ESRC-DFID Joint Scheme for Research on
International Development (Poverty Alleviation)
Dr Jo Duffy, Research Directorate, ESRC
Purpose
The purpose of the Scheme is:
‘to provide a more robust conceptual and empirical basis for development and to
enhance the quality and impact of social science research which contributes towards
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.’
The Scheme will fund:
‘world class scientific research on issues relating to economic, social and political
development in less developed countries with the potential for impact on policy and
practice for poverty reduction.’
Strategic Background to the Scheme
DFID
 DFID and ESRC have agreed to
continue their strategic partnership
to provide a joint funding scheme for
international development research.
 The ESRC will continue to be
responsible for the implementation
and administration of the scheme.
 This collaboration recognises the
synergies between the
organisations’ strategic priorities
ESRC
GROWTH
GLOBAL ECONOMIC
PERFORMANCE, POLICY
AND MANAGEMENT
CLIMATE CHANGE
ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT
AND RESILIENCE
HEALTH
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
GOVERNANCE IN
CHALLENGING
ENVIRONMENTS
SECURITY, CONFLICT AND
JUSTICE
FUTURE CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES
NEW TECHNOLOGIES,
INNOVATION AND SKILLS
SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURE
SOCIAL DIVERSITY AND
POPULATION DYNAMICS
UNDERSTANDING
INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR
Thematic Highlights
The second phase of funding for the joint scheme retains the overall ‘Poverty
Alleviation’ theme from the first phase, and applications under this broad heading will
be welcome.
However, ESRC and DFID have identified three thematic areas for this call where
work will be of particular interest. These are:
 Security, Conflict and Development
 Economic Crisis, Poverty and Growth: the Implications for Development Theory
and Practice
 Cities and Development
The call specification provides details of the kinds of questions that might be
addressed under each of these highlights. These are examples, and NOT a
comprehensive list.
Proposals addressing the interactions between these areas will be welcomed, as will
applications which challenge existing policy or practice assumptions.
Scope
 The scheme takes a broad definition of poverty alleviation
 The scheme is not prescriptive in terms of geographical focus, but rather takes a
flexible approach. The focus of projects should be determined by their relevance to
the main aim of the scheme – namely ‘research that supports the alleviation of
poverty amongst the poorest countries and peoples of the world.’ This may involve
research on the poorest sections of society in middle income countries where there
are high levels of income inequality.
 The choice of research questions and geographical focus should be intellectually
coherent and methodologically sound.
 The scheme allows for elements of comparison with developed countries.
 The Scheme is open to all disciplines and academic subjects, not just the Social
Sciences. However the Social Sciences should represent more than 50% of the
research focus and effort.
 Contract and/or development type consultancy work will NOT be funded.
Generic Research Challenges
A series of generic research challenges that might be addressed under the Scheme
include (but are not confined to):
 Understanding and creating the socio-economic conditions that are necessary to
facilitate the alleviation of poverty;
 New theoretical and conceptual thinking about the nature of development;
 New theoretical and conceptual thinking about the conditions under which
development and poverty alleviation can be delivered;
 Methodological challenges posed by international comparative work in different
social, economic and cultural settings;
 Paucity of datasets, especially micro-level or longitudinal data.
A greater focus on Impact
The second phase of the scheme places an even greater focus on the Impact of
funded research, reflecting new thinking and practice within both organisations.
 ESRC and DFID expect that the researchers they fund under the joint Scheme will
have identified the potential impacts of their research on policy and practice, and will
actively consider how these can be maximised and developed.
 All applicants are required to include an Impact Plan which addresses the following
three questions:
 Who will benefit from this research?
 How will they benefit from this research?
 What will be done to ensure that they have the opportunity to benefit from this research?
 Researchers are strongly encouraged to be innovative in the kinds of engagement,
communications and research uptake activities they define within their Impact Plan.
 It is recommended that a minimum of 10% of the overall budget should be
dedicated to delivering the activities outlined in the Impact Plan.
Who can participate in projects?
 The Scheme is open to researchers based in recognised higher education
institutions, research organisations or organisations with a credible research
capacity. Researchers may be based in either UK or non-UK organisations with
demonstrable research capacity.
 Partnership with a UK body is not a requirement.
 In addition to principal and co-investigators it is possible to name other specific
collaborators and consultants in the application, for instance public, private or NGO
sector experts who could provide invaluable stakeholder inputs and advice to the
project. These need to be properly and fully costed.
 The intellectual challenge should be the determining factor when configuring
appropriate partnerships and collaborations.
Eligibility issues – Registration and Recognition
 Applications must be submitted through the Research Councils Joint Electronic
Submission system (Je-S).
 In order to be able to submit an application all principal investigators and co-
investigators should complete Je-S Registration. We strongly advise potential
applicants to register with Je-S at least 3 weeks prior to the call deadline, as
no exceptions can be made for late submission of applications.
 This process has been simplified for this scheme to focus primarily on confirming
that an applicant is from an authentic entity with a capacity to undertake research.
 Research council recognition of institutions eligible to hold grants is a longer and
more involved process that will be undertaken once a proposal is recommended for
funding. This must be completed before an award can be issued to the award
holders’ institution. The recognition process covers issues including mandate,
research infrastructure, governance and accountability.
Capacity Building
 ESRC and DFID are NOT seeking through this Scheme to fund capacity-building
per se. Both organisations fund elements of capacity building through other
mechanisms.
 However, capacity may be built or strengthened through the research process. In
cases where the intellectual agenda would be furthered through capacity related
activities the sponsors will accept the inclusion of some elements of research
capacity to be addressed explicitly within proposals. This might include:
 Doctoral students
 Visiting Fellowships
 Production of datasets
 The Scheme also supports capacity building through North-South or South-South
partnerships. All such partnerships should be genuine, with proportionate and
balanced roles and responsibilities.
 Capacity Building elements should be subordinate to the main intellectual focus of
the research project.
Doctoral Students
 This scheme does not provide support for standalone Doctoral Students.
 Doctoral Students from any country may be included in applications to the Scheme
as long as they are registered for their degree at a UK University recognised
by the ESRC for PhD training.
 The research conducted by the student must represent a discrete piece of work.
However, synergy with the main research project and added value should be
demonstrated.
 Overseas institutions may contribute to the supervision of a PhD Student included
on a proposal, provided they can demonstrate an appropriate research environment
and infrastructure for doctoral work and robust supervisory provision.
 Students may spend a reasonable period (but not usually more than half) of their
studentship at the overseas institution. It is the responsibility of the UK Research
Organisation to ensure that the student is receiving appropriate standards of
supervision and that the PhD thesis is submitted on time.
Scheme Budget / Scale of Individual Projects
 The second phase of the joint Scheme has a budget of £23m, which will be spent
over three annual calls for proposals.
 We anticipate spending £7m on this first call of the second phase, but will consider
allocating additional funds if there are sufficient proposals of exceptional quality to
warrant extending the budget.
 Applications are invited for projects with an FEC* value of between £100k-£500k.
[*The Research Councils currently provide 80% of the Full Economic Cost (FEC) of
a project for UK applicants.]
 The duration of grants should range from a minimum of one year to a maximum of
three years.
 All grants will be awarded to the institution of the Principal Applicant, with this
institution being responsible for the proper disbursement of and accountability for all
monies received.
Costings model – non-UK institutions
 For non-UK institutions, in response to concerns about the ‘80% rule’ on developing
country partners, the scheme will support in full (100%) all of the direct costs of the
research.
 In addition, indirect costs may be charged on staff salary and other staff related
costs (ie. statutory contributions analogous to UK National Insurance or
Superannuation contributions).
 Indirect costs may NOT be charged on non-staff related direct costs, eg.
Equipment, travel and subsistence, consultancies, conferences, etc. The following
rates for indirect costs should be applied:
 For applicants from developing countries the overhead rate is 50%.
 For applicants from developed countries the overhead rate is 20%.
 In all cases the ESRC and DFID will require adequate evidence of the costing basis
Application process
 Applications must be submitted through the Research Councils Joint Electronic
Submission system (Je-S).
 The application has two elements – an online form comprising a number of
structured boxes for key information, and a series of mandatory free text documents
which need to be completed offline and uploaded as attachments to the online form.
 Mandatory attachments include the Impact Plan (discussed earlier) and the Case
for Support.
 The Case for Support contains the substance of the research application and it is
essential that a coherent exposition of the proposed project is presented.
 You must indicate both in your Case for Support and in the ‘Summary’ section of the
online form if your proposal relates to one of the three research highlights for this
call: ‘Economic Crisis’, ‘Cities’ or ‘Security and Conflict’.
 Help with technical aspects of the application process is available from the Je-S
Helpdesk – email: JeSHelp@rcuk.ac.uk or tel: +44 (0)1793 444164.
Decision Making Process and Timetable
 Proposals received under this call will be peer reviewed in a two stage process.
 The initial assessment will be by expert members of a Peer Review Pool from
which the 50 highest graded applications will be shortlisted for assessment by a
Commissioning Assessment Panel.
 The Commissioning Assessment Panel will consist of both academics and ‘users’
(representatives from the fields of policy and practice). This panel will meet and
make its funding recommendations in February 2010.
 Both reviewers and panel assessors will be drawn from the international community
and the UK.
 Funding decisions will be communicated to applicants by the end of February 2010,
with start dates for awards of 1 April 2010 onwards. Please allow more time if your
institution will require formal Research Councils Recognition prior to issuing the
grant.
Assessment Criteria
Proposals will be judged against a series of assessment criteria which fall under the
following headings:
Research Agenda
Project Management
Capacity Building
Impact Plan, Stakeholder Engagement and Outputs
Value for Money
Research Partnerships
…in short, we want ‘Excellence with Impact’
Sources of further information
Scheme documentation and guidance can be found at:
http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/opportunities/current_funding_opportunities/ESRC-DFID.aspx
If you have any further questions, please contact the Scheme Secretariat at ESRC:
Email: DFID@esrc.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1793 413135 (Lyndy Griffin)
Tel: +44 (0)1793 442162 (Peter Stephenson)
Tel: +44 (0)1793 413387 (Elly Stott)
Tel: +44 (0)1793 413165 (Jo Duffy)