The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is pleased to announce a call for proposals to establish research chairs working on issues of forced displacement in two regions: North Africa and West Africa.
Aims
The aim of the research chair positions will be to empower institutions in these regions to define research agendas on forced displacement. They will also lead on identifying practical, gender-transformative solutions that promote the social, economic, political, and health rights of forcibly displaced persons and host communities. And also the aim is to:
Empower local institutions to define research agendas
Lead on practical, gender-transformative solutions that promote the social, economic, political, and health rights of forcibly displaced persons and host communities
Amplify the voices and perspectives of forcibly displaced persons and host communities in local, national, regional, and global arenas
The newly established research chairs will:
commit to excellence in research and teaching on forced displacement and mentor early-career scholars in this field;
be demand driven and responsive and reflect specific thematic and sectoral, as well as sub-national, national, and regional priorities and capacities;
complement IDRC strategic priorities;
ensure an interdisciplinary, multi-sectoral and gender-transformative approach to studying forced displacement;
ensure a strong linkage with community research, policy influence and programming initiatives, including with refugee-led responses;
Ensure that the research conducted has a strong connection to policy processes — from the local to national, regional and global; and
collaborate with research chairs in other regions, including those supported by IDRC in the Middle East, East Africa, Central and South America and South and Southeast Asia to reinforce the collective impact of localized knowledge production on forced displacement.
Focus & Approach
It is expected that the thematic focus of the research chairs will reflect specific thematic and sectoral areas identified on the basis of local, national and regional priorities and capacities. These areas and priorities are expected to be multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral and focus on such themes as health, education, inclusive governance and the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals in contexts of forced displacement, and as presented in IDRC’s Strategy 2030. Proposals that address interconnections between these themes are encouraged.
Critically important across these intersecting themes are commitments to:
support robust gender analysis and gender-transformative approaches
support interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral approaches
promote localized agenda-setting and the amplification of local perspectives, including refugee voices, in local, national, regional and global fora
link humanitarian and development approaches in contexts of displacement
Funding Information and Duration
IDRC plans to support the establishment of up to four research chairs for a period of four to five years. Two chairs will be established at universities in North Africa and two chairs at universities in West Africa. Grants of up to CA$600,000 will be issued per university. The project duration will be an estimated 60 months, including all research activities and final reporting.
Funding will cover the salary of the research chair, research expenses and an operational budget. To strengthen the impact of the research chairs, IDRC expects cash and in-kind contributions from the selected universities amounting to between 20% and 30% of the grant and covering the three components of the budget over the duration of the funding. Applicants are encouraged to provide evidence of, or plans to attract, additional research funding and human capital from other national and international funders and donors to supplement the IDRC funding.
Eligibility Criteria
This call is targeted to universities in low- and middle-income countries in North and West Africa with a strong track record in research as well as community and policy outreach.
For the purposes of this call, eligible countries in North Africa are Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Eligible countries in West Africa are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
The primary considerations in selecting projects will be the scientific merit of the research proposal and its potential for development impact, including capacity building. However, the selection of projects may also be influenced by operational considerations, e.g., Canadian law; knowledge of research settings; ability to monitor research activities; and conditions that may make it difficult, costly, dangerous or onerous for IDRC to carry out its objectives or exercise proper stewardship of its resources.
IDRC funds research in many countries in the Global South but the Centre is bound by Canadian law, which may restrict or prohibit funding for research and organizations in specific countries and/or regions. For example, if the law limits banking transactions by Canadian financial institutions in a particular country, IDRC will not undertake any form of programming in the country.
They consider applicant organizations to be those that have:
legal corporate registration in an eligible country — IDRC enters into agreements with legal entities only
demonstrated institutional capacity to host a research chair with a focus on forced displacement
demonstrated institutional expertise and commitment to advancing knowledge on forced displacement
commitment to gender equality, inclusion and equity
