Call for Ideas Deadline: January 18, 2023, 23:59 GMT
Online event: March 13, 2023 (online)
In-person event: April 10 to 14, 2023 (in Oxford, UK)
Workshop Information
To strengthen the links between young scholars in high- and low-income countries working in the rapidly growing field of entrepreneurship and private markets research, the Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (PEDL) programme and the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Development are organising a matchmaking and project development workshop.
This workshop aims to bring together pre-dissertation PhD students (from year two onwards) from institutions in high-income countries with PhD students and young scholars from institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Young scholars should be no more than three years out of their PhD.
Over the course of four weeks, we will combine online and in-person meetings with the aim of fostering new ideas and developing projects, grant proposals, and, importantly, collaborations across these groups for research on the frontier of private enterprise development in Africa and South Asia. The workshop will begin with a virtual keynote highlighting open questions and opportunities for possible contributions. Participants will then come together for a virtual Ideas Fair, where they will pitch research interests and ideas that are open to collaboration. Based on this initial virtual meeting, participants will be grouped according to their interests. Over the following weeks, groups will collaborate virtually to explore and develop project ideas before coming together for an in-person, intensive Capstone week in Oxford, UK. Workshop facilitators will help the matched groups to identify, develop and present joint projects that may lead to fundable grant proposals. We expect that small seed grants will be available from PEDL to continue collaboration and develop proposals after the workshop.
Organising Institutions
This workshop is co-organised by the PEDL initiative and the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Development. PEDL is a joint research initiative of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). PEDL pursues a research agenda focusing on private-sector development in low-income countries (LICs). The Initiative is motivated by the need to better understand what determines the strength of market forces driving efficiency in these countries. More information about the initiative can be found on the PEDL website. The Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Development is a research initiative at the University of Oxford. It focuses on low- and middle-income countries and works on labour markets, human capital, entrepreneurship and technology adoption in small and medium-sized enterprises, and the green energy transition. More information can be found on the Programme website.
Application Instructions – Applications close Wednesday, 18th January 2023 at 23:59 GMT
Those interested in participating should download and complete the application form available to download here and prepare a brief letter of motivation and an up-to-date version of their CV. The application form will ask candidates to clearly state the research question(s), potential methods to answer the question, and the geographic focus of the project. The ideas that you present in the application form should be ones which you are open to collaborate on with other workshop participants.
In addition to these written application components, in order to facilitate tentative match-quality assessments, we ask all applicants to record a short video presentation (about 5 minutes). These videos will also be made available to other workshop participants upon finalising participant lists ahead of the initial virtual Ideas Fair. In the video, please explicitly address the following five questions:
1. Introduce yourself: Your name, your institution, your current location and where you are from
2. What brought you to conducting research in economics?
3. What are your career goals in having pursued a PhD in economics?
4. What are you most hoping to get out of this workshop?
5. What research questions excite you the most right now and why?
PhD candidates should also arrange to have a letter of support from a member of their PhD faculty sent to [email protected].
If the unavailability of childcare affects your ability to participate, please contact [email protected] to discuss ways in which we may assist.
To submit your application please compile the following three documents into one PDF document: the completed application form, a letter of motivation and an up-to-date version of your CV.
Please upload this PDF to the CEPR HUB by following the below instructions by January 18, 2023 23:59 GMT. In addition, please send either the video or a link to the video to [email protected] by the deadline.
Applicants who are CEPR affiliated or already have a CEPR profile can upload their submission by:
1. Going to https://hub.cepr.org/ and logging in
2. After you have logged in, go to https://hub.cepr.org/event/3784
3. Click on "Step 1: Apply"
4. Under "Apply to Attend" click "Yes"
5. Tick the boxes that apply to you
6. Tick "Would you like to submit additional files?", and upload the PDF containing the completed application form, a letter of motivation and an up-to-date version of your CV.
7. Click "Submit form" to make the submission.
Applicants who do not have a CEPR profile can upload their submission by:
1. Creating a new profile here https://hub.cepr.org/user/register
2. Go to https://hub.cepr.org/ and log in to the CEPR HUB
3. After you have logged in, go to https://hub.cepr.org/event/3784
4. Click on "Step 1: Apply"
5. Under "Apply to Attend" click "Yes"
6. Tick the boxes that apply to you
7. Tick "Would you like to submit additional files?", and upload the PDF containing the completed application form, a letter of motivation and an up-to-date version of your CV.
8. Click "Submit form" to make the submission.
We aim to inform accepted applicants by end-January 2023. Any queries about the event or application process can be sent to [email protected]. Letters of support should also be sent directly to [email protected].
