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ECDPM event

Meeting

Swiss review panel meeting on research for development

The Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development (r4d programme) is a joint funding initiative by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The r4d programme supports research aimed at solving global problems with a focus on least developed, low and middle income countries.

ECDPM was invited by SDC in 2016 to make suggestions on their SDC-SNSF call for research proposals which included for the first time national resources as a theme. In our input, we then stressed 2 dimensions: (i) political economy aspects, (ii) effective development impact, notably towards economic transformation. These were then reflected in the SDC-SNFS call for proposals. The proposals had to include Swiss researchers and development country researches, and had to be assessed on two (in principle equal) criteria: scientific contribution and development contribution.

This review panel meeting was dedicated to a short presentation by the lead researchers of each of the 17 proposals, and a selection process by the panel. the Panel was composed of 11 members: the chair , 3 other academics (2 Dutch, 1 Swiss), 3 think tank researchers (including ECDPM), 4 SDC members. The panel selected 5 projects, related to economic transformation, employment and natural research.