Weiss Fund Research Grants

The Weiss Fund for Research in Development Economics at the University of Chicago sponsors research that will positively affect the lives of poor people in poor countries. The fund is supported by the CRI Foundation and provides grants to students and faculty to conduct research in countries, regions, or populations with per capita GDP below $11,000 in current USD, with a preference for supporting work in countries with per capita GDP below $5,500. The research can have long-run impact on the poor, duplicate existing studies in different contexts, investigate negative results, or discover flaws in past research findings. Cross-disciplinary work is welcome and research that challenges conventional wisdom is encouraged. The program provides funding at different levels depending on applicant status: typically up to $5,000 for undergraduate and master's students, up to $50,000 for PhD students, and up to $100,000 for junior and senior faculty (with the committee reserving the right to consider higher amounts in exceptional circumstances). Eligible costs include travel for data collection, direct data collection costs, materials, data purchase, and research assistant time, but exclude tuition, researcher salaries, stipends, and indirect costs. Applications are evaluated by a committee of PhD economists with expected impact per dollar spent as the overriding criterion. The fund also supports replication studies and projects that connect NGO and government policymakers with research. Senior faculty applications are weighed against the opportunity cost of funding junior researchers, with preference given to proposals that include students or postdocs as co-authors.