Research Grants - Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics
Research Grants - Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics support student and faculty research in development economics to improve the lives of poor people in poor countries.
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Funder: Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics
Due Dates: November 1, 2026 (November rolling) | February 1, 2027 (February rolling) | May 1, 2027 (May rolling)
Funding Amounts: Typical ceilings: $5,000 undergraduate/master’s, $50,000 PhD, $100,000 faculty; exceptional and direct-suffering awards have higher ceilings
Summary: Supports development economics research with potential to improve the lives of poor people in poor countries.
Key Information: Corresponding PIs must qualify through specified institutions, affiliations, or nomination routes; developed-country research is excluded.
Description
The Weiss Fund, funded by the CRI Foundation and administered at the University of Chicago, supports development economics research broadly defined. It funds original research, policy-relevant replication, and hybrid studies that can improve poor people’s lives through direct, indirect, or long-run effects. Cross-disciplinary work, challenges to conventional wisdom, investigations of negative results, and studies identifying flaws in earlier findings are welcome.
Topics include health, education, civil society, service provision, capital inflows, and NGO and aid agency policies. Expected impact per dollar spent is the overriding priority, rather than prospects for publication in top journals. A higher-ceiling track supports research on cost-effective, scalable interventions that directly alleviate suffering, such as improving vaccination or addressing intimate partner violence.
