The Empowerment Lab offers Research Grants to its affiliated faculty and doctoral students pursuing research on important questions relating to empowerment, including but not limited to: understanding behavior and choice among different populations; determining government policies that hurt or help the reach of markets to excluded populations; identifying keys to success in market-based solutions for improving access to markets; and learning how to spur entrepreneurship to solve these gaps. These Research Grants will support problem-driven scholarship with results to be disseminated widely through working papers, journal publications, conferences, and dialogues with the policy and business community.
Faculty Research Project Grants (up to $40,000, with some possible exceptions)
The main focus of these grants is to support projects which will inform the development of program and policy recommendations for fostering empowerment of those currently excluded from key markets. These grants may be used for travel, research assistance, and research materials.
Faculty Research Proposal Development Grants (up to $5,000)
The purpose of these grants is to enable faculty to explore opportunities to use data or gather data through Empowerment Lab partners. Grants may be used for travel to Austin to meet with MPower Venture companies or other partners, research assistance, etc. Although the objective of these seed capital grants is to support the development of research project ideas and initiate research that can be elaborated into larger projects, there is no obligation to launch a project upon exploring the project topic.
Student Research Project Grants (up to $1,500)
The Empowerment Lab at CID offers grants to support research by PhD students affiliated with CID on topics related to the core interests of the Empowerment Lab. This includes innovative research to better understand the causes of and solutions for global disenfranchisement and inclusion in market economies. The main focus of these grants is to support projects which will inform the development of program and policy recommendations for fostering empowerment of those currently excluded from key market. These grants may be used for travel, research assistance, and research materials.
For more information on Empowerment Lab grants, contact Jennifer Gala, Program Manager of the Empowerment Lab, jennifer_gala@harvard.edu, 617.495.1233.
Awarded Grants:
Grants are provided to promising projects related to Empowerment and increased access to markets. Ongoing projects include:
