Women’s Economic Empowerment and Digital Connectivity (WEE-Connect)

The WEE-Connect White Paper poses a theoretical framework to study the impact of digital connectivity on women’s economic empowerment in LMICs, reviews the existing scholarship on this topic, and highlights a set of priority questions to be explored in the WEE-Connect Initiative.

The White Paper

Before submitting proposals, interested candidates are encouraged to read WEE-Connect’s full RFP document, budget guidelines, and white paper, which includes critical details about the Initiative’s core research themes and questions. WEE-Connect has six main categories of funding, based on the type of research study, which have been grouped into two categories: Large Grants and Small Grants.

Large Grants

• Large-scale Greenfield Evaluations: Intended for Greenfield projects explicitly designed on strong theoretical grounding to target key questions in the Initiative’s research agenda. WEE-Connect will consider Greenfield grants up to USD 500,000.
• Extensions to Existing Studies: Intended to add extensions to existing experimental research designs that would yield results of central relevance to the Initiative’s research agenda. This tier of funding will enable researchers to add additional intervention arms or survey rounds, female strata to samples, and/or other extensions to existing study designs. WEE-Connect will consider extension grants up to USD 200,000.

Small Grants

• Measurement Studies: This funding category is meant to support measurement studies (including, but not limited to, developing novel measurement techniques or adapting an existing measure to a different cultural context or population) in field surveys. Indicators such as women’s economic empowerment are crucial for estimating important outcomes such as female agency and empowerment, intra-household bargaining power, control of household decision-making, etc. Measurement studies do not have to be associated with an RCT - they can be attached to any form of quantitative data collection. WEE-Connect will consider measurement study grants up to USD 50,000.Before being peer-reviewed, submissions must demonstrate that 1) They have a skilled researcher(s) who are experts at measurement studies on their team (either as a PI or in another key role), and 2) There is clear potential for a publication-quality paper to emerge from the research.
• Qualitative Studies: Qualitative studies can be used to disentangle the causal mechanisms of an RCT or shed light on specific sub-themes in the Initiative’s white paper. This funding category has two sub-categories.

1. 1. Qualitative Studies as Extensions to Existing Studies: This subcategory is designed to “top-up” existing projects to encourage the inclusion of talented sociologists, anthropologists, and other social scientists who employ qualitative research methods, such as ethnography, in the research team to advance high-quality, mixed-method research. This funding sub-category is motivated by the recognition that rigorously investigated qualitative narratives about how and why interventions impact their subjects are essential but often omitted.
   2. Qualitative Studies as Formative or Standalone Research: This subcategory does not need to be attached to an existing project. This subcategory is designed to allow for pre-pilot qualitative research that may inform subsequent experimental evaluations or measurement studies to be conducted by the research team applying for funding or other teams exploring the pathways between digital connectivity and WEE. This funding sub-category is motivated by the need for high-quality, rigorous qualitative research that can inform the Initiative’s research agenda.WEE-Connect will consider qualitative study grants up to USD 50,000. Applicants who receive funding under this category are eligible and encouraged to apply to future RFPs.

Before being peer-reviewed, submissions in both categories must demonstrate that 1) They have a skilled qualitative researcher on their team (either as a PI or in another key role) and 2) There is clear potential for a publication-quality paper to emerge from the research.

• Pilot Studies: These proposals are intended to stimulate early pilot fieldwork to explore promising opportunities for future large-scale projects. This tier of funding can also be used to support data acquisition and analysis of natural experiments where projects are consistent with the research agenda. WEE-Connect will consider pilot grants up to USD 50,000.
  Before being peer-reviewed, submissions must demonstrate that 1) They have a skilled researcher(s) who are experts at RCTs on their team (either as a PI or in another key role) and 2) There is clear potential for a large-scale study to emerge from the research.
• Secondary Data Analysis: This category of funding is intended to primarily support staff and graduate student time needed to conduct analysis of existing high-quality, relevant datasets on gender and digital connectivity. It is expected that applicants to this category will not perform field work or primary data collection. WEE-Connect will consider secondary data analysis grants up to USD 20,000.

Teams may apply for a large grant in conjunction with a small grant (e.g., an extension study combined with a measurement study) using a single proposal. Teams may also apply for more than one funding category within the small grants categories (e.g., a pilot study combined with a qualitative study) using a single proposal. Maximum budgets may be combined across the relevant grant categories (e.g., an extension study combined with a measurement study may apply for a maximum of USD 250,000).

Should teams apply for more than one category, the proposal must clearly state that both categories are being applied for in a single application.

WEE-Connect prefers that proposals meet the following criteria:

1. At least one principal investigator on the team is from the country of focus in a meaningful and robust capacity. Additionally, WEE-Connect prefers gender diversity on research teams.
   
2. WEE-Connect’s Spring 2025 RFP will prioritize studies that explore health, including (but not limited to) research that explores the role of mobile phones in facilitating women’s access to health-related information, and evaluations of digital health interventions. Please review the Initiative white paper for specific health-related learning questions.
   
3. Depending on the nature of the study, WEE-Connect will prioritize quantitative proposals that explore the cost-effectiveness of interventions, information that is critical to scaling interventions that work.

The submission deadline for WEE-Connect’s Request for Proposals is March 11th, 2025, 23:59 Bangladesh Standard Time (5:59 pm GMT / 1:59 pm EST). No late submissions will be accepted.

Application Instructions

The completed proposal will include:

1. Proposal Cover Sheet
2. Technical Proposal
3. Budget and Budget Narrative
4. Letter(s) of support
5. Up to five page CVs of each Principal Investigator

All completed proposals should be submitted via the submission portal.

RFP Package

1. 1. Proposal Cover Sheet
   2. RFP Guidelines
   3. Technical Proposal Template
   4. Budget Template
   5. Budgetary Guidelines
   6. White Paper

This page houses resources for candidates and organizations interested in opportunities with WEE-Connect, as well as for teams that have been provisionally selected for funding.