2024-25 SCCEI Faculty Research Fund

The Stanford Center on China’s Economy & Institutions (SCCEI) is pleased to invite proposals from Stanford faculty in any field to fund research on contemporary issues related to China’s economy, broadly defined.

Award Scope

The aim of the SCCEI Faculty Research Fund is to foster rigorous, data-driven research on China. Priority will go to, in order:

• Research projects with a realistic and well thought out plan for data acquisition, defined broadly to include both collection of new data and use of existing datasets;
• Faculty and researchers with a proven track record of conducting empirical work on China;
• Non-China experts looking to build their capacity for conducting research in or on China;
• Projects that may face particular challenges obtaining funding through more traditional routes.

Research awards may support travel, materials (including data access or acquisition), research assistants, or other costs that are integral to the research project. Research may include both primary and secondary sources and need not take place entirely or even partly in the field.

Proposals from a broad range of disciplines will be considered, including but not limited to earth sciences, economics, engineering, medicine, political science, and sociology.

Salary support for faculty is not allowed. Proposals with substantial requests for funding for existing staff or postdoctoral salaries will not be prioritized for support through this mechanism.

Proposals for projects that involve in-country research experience for students are encouraged.

This year, the SCCEI Faculty Research Fund will provide up to $30,000 per award. Modest proposals are welcome and appreciated.

Project Reporting

Awardees will be expected to submit a short final report in September 2025. A member of the project team will also be invited to present the funded research results at a seminar organized by SCCEI to showcase and disseminate faculty research.

Proposal Format

Proposals should include the following elements:

1. A project description, including:
   • The specific research questions that the proposed research project aims to answer;
   • How the proposed research project will further the understanding of contemporary issues related to China’s economy;
   • A detailed description of the proposed or existing data source to be drawn upon for the research;
   • A detailed and practical plan for collecting and/or analyzing project data;
   • The specific activities which the award will support (such as travel, research assistants, and project materials)
   • Estimated project timeline, including desired start and finish dates for the project.
2. A list of the project PIs and other team members.
3. Detailed budget. Budgets will be scrutinized for value for money.
4. A clear budget narrative, describing the calculations and rationale for each budget line item.

Award Details:

The deadline for proposal submission is Sunday, October 27, 2024 at 11:59pm. Awards will be announced before Winter Close 2024. The SCCEI Faculty Research Fund Committee will select the awarded proposals.

The Principal Investigator must be a member of the Stanford faculty or an appointed research scholar at Stanford.

The selected project is expected to be completed by August 2025.