Researchers who have recently had projects terminated by the USAID or received a stop work order are invited to apply to a special call of the Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics, according to a release by The University of Chicago. Applicants should submit their USAID application, a justification of why the requested funds would be critical to saving the project, and how they plan to modify the project moving forward. The proposal should also include an explanation of any material changes since the USAID proposal was submitted.
The Weiss Fund is open to proposals to replace research costs that would have been covered by USAID. Applicants are welcome to modify their plans so that they are submitting an application in line with the goals of the Weiss Fund and so that they can complete the project (or an important, standalone component of the project) with the funding from the Weiss Fund. Grants will not exceed $200,000 for faculty applications. Funding will not exceed $5,000 for undergraduate and master’s degree students, and $50,000 for PhD students.
For this USAID Special Window, the Weiss Fund will be most interested in supporting high-value projects (as defined by the goals of the Weiss Fund) that can either use this funding to finish the full project or an important subcomponent that will yield important results with the support of the Weiss Fund and any other funding sources already secured. The Weiss Fund will apply its standard principles of judging proposals relative to costs.
If a project requires more than the funding limit to proceed with either the full project or a subcomponent that will likely yield important results, the Weiss Fund may issue conditional grants, which will only be disbursed once the remainder of the required funding to complete the project/component is secured from other funding sources.
In exceptional cases, the Weiss Fund may decide to fund projects without confirmed funding to finish the project if the budget is small, the request is time-sensitive, and the project has a reasonable case of eventually getting the rest of the funding. For example, the Committee may consider a small grant to preserve baseline data and collect phone numbers to enable possible future.