The Department for International Development (DFID) and ESRC are continuing their strategic partnership with a dedicated research programme on ‘Education and development: Raising learning outcomes in education systems’. Both funders are committed to commissioning world class research and ensuring the results are available for policymakers and development workers worldwide.

The programme will generate world-class and cutting-edge policy-relevant research that addresses key questions on learning outcomes within education systems in developing countries. The ultimate aim is to provide policymakers and practitioners with concrete ideas on how to improve learning and understanding of how these will translate to their specific contexts and institutions, enabling more effective policies and interventions.

In total £20 million has been allocated to the programme, which will be awarded through three annual research calls. Each call will have a core thematic focus, but opportunities will also be provided for other innovative research on learning outcomes and education quality, as well as larger-scale work addressing the lack of high quality data in education and development research. Proposals are sought from across the social sciences and may be for fundamental or more applied research topics, as long as the policy relevance is clearly articulated. There are no geographic restrictions on who may apply for this funding opportunity: researchers from developing and developed countries can work together in any configuration of their choosing, and principal investigators can be from anywhere in the world.

The 2013-2014 call is focused on the theme ‘effective teaching’. A total of up to £5 million is being made available for full proposals to three different types and scale of grant within this call.

The full specification and other relevant documents can be found here.

The Natural Environment Research Council, in partnership with the Department for International Development and the Economic and Social Research Council, invites outline proposals for consortium grants under the programme on Unlocking the Potential for Groundwater for the Poor. Consortium grants will provide an opportunity to undertake large-scale, complex and interdisciplinary social and natural science research addressing the programme’s aim of enabling sustainable use of groundwater for the benefit of poor people. Proposals should address at least two of the following three themes:

•understanding the resource;

•governance, institutions and access;

•impacts of future trends.

The primary focus of the research must be low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where there is a clear impact of the research on the poor, projects may be undertaken in middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Projects must be interdisciplinary and include both social and natural science.

Linkages with sub-Saharan institutions must be established, and UPGro encourages collaboration with non-academic and community organisations. There are no other restrictions on where researchers are located or their nationality, nor are there restrictions on the geographical location of the research institution.

The total budget for this call is £7.6 million. Proposals may request a budget of up to £1.9m at 100 per cent of full economic costs. UK organisations will receive 80 per cent of full economic costs, and non-UK organisations will receive support of 100 per cent of direct costs plus a proportion of indirect costs. Between three and five consortium grants are available, and projects may last for up to four years each.

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