Preparing your application

You will need to prepare the following material for your application for an Exploratory Research Grant. We suggest you prepare this material before beginning the online application. However, you will be able to save a partially completed application and return to it at a later date.

  • A project title
  • A project abstract
  • One or more keywords
  • CVs for the principal investigator and the co-investigators (if any) - maximum two pages each
  • A project proposal of no more than three pages (References and Appendix not included), single spaced, in PDF format.  A proposal template is available here. This is the main description of the project, and should include a discussion of each of the following elements:
    • The research question and approach, including links to existing literature;
      • A timeline for the project and expected outputs;
      • The policy relevance of the research;
      • Links to the three cross-cutting themes, if applicable;
      • A description of data sets to be generated, and how those data sets will be made available to other researchers.
    • Additional information on your project including information on its:
      • Fit with the Initiative
      • Policy Relevance
      • Academic Innovation
      • Methodological Rigor
      • Cost Effectiveness
  • A project budget. A budget template is available here. You should download this template, complete it and upload it where requested in the application process. 
  • Any relevant letters or documents of support, e.g. from research partners. These need to be saved in the same file as the proposal (but are excluded from the length limit on proposals). Letters from PhD supervisors should still be sent directly to PEDL, via the email below.

​Before submitting your proposal, please ensure that you have read CEPR's Code of Conduct for Researchers and CEPR's Conflict of Interest Policy and Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Policy, which can be found here. If selected, all grantees will be required to adhere to these policies.

Doctoral Students

For all PhD students, we will require a letter of support from your PhD supervisor.  Please ensure that we receive this letter from your supervisor no later than 2 weeks after the deadline.  A PDF of the letter should be emailed to [email protected].

For the advisor: Please discuss the feasibility of the research proposal, the intellectual support which the student will receive from advisors and others, an assessment of the student’s ability to carry out the research and of the student’s longer-term potential as a researcher.