Call for Expressions of Interest: Country Level Studies

At the EoI stage, we're looking for an outline of some initial ideas of potential research designs (for Phase 1 and Phase 2 countries). By full proposal stage, for those invited, we’d want something more developed. But by that time SPIA will have been part of the process, providing more specific information based on insights gained to date in our work there.

No, CGIAR researchers are not eligible as either principal investigators (PIs) or co-PIs. If CGIAR researchers are listed as collaborators in an EoI, their participation will have to be clearly justified at the full proposal stage. To preserve independence from the CGIAR, salary support or other research resources budgeted for CGIAR collaborators should be minimal in such cases.

CGIAR has a wealth of expertise in these countries, and the teams that are eventually contracted through this process will inevitably want to consult with CGIAR researchers. Indeed, interviewing CGIAR researchers is a core part of our SPIA's country study methodology! We hope that all CGIAR researchers will welcome our efforts to generate independent evidence of the reach and impact of CGIAR - this has certainly been the case in the country studies SPIA has conducted to date.

Contracted teams may need to sub-contract specific pieces of work to CGIAR and/or NARS researchers (e.g. for compiling DNA reference library material) but these should be limited and tightly focused on specific deliverables.

CGIAR researchers can absolutely collaborate with the research teams commissioned through this process. Indeed, such collaboration is encouraged given the specialized and locally-relevant expertise of CGIAR researchers in these countries. SPIA just need to have an independent research team leading this work in each case, to maintain impartiality.

Yes. A conflict of interest statement for all research teams will be a core part of the final research proposal template.

Yes, in the case that the institution is based in the country in question. This scenario is particularly feasible for Phase 3 countries where the work is qualitative and the scope of the work is much smaller than for Phase 1 and 2. Researchers based outside the country will need strong, genuine partnerships with local institutions to be competitive.

EoIs will be evaluated primarily on the skills, track record and comparative advantage of the core team.

Yes - we'll post the recording to our website and keep updating this FAQ section to reflect key points raised in the webinar

Yes, there is no need for the same team to submit multiple EoIs. A single EoI can cover more than one country.

No

This is the biggest unknown in this exercise - to what extent the costs of implementing two nationally-representative survey rounds will be shared with either a government entity (i.e. statistical agency) by having the required new data collection approaches integrated in existing surveys. We want to incentivize teams to try hard to integrate into existing surveys as this helps with building statistical capacity, reduces redundancy and builds country ownership of the results. If a suitable partnership can be found, this potentially frees up financial resources in the grants to be reallocated to relevant measurement or causal inference research.

In Phase 1 countries, SPIA have already established some important connections and a system of data collection. So teams will be encouraged to build on that prior work (more details in the webinar). For Phase 2 countries we are starting from scratch, so there will be a longer phase of stocktaking and establishing the data collection partnership needed.

Skills demanded of this work included: economics (agriculture and/or development); quantitative skills (survey design and implementation, data management, econometrics); qualitative skills (political science / sociology); country-specific knowledge of agricultural systems; country-specific language and cultural knowledge

No. Researchers from the global north applying with EoIs are expected to have existing ties with researchers in these countries.

Using rigorous qualitative methods to examine the validity of specific claims made about policy influence

We would like to see a diverse team with members with different areas of expertise. Teams are not necessarily expected to have all the different specialist areas covered – there will be some core support from SPIA on genotyping, stocktaking, remote sensing, etc. 

Yes, if you are an individual who has an interest in a particular country or has the relevant expertise, but you do not have a team, submit an EOI as an individual. SPIA will see your application, review it in light of other submissions, and see whether there is scope for you to be matched up. 

Non-profit research organizations are eligible to apply