ANNUAL REPORT - Global Development Network

GLOBAL
RESEARCH
COMPETITION
(GRC)
ABOUT THE COMPETITION
The Global Research Competition (GRC) is envisioned as the central pillar of GDN’s
Global Research Capacity Building Program and a unique activity for GDN – the step
between the Regional Research Competitions and the Global Research Projects. The
GRC is guided by the conviction that many international development challenges can
best be addressed by multidisciplinary and cross-country research on current topics.
Moreover, recent trends suggest an increase in the co-authored papers published in
leading specialized journals.
Keeping this in mind, GDN launched the pilot round of the GRC in April 2012. Its research
themes, in line with the prevailing and understudied global development issues are:
Education and Gender
Food Security
Political, Economic and SocialTransformations
“IappliedfortheGRCto
enhance my researchcapacity
and to collaborate with peers
internationally. My expectations have
been fully met through the excellent
networkandmentoringthathas
been provided byGDN.”
~ Nidhi S. Sabharwal,
Researcher, Indian Institute
of Dalit Studies, India
Spanning a range of research topics, regions and disciplines, the GRC in its pilot round
received over 200 applications, evenly distributed across geographies. GDN used its
vast network of researchers to help applicants extend their own network and form
multidisciplinary and cross-country teams. Six teams covering 11 developing
countries won grants of up to US$ 32,000 each to undertake research for up to 18
months.
The selected studies traverse a range of topics such as student movements in Chile
and Mali, the institutionalization of political party systems in Albania and Kosovo,
gender wage inequality in Vietnam, social protection in food security for socially
marginalized groups in Pakistan and India, and social transformation and the
Islamization of the financial system in North Africa, Indonesia and Pakistan.
COMPETITION
FACT FILE
Time frame: 2012-2013
GDN ANNUAL REPORT 2012
18
Number of research
teams: 6
Coverage:
11 developing countries
Research themes for
the pilot round:
Education and Gender;
Food Security; and
Political, Economic and
Social Transformations
www.gdn.int/grc
Food Security (left and above)
and Education and Gender
(opposite page) form two
of the three research themes
of the pilot round. The GRC
themes were selected on the
basis of their relevance in the
developing countries’ context.