Funding

The STEG programme pursues a research agenda that aims to provide a better understanding of structural change, productivity and growth in low- and middle-income countries through providing grants via competitive calls. STEG will fund Small Research Grants (SRGs) and Larger Research Grants (LRGs), as well as PhD Research Grants and Ideas for Transformation policy concept papers (I4Ts).

The objective of STEG is to fund cutting-edge that could be published in leading academic journals while simultaneously being relevant to the policy dialogue in low- and middle-income countries.

Any comparison of low-income countries and developed economies immediately points to striking differences in their structural features. Relative to the advanced economies, the least developed are disproportionately rural and agrarian, more reliant on self-employment and small-scale subsistence production, and less integrated into local, national, and international markets. Economic growth is critical for sustained poverty reduction in low-income economies, but it will surely involve dramatic shifts in the structure of economic activity. A research programme which can inform policies for structural transformation must address a variety of issues and incorporate a variety of approaches.

STEG therefore pursues a range of approaches that promise to produce credible research useful for policymaking and to support research related to different aspects of structural transformation.

Research may focus on broad systemic patterns and processes of structural transformation and growth for low- and middle-income countries, in a comparative sense across time or space, or more narrowly defined topics related to one or more of our six research themes.

STEG is also focused around three cross-cutting issues that are simultaneously relevant to many areas of structural transformation, including the six research themes: gender, climate change and the environment, and inequality and inclusion. Research proposals speaking to these issues in the context of structural transformation will receive particular consideration.

More information on our research themes and cross-cutting issues can be found in our Research Strategy. Find our open and upcoming funding calls here.