (DPW).

The window is aimed at promoting rigorous and policy-relevant impact evaluations in a variety of development sectors where high-quality evidence is scarce. In this first call (DPW1), 3ie invites applications for support to produce rigorous and policy-relevant impact evaluations of programmes or policies in any of these four sectors: environment, governance, infrastructure or public finance to achieve relevant sustainable development goals (SDGs).1 Proposed impact evaluations must be of interventions undertaken in a low- or middle-income country as classified by the World Bank.

Focus Areas

• Environment
• Governance
• Infrastructure
• Public finance

Grants available

3ie aims to make approximately 18 awards of up to a total value of US$7.5 million through the window.

Eligibility criteria

• EOIs must evaluate programmes or policies in at least one of the four DPW1 sectors. Multicountry applications are eligible, so long as all countries are low- or middle-income countries.
• Only legally registered organisations and consortia of registered organisations, not individuals, may apply. Each proposal must be submitted by a single organisation that may include other organisations or team members as sub-grantees or sub-contractors (subject to 3ie’s direct and indirect cost policies).
• For-profit organisations are eligible to apply, but are restricted to the same indirect cost limits as non-profit organisations and may not charge a fee.
• The applicant organisation must be able to sign the 3ie grant agreement.
• Organisations may submit more than one EOI and may be included on more than one EOI. They should, however, have the capacity to implement any and all grants awarded to them under the window.
• Researchers may be included in multiple applications, but must indicate in writing that they are available and able to carry out fully all of the stated time commitments concurrently in the case of multiple awards.
• Evaluation teams should include nationals of the country in which the study is being implemented. National researchers must be resident in that country and working for an organisation that is registered in that country. They must be engaged in substantive tasks for the study during design, analysis, writing, stakeholder engagement and research communication for evidence uptake and use.

How to Apply

All submissions must be made using 3ie’s online Grant Management System. Submissions are requested in two phases:

• Phase one: submission of an expression of interest.
• Phase two: submission of the full proposal.

For more information, please visit 3ie grant program.