Bangladesh is missing a robust ecosystem that nurtures young researchers with funding, structured mentorship, peer networks, and institutional support.
To help bridge that gap, BIGD has partnered with Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID), and Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) to launch the Research Initiative on Development, Governance, and Economy (RIDGE), supported by UK International Development from the UK government. RIDGE aims to empower budding social science researchers to produce high-quality, policy-relevant work under the guidance of some of the country’s top social science academics.
From a competitive pool of 341 applications from around the nation, 14 promising research proposals were preliminarily selected. Earlier this week, the 41 young researchers behind the selected proposals joined an intensive two-day boot camp at BARD Cumilla, where they presented their ideas, received real-time feedback, and refined the proposals under the guidance of their mentors. Among the 14 selected proposals, the top proposals will each receive a grant of up to BDT 12.5 lakh to carry out their research. The participants represented a diverse group from institutions across the country—from Chattogram and Rajshahi to Dhaka and Khulna.
