The Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (PEDL)
programme pursues a research agenda that aims to better understand what
determines the strength of market forces driving efficiency in
Low-Income Countries (LICs). The Initiative supports research related to
the behaviour of firms and enterprises in LICs and gives priority to
approaches that promise to produce credible research results relevant
for policy-making in these countries. Projects carried out partly or
entirely in middle-income countries will be considered if a convincing
case is made that the results are applicable to LICs. See the list of
LICs here.
Major Research Grants have an average grant size of £300,000. Note
however that whilst there is a lower limit of £100,000 for each Major
Grant, there is no upper limit. Cost effectiveness and value for money
are important evaluation criteria. These grants will fund research
assistance, data collection and new surveys in low-income countries, and
teaching buyouts for the principal investigator.
As for all our other previous calls for proposals, eligible projects will address one or more of the PEDL research themes:
- Modelling market frictions in LICs using newly available data
- Micro-foundations of aggregate private sector performance
- The dynamics of SMEs: Informality and entrepreneurship
- The role of export-oriented industries in driving growth
In addition, for this call we are particularly interested in proposals in the following areas:
- Micro studies of markets, including the role of intermediaries and contractual enforcement
- Identifying high growth microenterprises
- Agglomeration and other issues related to cities and firms
PEDL also encourages proposals that address three cross-cutting
issues: Fragile and conflict affected states; Gender; and Climate,
environment and social compliance.
Please note that the life-span of a PEDL MRG grant cannot exceed 36
months; applicants should take this into account when designing the
timeline of their proposed projects.
We awarded 10 MRGs, with an average value of £300,000, in the first
two MRG rounds. You can view the descriptions of these projects here.
The deadline for submissions is 3 March 2014. For more information on the submission requirements and procedure, please see the How to Apply for a Major Grant page.
Moreinfo: http://pedl.cepr.org/node/2139
